Safe house

You have booked a nice holiday for the family and the only damper seems to be leaving your house unoccupied, and therefore vulnerable to burglary. Perhaps you should step up the security with some options available in the city. Read on.Catch the eyeVideo door phones are currently the hottest products in the surveillance sector. ‘‘Those that let you see the person standing at the gate and let you unlock the gate, even from within a room, (if the panel is fixed there) are quite popular in flats,’’ says Nandakumar A, CEO, ATSS, a manufacturer of security systems. Cost: Rs 9,000 to Rs 16,000.‘‘GSM alarm panels that can be activated by mobiles are also popular. When the alarm is activated, it sends a pre-recorded message with your details to five telephone numbers (set earlier),’’ he adds. Cost: Rs 18,000.Surveillance facilities that let you keep an eye on your home from across the world via internet/mobile are also available.Kitchen smartThere are standalone gas detectors to check for gas leakages with alarm and SMS information facilities. They are available at the five-year-old Esync Security Systems. Cost: Rs 1,850 to Rs 7,000.In the garageWhile S Suresh, proprietor of Triplicane-based Milestone Systems, agrees that video phones are still the most popular security offering, he adds, ‘‘Access entries to car parking lots have also become very popular, and people use either cards or biometric finger swiping to enter the car slot allotted for their flats.’’ S Vasudevan,  distributor of Honeywell home automation services, gives a thumbs up to home automation that lets you remotely control any electronic appliance (with timer options), thereby creating an illusion of people present at home. Priced from Rs 50,000 onwards. As for burglar alarms, gone are the days when a burglar could just use a jammer and get away with the loot.Vasudevan adds, “The wireless alarm that uses code-hopping technique lets one sensor communicate to another and can be enabled through internet or mobile.’’ Cost: Rs 25,000 onwards.