The Added Benefit Of Having An Amazon Fire TV Stick If You Have A Home Security System

Just about everyone has seen a movie or TV show where a character (usually rich and powerful) has an advanced security system where they can peruse all the security cameras on their (usually gated) mansion. These multiple-camera security systems will have cameras pointed at several locations so our hero can quickly see the driveway, the front door, or perhaps the side gate, to make sure nobody is getting in. It's often how they know the villain is coming, or on the flip side, it's also how the villain might find out our hero is infiltrating his evil lair.

What's crazy is that, if you have an Amazon Firestick, you too could have this futuristic ability and it's not even that hard to set up. As long as you have your security system, your Amazon Firestick, and Alexa connected to your local network, all will work together to give you the ability to view your security cameras right on your TV.

Making this work relies on having all your hardware pointing to the same network. You'll also want to make sure your cameras are compatible with Alexa, so if you can view the camera in the Alexa app on your smartphone or on your Echo Show, it should work here too.  There are hundreds of security cameras available that have wired and wireless connectivity so it will be no trouble getting them on the network if they aren't already connected. You'll also want to make sure that each of your cameras has a name like "Side Gate" or "Front Walk" so that they are easily identifiable.

Having the Firestick is crucial to this setup because it bridges the connection between your network and your television. You'll also want to make sure Alexa is set up to connect to your Firestick by going into Alexa's settings in the app, navigating to the Fire TV section, and linking Alexa. Once everything is connected, the next step is to try it out by speaking a command to your Alexa device or using the speech function on your Firestick remote. Provided you have named your cameras correctly, you should be able to say "Alexa, show me Front Walk," and your television should display the appropriate camera feed.

Ever since the huge update to Fire devices back in 2020, you've had the ability to view your security cameras in an even better way. The 2020 update was all about user experience with Fire devices and one thing that came out of it was the ability to view a picture-in-picture view of your security cameras. This means that if you hear a loud crash coming from the backyard while you're watching your favorite show, you can quickly say "Alexa, show me Backyard," and your TV will display the camera feed in a picture-in-picture view, making it so you don't even need to miss a beat in your show.

It's also super handy for other situations. If your doorbell is also hooked up to your smart home setup, you could have it automatically display your front door camera when a visitor rings the bell. Let's face it: sometimes when you are watching your favorite show, getting up from the couch for a door-to-door salesperson is not a high priority. With the right Firestick and Alexa setup, you can relax and go on watching your show.