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.