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

Thanks Korkstand! That doesn't sound too expensive at all compared to what I thought it would cost. I thought it would take several thousand dollars or more to get a good Ubiquity system with better cameras than my EZVIZ C8W Pros. The hardest part is running the cables. My attic currently has zero flooring but that is on my to do list. Once I complete that, I might just buy a Ubiquity UNVR, a hard drive, a POE switch, some CAT 6 cabling and a few G5 bullets just to get started. I would keep my current EZVIZ PTZ cameras and Reolink solar powered cameras to start out with but I could probably immediately start replacing my fixed Wyze and EZVIZ cameras.

I'll have to get better educated on Ubiquity when the time comes. I like having lots of cameras so I would likely get a UNVR to have the capacity for future growth.

Looking for a little advice on a new construction security system. I’m interested in PoE + NVR systems just for ease of install and not having to mess with WiFi or battery outages. I would like to incorporate floodlights with all cameras except the doorbell camera. This would be a total of 4 flood/camera combos on main home, 1 doorbell camera, 2 flood/camera combos on a detached shop, and 1 NVR hub. It seems like the Reo Duo PoE has good recommendations. Is there any reason to steer clear of this setup? Another quick question regarding the detached shop. I would like to have 2 PoE flood/camera devices and also another Cat6 hookup for a smart TV. Is there anyway to run a single cat 6 then piggyback to those devices, or will I need to run 3 separate cables (one for each device). Appreciate any advice I can get. Still very new with learning about these systems.

10-4, never thought of a switch in the shop. Appreciate that advice. Front of shop is approximately 50 feet from the rear of home, and it is a 30x40 structure. I’m guessing that it would be around a 70ish foot run from home switch to shop switch.

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It seems like the Reo Duo PoE has good recommendations

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I looked at that camera, and after doing some more research, I went with their Trackmix PoE. For me, and my specific application, the auto tracking feature for people and vehicles was more useful than a wide field of view. I can pan and track a minimum 180 deg, but it's not a constant field of view like the Duo. That being said, our house sits back about 50' from the cul-de-sac and closer to 75' from the traffic pattern in the street. An ultrawide view camera wasn't the best solution for me. Also, from where my PTZ camera is located, there is only one avenue of "attack". That is, there is only one way to approach my property because of the layout of our street and my neighbors fence. The think to remember here is that while both are 8mp cameras, the Duo's resolution is 4608 X 1728 pixels and the PTZ is 3840 x 2160, so it's not apples to apples.

That being said, before starting down the security camera rabbit hole, you need to ask yourself, "What are your needs/what are you trying to accomplish with the project?" When you get those answers, that should take you to step two: What cameras/systems will help you achieve those goals within your budget? There's a great website that helps you visualize how a particular camera will preform in your application. https://calculator.ipvm.com/ It allows you to input your address and see the field of view for almost every camera on the market today. It used to me much more functional, but they've put a time limit on it so you have to work fast.

If your budget allows, I'd say jump directly to a 16 channel NVR for about $100 more (if we're talking the reolink ecosystem). From what you said, you're already at 7 devices connected to the NVR. But I'm making the recommendation not based on number of connections, but HD storage space. With a 2 TB drive, and 8 5mp camera's I had about 4-5 days worth of events stored on my previous 8 channel NVR. Using 4k (8mp) cameras that storage could drop to just 2-3 days. So the upgrade is worth it for storage reasons alone. Additionally, reolink's 16 channel NVR has a second bay to add an additional HD. Oh, and even if you don't have any intentions on running additional cameras, you can integrate reolink's POE floodlights off the additional unused POE ports on the NVR.

As Korkstand mentioned any POE switch connected to the network can be used to add a camera to the system regardless of it's connected to the NVR or not. In fact, you can add a reolink camera to the system by simply plugging it to any network, no POE switch needed. You just have to supply 12v power with a 5.5 x 2.5mm plug with center positive tip. Those can be had very cheaply via Amazon or other retailers. The only downside of adding cameras directly from the network outside of the NVR, and KS correct me if I'm wrong, is when doing so you'll have to setup security for each individual camera not directly connected to the NVR or leave yourself somewhat venerable to "hackers". It's not a hard process, just an additional step.

Disclosure: I installed a reolink system several years ago and have, generally, been pretty happy with it. I have 15 cameras that watch my home and roughly 1/2 acre property. During the day, I don't think you can beat it for the money. After dark, the performance goes down dramatically. But I knew that going in, and if you decide that reolink is the way you want to proceed, you should know that as well. The interface on their new NVR with person, vehicle and pet detection is VASTLY improved over their last one with just motion detection. Is it perfect, no. But for my needs, it works very well.

Good luck.

Edit: LifeHackster on youtube has lots of camera reviews including the reolink model(s) your looking at.

