How to Properly Set up Your Ring Field of View

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Is your Ring doorbell your first step toward creating a smart home? Maybe it’s the finishing touch you were missing to make your digital fortress complete. Either way, you now have a powerful convenience and security tool at your disposal.

One of the most frequently asked questions involves the field of view on Ring doorbells. Keep reading for a quick guide on how to set up your Ring field of view for optimal performance.

How Do Ring Video Doorbells “See?”

Properly positioning a Ring video doorbell depends on a variety of factors. Consider the distance between your front door and the street, as well as the physical layout of your yard. Look at the door’s height and the angle of the surface you plan to affix the doorbell to.

Here are some details:

• Camera: The cameras on Ring video doorbells have a very wide field of view. People often make the mistake of mounting it too high to detect people’s faces, but this is not necessary.

• PIR sensors: These sensors pick up on changes in heat patterns in the immediate vicinity. Intruders or visitors are warmer than their surroundings, which makes body heat the perfect trigger for the sensor to send a proximity alert. Compared to cameras, PIR motion sensors have a more limited field of view.

Two pieces of technology provide the “sight” these doorbells require to work correctly — the camera and the passive infrared (PIR) motion sensors.

What’s the Perfect Placement for a Ring Doorbell?

Getting the perfect field of view for your Ring doorbell means knowing the capabilities and limitations of these two pieces of technology. Here’s what you need to know.

Camera Field of View and Placement

The ideal placement for a Ring doorbell is 48 inches above the ground. As we mentioned, the camera onboard Ring doorbells has a wide field of view. Ring offers several models, each one with a horizontal field of view between 155 and 180 degrees. Ring’s Doorbell 3, Doorbell Pro, Doorbell Elite and Peephole Cam all add a 90-degree vertical field of view as well.

Choose a spot 48 inches above the ground to mount your Ring video doorbell. However, do be mindful of the angle of the surface to which you’re affixing the doorbell. If you’re dealing with angled siding, Ring strongly recommends using the included wedges to ensure the doorbell is fully perpendicular to the ground.

Motion Sensor Field of View and Placement

According to Ring, the passive infrared motion sensors have a field of view of approximately 160 degrees horizontally. The sensors are more sensitive to movement on the horizontal axis than the vertical.

In addition, the PIR sensors have a “sweet spot” of between 5 and 30 feet from the fixture for detecting motion.

Achieving the proper height of 48 inches from the ground is important for camera and passive infrared sensor functionality. Mounting the Ring doorbell too high means the PIR sensors may pick up heat from passersby on the sidewalk or even from cars out on the street.

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Nailing the Placement for Your Ring Doorbell

Frankly, placement is the most important thing when it comes to security cameras. As we mentioned, improper positioning for your Ring doorbell might deliver false positives after installation. You don’t want to pick up heat signatures from the street or random pedestrians moving through the area.

This is also important for maintaining the quality of your video recordings and live footage. A doorbell mounted too low might detect traffic moving toward your house from afar, but it won’t be able to pick up on faces as the target approaches the door. Recording somebody’s knees won’t prove very useful in securing your property.

Finally, remember to do a trial run after installation. Test the field of view as well as the video quality. Even if you nail your Ring field of view and placement, you may need to fine-tune the quality of the video feed. If the picture isn’t to your liking, you might have to relocate your Wi-Fi router or spring for the Ring Chime Pro, which extends your network for better coverage.

Enjoy Your Newly-Placed Camera

You should now have everything you need to position your Ring doorbell perfectly. Spending time on these steps should ensure years of useful functionality.