How do I test baby monitor range in a terraced house?

Why does a terraced house need its own walk-test?

A mid-terrace is a long, thin radio path: front bedroom, landing, stairs, hall, back kitchen, often with a party wall and a chimney breast in the way. Box range is a line-of-sight figure. BT's video-monitor help says its indoor figure (up to 50 metres) and outdoor figure (up to 250 metres) hold only with a clear line of sight, and that wall material, thickness, dampness and the number of walls cut that distance.

Which? scores range by walking the parent unit through three rooms and then taking it outdoors until picture or sound declines. That is a lab-style path, not a party-wall terrace. The useful home test is the route you actually walk with a mug of tea, not the room next door.

Keep the camera and every cable out of the baby's reach. The Lullaby Trust tells you to follow the maker's instructions and keep the control unit out of reach. RoSPA's strangulation advice is the same idea for any cord near a cot: out of reach, not looped, not on the rail.

How do I walk from the front bedroom to the back kitchen?

Do this in daylight, with both units powered as you will use them at night (camera on mains, parent unit on battery if that is how you carry it). Leave doors as they will be: a closed stair door is part of the test.

1. 1
   Park the camera Put the baby unit where it will live in the front bedroom, at least a metre from the cot and with the cable run flat to the wall. BT's older Digital Video Baby Monitor 1000 guide says 1–2 metres from the baby for a usable picture, with the cable out of reach.
2. 2
   Start on the landing Stand on the landing outside the bedroom door. Confirm picture and sound are clean. This is your baseline, not the pass mark.
3. 3
   Walk the stairs Pause at the half-landing (if you have one) and again at the foot of the stairs. Write down the first crackle, freeze or delay. Stairs are a stack of joists, a turn and often a closed door — they are not 'the next room'.
4. 4
   Hall then back kitchen Walk the hall into the back kitchen. Test by the sink, then by the fridge and the microwave. BT lists TVs, PCs, routers and microwaves as range-killers and says to keep them at least one metre from either unit.
5. 5
   Mark the beep If the parent unit beeps, BT's help page treats that as out of range or no link (or a low battery — check the icon). Move closer, but keep the two units at least one metre apart so you do not get the high-pitched squeal from sitting them on top of each other.

What should I write down at each stop?

Count walls on the radio path, not rooms on the estate agent's plan. A closed stair door plus a kitchen wall is two obstacles, even if you still think of it as 'downstairs'.

What if the signal dies on the stairs?

Treat the stairwell as its own stop, not a corridor you hurry through. If picture or sound fails at the half-landing or the foot, the kitchen result is already decided — you have lost the link on the way. Placement changes that do not move the cot:

• Open the stair door for the retest, then close it again. You need both results, because night-time is usually the closed-door version.
• Raise the parent unit (hand height, not in a coat pocket) so your body is not the extra wall.
• Nudge the camera along the same wall, still a metre from the cot, so the path aims down the landing rather than through the chimney breast.
• Move kitchen metal a metre off the parent unit — BT names microwaves, routers and large metal objects as interference, not as a reason to shift the cot.

A failed stair stop is a radio result. It is not a verdict on the house or the baby. Do not 'make up' range by putting the camera on the cot rail or draping the cable where a child can reach it.

What can I change without moving the cot?

The cot stays where The Lullaby Trust wants the sleep space: a clear, flat, firm surface, baby on their back, in the same room as you for the first six months. Range testing is about the parent unit's path, not about relocating the sleep space to chase a signal.

If the back kitchen never holds, plan to stand nearer the hall or the foot of the stairs when you need a continuous link, and treat the garden as a separate walk (patio versus the back wall). A clean landing does not mean the patio will hold.

Does a strong walk-test change safer-sleep rules?

No. The Lullaby Trust's position is that there is no research showing monitors help prevent SIDS, and that a monitor never replaces a parent or carer in the room for the first six months. Room-sharing is the rule; the walk-test only tells you where the parent unit still hears the camera.

In shortIn short: camera in the front bedroom, parent unit along landing → stairs → hall → back kitchen. Log the first drop and the beep. Box metres assume line of sight. A next-door pass is not a terrace pass.