Eldery Grandparents - Intercom

Hello - Looking for a bit of advice for a possible solution. My eldery grandparents struggle to get to the door in-time due to their edge, and despite having a Ring Camera and hard wired video intercom-doorbell, struggle to answer in-time.

Is there some sort of intercom device solution on the market that a person could push to talk on the outside, and be answered on it's own standalone unit (i'm imagining like a remote-sized device that buzzes into life for 2 way convo).

Other suggestions welcome

A SIP-based doorbell setup with a SIP-enabled handset with a video screen, set to auto answer.

Probably not a dead straightforward roll your own solution, but I’ve done it in the past and it’s worked really well.

May I ask, if they already have a ring door bell what are the delays answering that via a mobile handset? is it purely speed or are they having hearing issues as well?

In reply to a post by dect:

May I ask, if they already have a ring door bell what are the delays answering that via a mobile handset? is it purely speed or are they having hearing issues as well?

Of course - It's a ring camera, rather than a door bell, its linked to their Alex as well as their ipad/iphone. I think it's just the faff of reaching for the ipad and unlocking it, and then figuring it out to answer in time. As they are quite frail!

You could replace the video intercom with a Ring doorbell and an Echo Show (or Google equivalents).

Been looking on the Ring products web site and wondering if the Quick Replies feature would be helpful in this case to advise the caller that they need to be patient

https://support.ring.com/hc/en-gb/articles/360056808...

In reply to a post by gomezz:

Been looking on the Ring products web site and wondering if the Quick Replies feature would be helpful in this case to advise the caller that they need to be patient

https://support.ring.com/hc/en-gb/articles/360056808...

Thanks for this - I was actually thinking about this just now - Quick replies + an internal ring chime (acting like an actual doorbell) - may actually do the trick.

@Whitehall11,

Just thought I would add my 2 pence worth...it sounds, to me at least, that your parents might be in need of a carer to help them about the place and to keep them safe. My mother used to be a carer (before she retired quite a few years ago now) and, sometimes, she helped around the place and answered the door whenever the elderly person was unable to do so. You should think about putting a notice on the door to let visitors know that your parents might be slow to answer the door.

HTH,

OTOH that may be a red flag to a door to door opportunist on the look out for someone vulnerable to take advantage of. That said, the same could be said of the Ring Quick Replies feature I suggested or of a keylock box or any number of other giveaway signs.

In reply to a post by mking90031:

@Whitehall11,

Just thought I would add my 2 pence worth...it sounds, to me at least, that your parents might be in need of a carer to help them about the place and to keep them safe. My mother used to be a carer (before she retired quite a few years ago now) and, sometimes, she helped around the place and answered the door whenever the elderly person was unable to do so. You should think about putting a notice on the door to let visitors know that your parents might be slow to answer the door.

HTH,

Haha as with all eldery people, the subject of care and help is one which goes round and in circles. Thanks for your advice though - I think i want to balance this risk of showing their property contains eldery people, whilst at the same time benefting them. I think the quick replies functions works as you'd have to physically press the button to know they'd be slow to answer.

The concept of setting up an intercom for elderly grandparents is a fantastic idea that fosters communication and security. Not only does it offer convenience for them, but it also brings peace of mind to the entire family. ! 🌟👵👴

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

A SIP-based doorbell setup with a SIP-enabled handset with a video screen, set to auto answer.

Probably not a dead straightforward roll your own solution, but I’ve done it in the past and it’s worked really well.

I just had an email from a supplier pop into my inbox about Fanvil SIP products and it made me think of this thread.

The OP has probably gone for an off the shelf Ring Doorbell solution - but I'll post a link here to a couple of products in the SIP universe from Anvil which look interesting.:

Fanvil i61 SIP Video Door Phone - around £170

Fanvil i53W SIP Indoor Station - around £110

You'd also need to host and configure FreePBX (which is GUI front end on an Asterisk base) for the actually 'telephony' and video call handling etc. But that's free and doesn't need a huge amount of compute resources. Folks run them on Pi's.

Wish I had these back in 2012/13 when I crafted my first video doorbell solution for my Asterisk system.

Can a couple of Echo Dots do this using drop-in?
For something a bit more fancy there is the Echo Show with a screen and camera which is free to try for 30 days.