This guide is part of our series on home invasion in Switzerland: protecting your home and family.
A private property accommodates normal activities: visitors, deliveries, children, pets and garden maintenance. Designing outdoor protection means distinguishing spaces and uses to identify meaningful events without turning every movement into an alert.
To prevent intrusion into an occupied home, the project must also explain what happens to received signals. Detection further from the house is useful only if the information can be acted on and an appropriate response has been planned.
Divide the grounds into areas of use
Start by describing three kinds of space: areas where a visitor may normally arrive, areas reserved for occupants and direct access to the home. This division is a design method, not an official risk classification.
For each area, note the expected hours and movements. A delivery entrance, shared garden and private terrace should not automatically receive the same settings. Also define what needs to work while you are using the garden.
| Area | Design question | Test to plan |
|---|---|---|
| Entrance and gate | How can someone be welcomed without access to the entire property? | A visitor can announce themselves and understand where to wait. |
| Path to the house | What lighting makes movement and visibility easier? | A night-time walk without troublesome glare. |
| Terrace and private garden | When is the area used, and when should an event be reported? | Normal activities remain possible in the intended mode. |
| Access to an outbuilding | Who uses it, and how is its signal distinguished from the house? | The recipient immediately understands which area is involved. |
Useful lighting is not necessarily brighter
The Federal Office for the Environment recommends lighting only where and when necessary, at an appropriate intensity and with precise direction, generally downwards. Luminaire selection and control should limit unnecessary light in the surroundings. Source: FOEN seven-point plan.
Apply this approach to how you use your grounds. Someone should be able to find the entrance, read an intercom and move around without glare. A floodlight that looks powerful from the street can be uncomfortable from inside the house. Observe the result from both sides.
Before accepting the installation, check the view from bedroom windows and the property boundaries. Have the direction, duration and trigger area adjusted. If a camera works with the lighting, request a combined test, particularly when the lights switch on.
Do not set a goal of “lighting the entire garden”. Describe the points that need to be visible and the events that justify switching on. This helps obtain a proportionate proposal.
Outdoor detection: request on-site tests
The first question is not the maximum advertised range. It is whether the proposed device can provide useful information in the intended position, with the features present on your grounds.
Show the supplier ordinary conditions: moving vegetation, animals, nearby traffic, maintenance work, neighbouring lights and seasonal changes. Ask which conditions have been considered and how settings will be checked after installation.
Describe an event in terms the recipient understands. “Side door” is more useful than a string of numbers with no clear meaning. Also agree on the difference between information to review, a fault to correct and an alert requiring immediate handling.
Limit unnecessary alerts without hiding a problem
During commissioning, keep a simple event log: time, area, known situation and change made by the professional. This record helps understand usability problems and verify corrections.
If the system repeatedly reports authorised movement by a pet or gardener, the answer is not necessarily to lower sensitivity everywhere. Position, framing, schedules or operating mode may need review. Have the chosen compromise and what is no longer covered documented.
The acceptance criterion should be concrete: does the device perform the agreed task without forcing occupants into constant workarounds? One demonstration cannot document every seasonal condition; plan a follow-up if those conditions are decisive.
The garden false alert log helps you change a setting and then check that useful detections are retained.
Cameras, neighbours and shared spaces
A private garden may border a shared path, a right of way or neighbours’ windows. The FDPIC specifically addresses video surveillance involving neighbours. The people concerned and how the space is used must be considered before installation. Source: FDPIC.
Prepare a sketch of the planned field of view for discussion with the installer and, if needed, the property manager or people concerned. Ask whether a less intrusive solution would meet the same need. Moving a camera can sometimes simplify the project more than complex image processing.
To explore video choices further, see alarm or camera and our existing data protection guide.
When should you consider a robot or drone?
Mobility warrants assessment when a precise task remains poorly fulfilled: remotely checking a large area, observing several separate points or supplementing a fixed installation under certain conditions. Compare options against the same expected result.
Ask why the mobile device offers a benefit, what it will not see and how monitoring continues when it is unavailable. The site must support operation compatible with occupants and visitors.
Our article on robots and drones for home invasion protection provides a decision checklist. For a simpler property, the assessment may quite reasonably conclude that a mobile device is not justified.
Your checks after commissioning
- A visitor can identify where to announce themselves.
- Useful routes are lit without excessive disturbance around the home.
- Each event identifies an understandable area.
- Garden activities are compatible with the chosen modes.
- Images and access rights remain limited to the need.
- A responsible person is identified for settings, faults and maintenance.
Connect these checks to your overall home protection project. To explore options suited to your grounds, you can also consult My Robot Guard’s villa solutions.
To integrate the gate, garden and outbuildings into occupant protection, explore our home invasion protection assessment for your villa. It connects the areas to monitor, existing equipment and alert handling.