Vosker VKX Review: Testing an LTE Security Camera on the Farm

It wasn't long ago that I noticed an unmarked white van at the far end of the driveway, parked near the gate that leads into the paddock and back acreage. I didn't see a driver, and the vehicle was far enough from the house that my dogs hadn't been alerted.

Everything felt very suspicious.

What I found when I went outside was a man walking around near my horse trailer and other small equipment. I hollered his way, and he was startled and shouted back that he was "doing work for the phone company" and was just about to leave.

Nothing was stolen that day, but the entire situation attuned me to the security gaps on my rural property. My wife and I were working some odd shifts in those days, though I imagine homes and outbuildings in my area probably feel like easy targets during the day because so many folks are at work 8 to 5 and we're far enough apart that neighbors can't always see one another.

Over the past few weeks, Vosker reached out to help help give me eyes on my operation even when I'm not here. I recently installed the Vosker VKX , a 4G-LTE cellular-network security camera that is tailored to farm operations to help prevent theft and monitor livestock and machinery.

The best part is that the device doesn't have to be connected to Wi-Fi or to a wired electrical source so it can genuinely function in the Back 40 and other seldom-visited locations.

What is the Vosker VKX?

Vosker's cameras are popular on commercial buildings, at construction sites, and around vacation homes. The VKX, specifically, is a newly launched heavy-duty model that is well-suited for agricultural and remote properties. While theft-prevention is probably the priority for a device like this, it has 100 feet of motion detection and night vision, so it can also function to survey areas for damage after spring and summer pop-up storms wreak havoc with high winds and heavy rains.

I set up my camera just inside our paddock, which includes an area where the horses congregate and where the main double gates to access the rear sections of the property are. With the kind of August storm season we've had, I regularly checked to make sure everything looked normal after a weather event rolled through.

While spot-checking the site is important, the backbone of the Vosker camera is its motion sensor, which is designed to identify vehicles, humans, and animals. It is currently undergoing a beta program for vehicles that is intended to narrow down the vehicle type, such as personal, commercial, machinery, or off-road.

For several weeks, Vosker's artificial intelligence adeptly identified movement in the target area and pushed notifications to the Vosker app on my phone (I will describe more about the app later). It worked equally well during daylight and nighttime hours, and it became a good way to track when the animals were getting fed and to make sure nothing was amiss.

This location, of course, was a highly strategic decision, and installation of the camera was immensely simple. Out of the box, the kit came with the required screws and mounts to set it up on a variety of surfaces, and it had an adjustable 360-degree swivel and tilt mounting arm. (It's also easy remove from the mount and portable enough to have multiple mounts around your property so you can set it up wherever you need it most or where the season most demands it.)

The 14,000 mAh lithium battery required charging out of the box, but once it was charged and inserted into the unit, the solar panel on top made sure we always had "high" battery power left, according to the status reading in the app. Per the manufacturer's listed specifications, the solar functionality should give the camera six months' worth of power, but I haven't had it nearly long enough to see it drop at all.

Setup was a breeze as well, with a QR code in the box that took me directly to the app and walked me through the minimal steps to get everything connected.

Because cataloging events with this device runs off of LTE signals, Vosker requires a subscription data plan. It has an 32GB internal storage card, but the HD images and video it captures are also accessible on the cloud and are GPS-encrypted, which is where some of the devices biggest benefits come in. 

Monthly plans start at $9/month for a maximum of 500 alerts, $13.50/month for 1,000 alerts, and the $18/month unlimited plan. While the system gives users access to low-res previews of the motion events, that highest-tier plan (called the Elite Plan), allows for 40 full HD photos and videos and a 60-day history timeline to help you keep tabs on everything. It also features on-demand videos that give you a 15-second real-time look at the scene.

The camera retails for $199.99.

Using the Vosker App

The Vosker notification icon became a common fixture on my phone — but that was largely by design. The app allows users to fully customize a variety of settings, including their operation schedule. For example, do you want to avoid 50 rapid-fire notifications every Wednesday morning when feed is delivered? You can disable notifications on that specific day and in whatever timeframe you choose. 

Additionally, if you have an animal (like one of my horses) that decides to hover by the gate, roll a few times, and sniff at the door to the hay shed, you're likely to get a barrage of motion notifications. It's easy to hit a couple of buttons to snooze the notifications for anywhere from 30 minutes to eight hours. In that instance, however, you're not just halting notifications but cutting off the camera's motion detection entirely, so all imagery is halted in that span.

The app allows for several other important customizable settings that enhance the function of the camera. One of those is the deterrent light, which can be set to turn on for a few seconds every time motion is detected. This can be handy to let any baddies know they're being watched.

The user can even create specific notification zones so that, say, only motion on the right-hand side of the camera's field of vision triggers an alert. The app also includes settings for motion delay, sensitivity, and a few other tweaks that can have an impact on notifications and battery life.

Ultimately, especially when the animals entered the field of vision, it was nice to be able to keep tabs on what was happening on that part of the farm and to drill down with high-definition imagery when we wanted a closer or more-detailed look at situations.

What didn't I like

Soon after setting up the camera, I went into the app and set the Smart Notifications to send me push-notification alerts only when vehicles or humans were detected moving in the assigned space. This was because the animals walking in front of the camera could trigger alerts frequently throughout a normal day.

However, the area where I had the camera aimed also had a parked pickup truck and a riding mower in the background, so while the animals moving may have triggered the motion sensor to capture an image, the fact that the AI recognized that there were vehicles in scene (even if they weren't moving) still prompted it to send a notification to my phone. Essentially, that became a bit much.

You can see the animals in the frame here and the breakout of what the AI identified in the scene (including humans?), thus prompting the notification.

Ideal? No. A deal-breaker? Also no.

That said, this is an area that I hope to see Vosker improve.

Should you buy this camera?

There is no reliable data set that tells the story of farm- and ranch-related thefts across the country, but many sources point to these issues being on the rise in a large number of states, whether those incidents involve machinery, tools, or livestock.

The Vosker VKX really stands out in three distinct ways:

• Its durability.The device is built solidly, mounted sturdily, and held up in an exposed area to heavy storms and even a tree branch hitting it. All you have to do is compare it to other "home security" cameras to get a sense of its ruggedness.

• Its LTE capabilities.Sometimes, boosting the Wi-Fi signal from the house or shop isn't a reasonable solution when you're dealing double-digit acreage rather than a coverage area of only a few hundred feet. The LTE market for cameras has grown in recent years, and for good reason: The access and portability is a premium aspect with these devices. The VKX's signal was always reliable, but as with any LTE product, that added feature comes with a financial cost for usage.

• Its ease of setup.After charging the battery overnight, I was able to set up this unit in the amount of time it took for the horses to get through their morning grain. I'm honestly not sure how the process could have been any simpler than it was.

Though I would like to see the AI get a bit "smarter," that kind of technology is indeed evolving rapidly, so I'm sure a tweak will come sooner rather than later. But even where the tech is now, the Vosker VKX is a capable — and do I add, a comforting? — device to have installed on the farm. The unit itself has a fair price point, and the basic-tier subscription plan is very reasonable. 

I will continue to trust it to protect my property. 

By the way, I did call the phone company to ask if they had a technician in an unmarked van in my area that day. After checking with a couple of different departments, they said they did not.

Bullet dodged.

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