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My main goal is to have a system that will deter thieves and hopefully capture some type of evidence of theft if it does happen - primarily thinking about theft prevention/evidence while we are away from home.

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If this is the goal, find a camera(s) with a spotlight and a siren. In the reolink ecosystem, there are many. Cameras for cameras sake are good, but if the bad guys don't know they are being filmed, what's the point? Most security cameras a small and built to blend into the back ground, and they do. It's another reason why I like the auto-tracking PTZ hat I have. A few months ago we had a guy checking for unlocked cars in our neighborhood. As he approached our driveway, the AI on my PTZ camera identified him as a "person", moved from it's sentinel monitoring position, and turned on the spotlight on him. As soon as that happened, he SPRINTED, away from our driveway at full speed.

As for the shop, the camera's will work via a wireless mesh/bridge system vs wired connection. You just have to power them as I mentioned above. Again in the reolink ecosystem, they have several wireless cameras that will connect direct via a wifi connection (with the security issue mentioned above). If I were in your shoes, I'd run a mesh router connected to a POE switch in your shop.

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The home layout is 150 ft. set back from the road down a dead-end road with zero through traffic. I'm surrounded by thick woods on two sides, so the areas that I am trying to view are pretty narrowed down.

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If this is the case, I personally wouldn't use a super wide FOV camera like the duo as a primary camera. I'd find a varifocal lens camera that allows you to zoom in on a specific space. In the reolink ecosystem, that's the RLC-811A. The advantage of a fixed position varifocal camera vs a PTZ is that in most cases the zoom on PTZ cameras is an optical zoom. It's taking your main 4k stream and converting it to 1080p. In reality you need coverage from a distance and up close next to your house.

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https://calculator.ipvm.com/

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This is one of several that I've tried, and I'm still looking for the best one for me. I think if you don't subscribe then they limit the number of cameras you can add, and apparently they also have a time limit.

Ubiquiti has a pretty easy to use camera and wifi design tool, but of course it is limited to their hardware.

Axis has one, but it's mostly limited to their cameras and I didn't like it too much.

Backstreet Surveillance has one that's alright but also limited to their cameas.

System Surveyor is pretty good and has a free tier. It is pretty good and does way more than just cameras, but I still find it limiting in several ways.

I've tried a few others too, but I haven't found one that has all the features I want while still being easy to use. I've been mentally designing what I think would be the perfect camera layout/design tool. I guess I will just list what features I think are missing from existing tools.

Open source, because that's how I roll.

"Heat map" style camera FoV cones, or at least shaded areas indicating DORI distances. Most or all of them just put a single color cone indicating camera coverage, but they just end at some distance and they don't give you any indication in the overhead view of what type of detail you might see.

Community-sourced camera specs. IPVM has a solid list of cameras, but I want an open system where anyone can add cameras. New ones come out every day.


And this is the big one, I guess a complete reboot on the whole concept: 3D modeling. There are free-to-use tools like DroneDeploy that make a flight plan to automatically collect hundreds of overhead and side view photos of a site, and they have a paid service to stitch them together into a 3D model or you can send your image set through free tools like WebODM to build your model.

Once you have a 3D model, you can place cameras wherever you want and simulate what they would see. Place and animate people and objects in the scene and determine the type of detail you'd get.


I realize that's a lot of trouble to go through for little added benefit for a typical residential system, but for larger commercial systems I think something like this would be amazing. Or if the workflow can be streamlined and simplified I think it would be an awesome tool for someone who does a lot of residential installs too.

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Those RLC-811A cameras look perfect for my goals. I really appreciate both of y’all’s advice.

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No problem. Hope it works out for you.

If you end up going that way, check both Amazon and the Reolink website for deals. They always have something going and the prices aren't always the same between platforms. Sometimes you get a better deal on one and vice versa.

Good luck.

Hit a pretty significant snag in this project. Apparently our only available internet providers are satellite. Hughes net, Viasat, and Starlink. I would still like to proceed with the POE Reolink 811a and NVR system. This system can still work without internet, just without remote phone viewing or push notifications correct? I’m guessing that I can connect the NVR to a TV and view my stored footage that way until I figure out our internet situation? Are there some form of controls (mouse) plugged into NVR to navigate on the TV? TIA

Good deal - thank you!

Tip #1 (if it's not obvious) is to do the export on the local network. Trying it over the internet will probably take more than a day depending on your upload speed.

Tip #2 I don't know your requirements or use-case, but I would try to get away with only exporting original quality of motion events (playback screen switch from timeline to detections then check all the boxes), and then do a timelapse over the whole 8 hour period to get the rest. Unless there is an extreme amount of events (like a public place) then that should cut out a lot of time and data.


The user experience for this type of task is not great with any NVR, though other systems with a USB port might make it a little easier/faster but not by a whole lot. 24 hours of footage is a lot of data, especially with 4k cams.