Built for real-world doorsteps

Soter talks with visitors the way a person would — no buttons, menus, or robotic prompts. It greets people, asks sensible questions, understands the answers, and keeps the exchange short and courteous. Visitors need no instructions and no app; they just speak.

Because the conversation is genuinely two-way, Soter can do more than announce that someone is there. It can find out who the visitor is, what they need, confirm delivery addresses and appointments, and decide what should happen next.

The Soter unit is designed to live outside, at a real front door, year round. That means rain, wind, salt air, and direct summer sun — the conditions New Zealand doorsteps actually see — without needing a porch, a cover, or seasonal removal.

The hardware used in the Dunedin pilot was exposed to exactly these conditions... although more sun would have been welcome!

Soter is designed so that a competent family member can fit it: a flexible mounting plate system that can be attached using screws or a special tape, a low-voltage power feed that can run through the door jamb on a thin ribbon cable, and a door sensor that arrives pre-configured and ready to place.

No electrician is required for a standard setup, and professional installation will be available for households that prefer it or have unusual doorways.

Soter can connect over the home's Wi-Fi, over a cellular connection, or both. With both configured, it can fail over automatically — so if the home broadband drops, the doorstep stays covered and alerts keep flowing.

This matters most for the households Soter is built for, where "the internet is down" cannot be allowed to mean "nobody is watching the door".

A built-in battery is designed to keep Soter running through power interruptions. Power cuts are precisely the moments when an unexpected caller, a missed care visit, or a worried family member matter most — so coverage should not stop when the lights do.

Combined with cellular fallback, the aim is simple: no gap at the door.

In addition to the supplied door sensor, optional sensors can track movement and use of household devices, improving reporting and helping Soter understand context. Sensors arrive pre-configured, so adding them is a matter of placing them, not programming them.

Our dedicated indoor unit is a smart speaker with a remote screen, so occupants can hear who is at the door and respond without using a mobile phone. We are testing integrations with selected commercial smart speaker ecosystems.

When a visit needs a human decision, Soter alerts the household's nominated contacts. If the first person does not respond, the alert moves to the designated escalation person or persons — often family members or a care provider. This can vary by time, so no single family member has to be permanently on duty, and nothing important falls through the gaps because one phone was on silent.

For homes with a compatible smart lock, Soter is designed to support remote unlocking: the occupant, a family member or carer can let in the physiotherapist, the district nurse, or a trusted neighbour from their phone, after Soter has verified who is at the door.

Appointments, regular services, and expected deliveries can be set up in advance, so Soter knows who is due and when. The gardener who comes every second Tuesday and the pharmacy delivery due this afternoon can be identified and, where appropriate, granted access.

Many homes are not one person living alone — they are couples, flatmates, or families where only one person needs extra support. Soter supports a profile for each person in the home, so visitors for different occupants are handled and routed appropriately.

Alerts, escalation chains, and privacy settings can be tailored per person, so everyone gets the level of involvement that is right for them.

The occupant and carer apps are where everything comes together: real-time alerts with context, the full visit history, visitor and appointment lists, and every setting — all manageable remotely, so nothing requires a trip across town to adjust.

The apps can be set up to suit the user: simple and uncluttered for the person at home, and informative at a glance for the family member or carer interested in the details.