re: General security camera discussion (was "Unifi Protect security cameras")

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Ahh. This is barely on my radar for the future. A pair of doorbells +2-4 bullets is going to be plenty for my house, and I may realistically never add a backyard or driveway view.

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Yeah evidently there are a lot of mid- to large-ish Protect installs out there (probably most migrated from the Video product), so there is actually pressure on UI to make the UNVR "stackable". I'm assuming all that means is you can keep adding units as they reach the camera capacity, and view/manage them all as if they were one. According to "support" on their forums, this is actually their "central focus" for Protect at the moment. I honestly don't find it much trouble at all to swap between multiple units as it is.

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I don’t think I’ll use the g3 instant I have for much. I have it set to always run, never record and catch my cats doing silly things throughout the day. The wife likes to move the camera around when I’m not home just to see if I check it. Indoor views for a home seem like a good thing if you need them, but there’s not much I feel like I need it for.

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Yeah they aren't for everybody, but wyze and google etc. sure sell the hell out of indoor wifi cams. The Nest Indoor is $130. I would damn sure pay $200+30+30=$260 for a CK+ and 2 Instants before I pay $260 for 2 Nest cams and have to then pay a subscription every month.

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The smart detections are pretty great when the app wants to work well. I’m sure you have used them- you have a little window on the timeline with a still frame, and clicking it takes 1-30 seconds to load. 1 being awesome and 30 being “why the frick can’t they fix this stupid thing?”

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That usually works pretty well for me, far better than Ring does. Ring has the rich notifications, but clicking them gives me the live view maybe 25% of the time. Same results across 3 doorbells and 3 different phones.

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There’s no “save snapshot” feature, but I’m fairly certain there’s a still-frame image capture button available on the desktop (when logged into the UDMP) version.

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There's a snapshot button on the web app and the mobile app. On mobile you have to click the 9 dots menu and you'll see it.

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My house and basically every house in every neighborhood I’ve lived in has floodlights on every corner. I don’t know who the target audience is, but I’m pretty sure I’m not it.

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A lot of houses in my 'hood need more floods, but I don't see these fitting the bill. They seem more like a $30 product than a $100 one.

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Speaking of “wtf” products, they made PoE ceiling-tile lights.
Lights.
To add a light or two is one thing.
To market this as if Ethernet + PoE ports/switches are cheaper than an electrician in that setting is just...odd to me. Maybe I’m way off on the cost of this, but I don’t think you can save enough to justify just the sheer cost of the switches you need to run the things, particularly if staying in their stack.

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They also had a 110/240V version, but I am actually pretty bullish on PoE lighting in general. If we eventually want pervasive smart lighting that does occupancy detection and automatic color temp and brightness adjustment etc, and central management, if they are all wireless then that could potentially be a lot of unnecessary RF airtime. Better to hardwire for data, in which case might as well use PoE for power too. Then instead of taking up wifi capacity, they could provide more wifi capacity via integrated AP in the fixture to cut down on devices and cabling. My thoughts, anyway.

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I could see them eventually pulling it all together, but it seems like something they are going to swing, miss, realize, and quit.

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I don't think they will quit. They do have a lot of irons in the fire right now, and they are known to drop products and entire lines of products, but I think they're in the security game for the long haul. I mean they're on their 4th generation of cameras, and they are diversifying into door access and sensors. They seem pretty committed to me. Shooters shoot, and if nothing else UI is a shooter.