Streamline your communications
Integrating intercoms into your home
DAVID MINK GateHouse Plus

There was a time when a home intercom was something uniquely suited only for the type of house that Robin Leach would champion with his champagne wishes and caviar dreams. Advances in technology have brought such state-of-the-art electronics, however, into even the most modest homes across the country.

Intercoms - from video to phone to wireless systems - are rapidly becoming one of the cheapest and most available means of easily communicating throughout the home or business. An intercom can serve as a rapid method of talking to someone on the other side of the house (no more yelling up the stairs to get the kids down for dinner), or it can create an easy way of answering the door without opening up to whomever wanders onto your porch.

All of these can be installed relatively easily, as well, thanks to advances in wireless technology. Flush mounted systems simply need to be installed into appropriate cuts in dry wall. With a couple of batteries, the intercoms can last for up to three years with average usage.

Systems like the Oracle portable intercom look more like answering machines or caller IDs than intercom systems.

With batteries and a 900 megahertz secure digital radio link, the intercoms can be toted around up to 1,000 feet apart without losing connection.

Many intercom systems come with telephone interfaces. The interface allows you to answer an intercom page (for instance, from someone who pushes the button at your front door) with any of your home telephones.

Advances in video technology have brought the "videophones" of early science fiction movies to our homes. Now incorporated into intercoms, these units can send wireless video from the unit outside to a drop-down video screen mounted under your kitchen cabinet or on your wall in the bedroom. Find out who's knocking on your door long before you give them access to your house.

At prices ranging from just $100 to about $500, home intercom systems are widely affordable and available for nearly anyone - not just the rich and famous. Check with your local retailers for prices and options.