Latest news with #Wi-fi
South China Morning Post
24-02-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
University of Hong Kong's next-generation smart campus sets global benchmark
The University of Hong Kong (HKU) has gained an enviable global reputation since it was established as the city's first tertiary institution in 1911. Its continued success over the past 114 years has been highlighted in this year's influential international university rankings, which placed it second in Asia and 17th in the world. Advertisement The annual QS University Rankings, compiled by Quacquarelli Symonds, a United Kingdom higher education information provider, are based on criteria including an institution's reputation among both global academics and employers, the ratio between its full-time staff and students and the impact of its research. However, the university, which caters to over 30,000 students across more than 300 degree programmes at its Pok Fu Lam campus on Hong Kong Island, is also known for its willingness to embrace the use of cutting-edge technologies to enhance its learning experience and infrastructure. HKU teamed up with Huawei Technologies for the launch of its new smart campus network, powered by Wi-fi 7 – the high-speed, next-generation Wi-fi standard. Photo: SCMP/Dickson Lee Last December, HKU teamed up with Huawei Technologies, a leading global provider of information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure and smart devices, for the launch of its next-generation smart campus, which will help to accelerate the digital transformation of education. The ceremony, titled 'The University of Hong Kong & Huawei Global Smart Campus Network Showcase', was their latest collaboration aimed at developing smarter campus network connectivity and infrastructures. 'As a world-class university, HKU is committed to providing the best teaching and research environment for global academic talent and promoting the integration of education and technology,' Flora Ng, chief information officer and university librarian at HKU, said at the ceremony. Advertisement 'With the growing diversity of teaching needs and accelerating digital transformation, building a smart campus is critical for providing high-quality educational services.' She said HKU and Huawei had built a high-quality, high-speed 10 gigabits per second (Gbps) campus network powered by Wi-fi 7 – the next-generation Wi-fi standard – for use in numerous areas including its neoclassical main building Loke Yew Hall, libraries and classrooms.
The Independent
06-02-2025
- The Independent
Ring Battery Video Doorbell Pro review: radar tech and clever birds-eye view make this doorbell a winner
It can be hard to know where to start with the Ring Video Doorbell range. Of the seven models available in 2025, three look identical yet vary in price by a full 100 per cent. To make things even more confusing, the newest model is one of the cheapest, and the most expensive is also the oldest. The doorbell I'm reviewing here came out in 2024. It is the flagship of Ring's battery-powered video doorbells and the first to carry the Pro name. We'll come to the specifications in a minute, but first the hardware. The grey plastic doorbell measures 12.8 cm tall, 6.2 cm wide and 2.8 cm deep. As always, it comes with everything you need to install it yourself, including screws, wall plugs, tools (although you'll need a drill), a charging cable for the removable battery, and an optional plate for mounting the doorbell at an angle. Like other Ring doorbells, the Battery Video Pro does not come with a chime. Instead, when a visitor presses the button you'll be notified via the Ring smartphone app. You can have the doorbell alert you through compatible Alexa smart speakers too. Ring sells a plug-in chime separately for £29.99. You can also get the Chime Pro, which costs £49.99 and doubles as a Wi-fi signal booster, and can be useful if you intend to install the doorbell a long way from your router. Camera This doorbell shares its camera with other models of Ring. It has a 2048 x 1536 resolution that creates a square-ish, high-definition image of a head-to-toe view of visitors, and can be used to spot packages left on your doorstep. The Ring app also has a function for notifying you when a delivery is left in the doorbell's field of view. That resolution might not sound enormous compared to today's 4K smartphones, but it's plenty for a doorbell and the 159-degree lens (horizontal and vertical) gives a nice clear view of your home's surroundings. The camera also benefits from both greyscale and colour night vision. The former uses infrared to produce a black-and-white image, even in total darkness, while the latter attempts to add some colour. This can create a better-quality image, but in my testing I found it added little. Since there's a lamppost near my front door, colour night vision recordings consisted of a background tinted yellow by the street light, while the rest of the images, including any visitor, was left in greyscale. I found it was best to stick to black-and-white. Features and connectivity At its core this video doorbell works like most others, in that it alerts you via a smartphone app when the button is pressed. You can then use the doorbell's camera, speaker and microphone to have a video call with the visitor, telling them you'll be there in a minute, or that you're not in but the parcel can be left on your doorstep. The Ring also works as a security camera, alerting you to motion and giving you the ability to ward off anyone loitering by the door. Every interaction with the doorbell is recorded to Ring's cloud storage service, where footage can be viewed and downloaded to your phone. However, the cloud service is only available via a paid subscription – more on which in the next section. What sets this Pro model apart from the rest of Ring's battery-powered family is how it uses radar technology to detect motion in 3D and create a birds' eye view. This requires a bit of setting up, where you use satellite imagery in the Ring app to tell the camera which way it is facing from your property, and where it should monitor. For example, you can tell it to start recording when it spots movement on your drive and front lawn, but to ignore movement in the road or on your neighbour's property. Once set up, the doorbell will alert you to movement (or to the button being pressed) in the usual way, but as well as a view from the camera, the app shows the route the visitor took as they approached. This is laid onto a satellite image and shows, for example, if someone has loitered around your car before approaching the door, or peered through the shed window, then walked away. This form of motion detection works from up to six metres away and covers almost 180 degrees horizontally. It's a nice additional feature, especially if you're concerned about car theft and you park close enough for the doorbell camera to be within range. But you could save £70 and go for the Battery Video Doorbell Plus instead, which is almost identical but lacks radar, 3D motion and birds' eye view. That model also misses out on the Pro's Audio+ and noise cancellation technology, which is another nice-to-have, since it aims to cut out background noise and improve the audio of your recordings, but I don't think missing out on it is a dealbreaker. Storage and subscription Ring doorbells do not store their video recordings locally. Instead, footage is uploaded to Ring's cloud storage service, where it can be accessed via the smartphone app. Cloud storage is only available when paying for the Ring Home subscription, which starts at £4.99 a month or £49.99 a year for the Basic tier, as of January 2025. For that, recordings are saved online for 180 days before being automatically deleted; subscribing to this tier also unlocks features like person and package detection, which otherwise do not function. Two more tiers, called Standard and Premium, are also available. These are priced at £7.99 and £15.99 a month, respectively, and only the latter lets you record 24/7 video with your Ring doorbell (or other Ring security cameras). The Ring Battery Video Doorbell Pro will continue to work if you do not pay for any subscription, but no footage will be recorded and saved to the cloud. Instead, the doorbell will alert you when the button is pressed and you'll be able to view a live video feed, but if you miss the notification you won't be able to view a recording later.
