[SOLVED] Smart TV to keep in touch with Dad

[Nick1969]

My dad is moving into an assisted living facility many miles away from the rest of the family and wanted to know if any of this is possible for a smart TV. He's beginning to suffer from dementia and my step mother can only visit him for a few hours a day. We obviously want to stay in touch with him as much as possible.

Some criteria below.

Must have or support a webcam and microphone. Prefer built in to limit complexity.

Must be able to control remotely from 1,000+ miles away. For example, would like to upload photos/video clips, organize, and play slide shows. In fact, would like to be able to control all aspects of the TV remotely including power and the camera.

Must be able to support Zoom app and have the TV auto answer a call. Would also like to control the zoom app settings.

The family is a mix of Microsoft, Apple, Google/Android, iOS, etc., so something agnostic might be better though I'm completely out of my realm here.

Feedback regarding brands/models would be greatly appreciated including any additional criteria not mentioned above.

 

[punkncat]

I am not familiar with anything aside from Samsung remote access, and that is designed to work with a remote PC in order to perform specific work tasks.

It would seem that your desires and function lean towards a laptop with something like Team Viewer, etc. on it such that you could remotely administer it. The issue that I see there is that most assisted living facilities have strict limits on their internet and forms of communication in and out.
My mother was admitted to one for a short while after a knee surgery and spent a bit over a week in there learning how to transfer to bed/toilet and such. Inside the rooms there was no internet connection at all and even phone signal was very spotty. Time on a computer for things like a webchat were strictly timed and supervised. Most of them were group chat type things that were scheduled a week or two in advance.

Sad to say, but many assisted living and retirement communities don't want what really goes on there to be readily made public. It was eye opening for my mother and myself. Hopefully your father will fare better.
It would probably be a good idea to bring this up with the admin team at the location he is looking to be in such to find out what they offer, what is allowed, or even possible.

 

[Nick1969]

I am not familiar with anything aside from Samsung remote access, and that is designed to work with a remote PC in order to perform specific work tasks.

It would seem that your desires and function lean towards a laptop with something like Team Viewer, etc. on it such that you could remotely administer it. The issue that I see there is that most assisted living facilities have strict limits on their internet and forms of communication in and out.
My mother was admitted to one for a short while after a knee surgery and spent a bit over a week in there learning how to transfer to bed/toilet and such. Inside the rooms there was no internet connection at all and even phone signal was very spotty. Time on a computer for things like a webchat were strictly timed and supervised. Most of them were group chat type things that were scheduled a week or two in advance.

Sad to say, but many assisted living and retirement communities don't want what really goes on there to be readily made public. It was eye opening for my mother and myself. Hopefully your father will fare better.
It would probably be a good idea to bring this up with the admin team at the location he is looking to be in such to find out what they offer, what is allowed, or even possible.

Great points and thanks for all the input. My dad was in a SNF for a while and actually had a phone in his room that you could call directly. I think you're right in that assisted living won't be the same. We've reviewed many of them and decided on one but sadly did not take this aspect into account. I'll see what their policies are and go from there. Thanks again.

 

[USAFRet]

Also consider the HIPAA issues.

It may not be that they are trying to hide something, but video beamed out from a resident/patient room may violate a host of medical privacy issues.

 

[hang-the-9]

Echo Show may work, it's designed for easy video communication and can be controlled more or less through the cloud for setup https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07VHZ41L...ddf-4d54-81ef-46a0fe25d5d3&pf_rd_i=9818047011

You don't want a smart TV per se, but a video conferencing setup, they do sell those, designed for business use mostly but don't see why with a good budget you can't use one. Remote access is a bit tough, you will need a VPN between them which is not likely to happen unless you control the networks in both places. We use these for our conference rooms along with regular TVs https://videoconferencegear.com/pol...h-the-zoom-rooms-video-conferencing-platform/ For remote access to the devices you need something like this, although loading pictures like you want on it won't really happen without a computer you can remote into.