Toshiba Network Camera Chosen For Discovery Home Channel’s Building America's Home

ORLANDO, FL, -- Toshiba Surveillance & IP Video Products Group, a business unit of Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., recently teamed up with the crew of Discovery Home Channel’s BUILDING AMERICA’S HOME television series to develop a web-based network video camera system that assisted far-flung contractors, landscapers and designers in remotely monitoring the layout and construction of the ultimate American home.

The ten-part Discovery Home Channel series chronicles the building of a landmark new home -- from preliminary design to construction to final furnishings – based entirely upon a 2004 survey conducted by Better Homes & Gardens magazine to determine what its readers wanted from the ultimate American Home.

The project brought together many of the nation’s top building contractors and designers. However, because of ongoing business obligations, this team of professionals was not able to remain on-site for the duration of the building process.

To make it possible for the contractors to collaborate even when they were apart, Discovery Home Channel turned to Toshiba, a leader in the fast-growing network video technology area. Toshiba answered the show’s challenge with its IK-WB11A, a 1.4 megapixel network camera. For several months the IK-WB11A broadcast real-time video streams from inside and outside the home for the contractors to view on their Internet-ready PCs, notebooks, PDAs and cell phones — anywhere at anytime.

“We were happy to help make BUILDING AMERICA’S HOME a success,” said Joe Cook, Product Manager, Toshiba Surveillance & IP Video Products Group. “By showcasing the IK-WB11A, BUILDING AMERICA’S HOME demonstrated to its audience the capabilities and advantages of network cameras. No matter where the contractors were, they only needed to click on the camera’s website to see how construction was progressing.”

Cook says that homeowners find the cameras as useful as homebuilders: “The booming popularity of networks in new homes has made installing a video surveillance system increasingly commonplace. By employing network camera technology an owner can keep a watchful eye over their home when they’re away, monitor a babysitter when they’re out on the town and always know who is at the front door before answering it.”

Key features of the IK-WB11A include an SD card slot, remote Pan and Tilt control, an alarm function, motion detection and a privacy mask. The compact camera measures a mere 5.0 x 5.0 x 4.7 inches and can be mounted virtually anywhere.