by creecher94

If you have more than one young child that needs to be monitored while you’re not in the room, it pays for you to invest in a two room baby monitor. This is a great innovation because before this, parents had to make the decision of either not monitoring there older child, even though they were still at an age were anything could happen to them in there sleep. Or they would have to purchase two single room monitors that don’t interfere with each other (which could be a challenge since most baby monitors use similar frequencies). Luckily there is now a third and better choice: the two room baby monitor.

The basic premise is that there are two reception devices that can be placed in two separate rooms, along with at least one viewing monitor for the parents. Since these baby monitoring systems are designed specifically for two rooms, the are programmed to use two different frequencies that won’t interfere with the other.

3 Things To Consider When Buying A Two Room Baby Monitor:

1. Double parent monitoring units. A nice feature to look for when buying these dual room systems is to not only have two monitors in each of the children’s rooms, but also to have two parents monitors as well. This feature gives you the option of having one of the parent monitors in the kitchen and the other in the backyard, if you’re working back and forth between two places. A few popular brands have a large LCD screen that is stationary along with a smaller portable (handheld) parental monitor that Mom or Dad can carry around with them.

2. Adjustable time and volume. The ability to adjust the time between frames of the monitor is also a very nice feature. Meaning, you can set up the monitoring system to switch back and forth between the 2 child monitors, and you set the time at which the switch occurs. You can set the monitor for the younger child to stay on that frame for a longer time than the older child. This allows you to keep an eye on the more fragile child for longer lengths.

3. Sound and light. If you’re working in the kitchen with the sink on, or vacuuming the family room floor, there is a chance that you will not here the cries coming from the babies room. This problem is rectified by buying a monitor that lights up when it hears a sound coming from your babies room.

These three things to consider when purchasing a two room baby monitor are just a few options that will give you added peace of mind while your tending to your usual daily tasks. If you need to keep an eye on more than one child than the purchase of this dual room baby monitoring system is a no brainer, as you can’t possibly get the same benefit from a single room unit (or two single room units which most likely will interfere with each other).

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My updated workspace, aka I Finally Got a Third 22″ LCD


Image by creecher94
My workspace back in late 2009:
www.flickr.com/photos/42736403@N08/3934503754/in/pool-818…

After moving from the 17" and 22" to dual 22" in May 2010 and then adding the 17" back in for triple displays in October, I’ve finally made the jump to three 22" LCDs. The left and right panel are Acer P221Ws and the middle is an Acer AL2216W. Color is surprisingly consistent between them, the middle has just a slightly bluish tint which I can remove through callibration.

I’ve of course upgraded the Hackintosh that runs them as well. I’ve still got the Intel E6300 overclocked to 3.05GHz, but not much else is the same. In order to get dual graphics cards working with EFI injection I needed a new motherboard with dual PCIe slots, so I went with the Gigabyte GA-EP45T-USB3P with 4GB of DDR3. As far as graphics cards go, I have a 9600GT driving the middle and right panels and a 7600GT driving the left panel. The system’s running 10.6.4, which I’m scared to update to 10.6.6 at risk of breaking my dual-card setup.

Other differences from the 2009 setup:
>New desk. I built this from scratch last May after getting my second 22" and realizing that I had no room left on my 4′x2′ desk.
>No more laptop on my desk. Now that my desktop is a far superior machine, I keep the MacBook Pro on the dresser by my bed for late-night surfing and whatnot.
>Only one computer at my desk. I got tired of dealing with multiple machines, so I put all my resources into making the Hackintosh the best system possible, and now it does all I ask it to.
>Projector’s gone. The configuration of my room doesn’t really make sense for projecting. It lives in my basement now.

Oh, and the lighting. The lights behind the monitors are Lowe’s uplight cans with 25 watt clear globe bulbs and the light under the desk is ropelight I attached with hooks. All 3 are hooked together to an X10 module for easy on/off and dimming.

Daytime pictures will come tomorrow. I just got the 22" LCD this evening.

By the way, I’m 16 and a Junior in high school.

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When we had our first baby we were rushing to buy crib, infant seat, stroller, clothes, baby bottles….the list is endless. To our rescue was Google. We were able to search for products, read the reviews and decide on what was best for us. But not all my choices were correct. I realized that the baby monitor I bought is not digital and I can hear my neighbours talking because either they have similar unit or their unit works on same frequency! As our baby grew I also realized that I should have rather invested in a video monitor so we know she is out of trouble while playing in her room. So I invested in another baby monitor, this time a video one. SInce I spent considerable amount of time on consumer reports and Amazon reviews I decided to put together my learnings on the baby monitors. I am reviewing Summer infant video monitor.

Should you invest in a video monitor instead of audio monitor?

Three reasons that I can think of on top of my head why a video monitor is better, 1) Infants wake up very easily on slightest of noise, with audio monitors sometimes its very hard to determine the reason behind some nosies coming from baby’s room and you have to go to their room. You may accidently wake them up. 2) Many times we just go want to check if the baby is wearing her blanket properly and is comfortable. With video monitor we can do this without disturbing her. 3) Once you baby is grow up and you can leave her in her play room on her own you still want to keep a close eye on her to make sure everything is alright.

Private channel

Most of the wireless home devices, cordless phones, wireless routers etc. work on 2.4 GHz frequency. This results in an interference especially in analog devices. You may hear you neighbours talking on your receiver and if you can listen them chances are they can listen you as well! Summer Infant Video Monitor uses a digital private channel which eliminates cross talk and interference from similar devices.

2.5 inch Color Screen

The 2.5 inch color LCD screen on Summer Infant Video Monitor gives enough clarity to monitor baby’s actions. There is an on-screen menu which can be used to pan, scan and zoom camera which actually works very well. The camera is infrared capable so it also works when there is not enough light in the room. The picture on the monitor is black and white in this case which is normal since the infrared cameras cannot determine colors in dark. The monitor also has LEDs which light up depending on the level of baby’s sound. This feature is very handy when we want to keep the volume muted.

Rechargable battery

The Handheld monitor works on rechargable batteries which are included, so we save money on alkaline batteries. We charge it every night but single charge can last for upto 10 hours. The video can be switched off on the monitor to conserve battery. The LED on the monitor indicates when the battery is low. The included second adapter is really handy just in case the batteries run out of juice.

Range

The monitor has decent range. Though the specs say 350′, it works well within home. The monitor indicates that we are out of range when it cannot talk to the camera anymore. I tweak the antenna direction depending on where I plan to stay in the home for most of the time.

What can be improved

The volume control is one of the most common functionalities yet tucked away inside on-screen menu. But we got used to it. Some of the users also where bothered by the infrared LEDs on the camera flashing every now and then when its dark. But its barely visible and does not bother the bay at all. This is not a perfect monitor but is definitely better than similar devices. There are newer models which cost over 0 but not many people own them so its hard to determine if they are worth the cost.

Where to purchase

Check my page for deals on Summer Infant Video Monitor

Andrew Moore-Crispin takes a look at new baby monitors from Motorola and Binatone. Four models; two with video cameras so you can see as well as hear what is going on. All four models have two way communication so you can sing to your baby without being in the room. A Internet video series by butterscotch.com.

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