By Khalida Sarwari
They say when opportunity knocks, answer the door. But what if you can’t hear the doorbell? It was this conundrum that drove Jamie Siminoff to create Ring, a Wi-Fi enabled video doorbell that would allow him to see and speak to the person behind the door all without ever leaving the garage where he was tinkering with his other inventions.
“I literally built it for myself, and everyone, including my wife, said it was my best invention so I went with it,” said the Santa Monica-based CEO and founder of Ring.
The smart doorbell works by instantly notifying the homeowner via an app when someone rings the bell or appears in front of the door through motion detection. The homeowner can then “answer the door” from anywhere–at work or the beach, for example–and the exchange is recorded in high-definition and uploaded to the cloud.
Siminoff launched Ring in late 2012 and since then it has appeared on shows like Shark Tank and received generous financial support from the likes of business magnate Richard Branson. The product, which retails for $199, is sold online and in 14,000 stores, including Walmart, Target, Lowe’s and Bed, Bath and Beyond.
About six weeks ago, Saratoga Councilman Rishi Kumar jumped on the Ring bandwagon.
Kumar said he learned about Ring by happenstance. The battery of his 50-year-old doorbell needed to be replaced, so he went online to search for a better alternative. That’s when he came across reviews for Ring, most of which were positive, he said, and he was convinced enough to place an order within five minutes of finding it.
Once it arrived, the device was easy enough for his teenage son to install it, he said. Installation merely requires the removal of the existing doorbell and connecting the two wires at the back into the Ring device.
“Then you install an app on your phone,” he said. “The doorbell is on wifi and it identifies your cell phone as a device that it’s connected to. It looks like a video cam.”
Thus far, Kumar has used Ring here and there, using it once while out for a walk to communicate with a pizza delivery person. But the product holds a greater potential, according to Kumar. It can act as a deterrent to property crime and residential burglaries, the biggest thorns in the city’s side over the past year.
“I think it provides you a pretty good level of security,” he said.
Kumar reached out to Siminoff and asked him if he could offer his constituents a discount of 70 percent. Siminoff was receptive to the request and eventually agreed to a 30 percent discount.
Kumar said his only motive for seeking the promotion is to reduce break-ins in the city, which lately have been taking place at the rate of nearly once every two days. He insisted that he has no affiliation with either Ring or Siminoff, nor any investment in the company.
“I just loved the product after installing it,” he said. He estimated that the city would collectively save $700,000 if every household bought the product.
The promotion is the only one of its kind offered by the company. After seeing positive results in other communities that had seen a significant reduction in crime where residents had installed Ring–namely the Wilshire Park district in Central Los Angeles–Siminoff said he is excited to work with city leaders to help them enhance security in their communities.
“Our mission of the company is to reduce crime in neighborhoods, so anything that allows us to get in a neighborhood is something we’re happy to support,” he said.
The ideal candidate for Ring is anyone whose residence faces a public area, he said.
“The people that have apartment buildings already have a system that does their front door entry,” he said.
There are a few things to consider before buying the product. For one, there is a $3 monthly fee to store videos on the cloud, Kumar said. Another thing is that it may not be compatible with every existing doorbell, so he suggested looking into that first. It’s also worth looking into similar products on the market, he said, and encouraged residents to find out if there are any products that are superior to Ring.
Saratoga residents are eligible for the 30 percent discount through the end of August, as long as they purchase the product on the Ring.com website using the promotion code 8saratoga30.
For additional safety tips and measures in Saratoga, visit tinyurl.com/SaratogaSafety.
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