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

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"future proof" because it will run "all upcoming UniFi OS applications".

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My assumption:
They’re trying to promise support and not abandon the hardware in a few months and plan to keep it as the backbone of future products, ie- they aren’t giving it the G1 Phone treatment. I believe they added the same phrase to the hardware controller (cloud key, right?)



But more importantly:
Corner lot in a neighborhood.
Eaves are about 10ft tall and have vinyl soffit (vented kind). Easy access from the attic to this space
Driveway is slightly longer than a 1500-series truck and three cars wide. The door near the driveway has a doorbell cam but does not see the driveway due to an azalea bush. There is a gate/alley to the back from here.
Thoughts for this: two bullets, leaning g4 pro. One turned enough to hopefully catch the garage door and most of the driveway, the other is a “down the driveway view” and FOV would make it impossible to enter the alley without being seen.

Backyard - house has a large L. I’m thinking one on each of the two points with one of these turned in towards the back door, the other pointed out at the yard which will catch the “alley” in.

Front porch- I have a doorbell on this as well. It’s a pretty large porch- maybe 10ft x 50ft or so. Doorbell does great, and the front yard view is pretty good. I don’t think I want/need anything else here, but I am half considering a dome or g4 pro here as well to get a “down the porch and at the door” view.



Does this seem:
Excessive? I actually think it borders on not enough views and coverage.
The wrong camera? I know the plain g4 is a good camera. Given the height, I think I want the 3x zoom feature. My house is white. I wouldn’t be opposed to actually finding a way to put the PTZ up, but it needs a through-wall wire feed which isn’t really possible- I’m not fishing through brick, and it is probably excessive anyway. But I’ve got the green light to basically spend whatever because wife enjoys eyes on the house, and I think there actually is half an argument for a PTZ for home use- I just don’t think there’s more than half an argument and it is definitely a bit uglier and stand-outish with the setback of not being able to feed the wire other than through-wall to it.


Am I wrong about g4p being a better enough camera that, again, is worth the upgrade for zoom? I think I’m going to have an easy time mounting this. I think using the drop-ceiling mount on a dome through the soffit would probably be easier. But I’m willing to endure some pain for a better picture. I think I want bullets.


Am I right/wrong?



Lastly- pretty sure I know the answer to this.
If someone were lazy, would something like their flex switch (or even the “industrial” version) installed in 2-3 attic locations (or closets with rear attic wall access) be acceptable vs truly home-running each wire? I’m planning on running each wire to the wall, but if anyone says, “nah, no real reason not to “hub” it out,” then I would consider it. I think it’s a “lazy” solution but really does save quite a bit of wire without a huge performance hit, but I always worry about what would come in the future.

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I still would not buy the PTZ until they add patrol mode and auto-tracking.

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Thanks for the response. I didn’t know the design app had camera FOV. I had a map with APs on my old controller that I abandoned when I upgraded USG—>UDMP. I’m going to check the design tool out.

What is the pricing going to be on the UDMPro SE? if it is the same price im gonna be pissed that i as to buy a UDMPro and a POE switch.

also i took a HDD our of my server and put it in the UDM to start my protect system. it recoginzes it but doesnt have available data. Do these need to be in some sort of format?

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It should be able to just format it.

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i have searched high and low for this and cant find this option. Im going ot take it out and format it on my pc again and see whats up.

I think I may be ready to move on from Ring products. In-laws bought us a doorbell camera a few years back, and one of the stick-up indoor cameras, along with an Echo show. I've got a couple of Ubiquiti access points, and like how they work, so was thinking about their doorbell and some exterior cameras. Mainly want one for the driveway, one for the backyard, and maybe one more. Do these work with Amazon devices at all, or would I be limited to using a phone/tablet or laptop? Not a deal breaker either way.

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Do these work with Amazon devices at all

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Not in an easy/seamless way, and this to me is the biggest problem for residential use. Protect doesn't really integrate with anything outside of UniFi. I hound them on their forums every chance I get.

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I just set up homebridge with my UniFi protect cameras

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That'll be a game changer once it's a little more dummy proof to set up I would think.

That's probably dummy proof for the tech board, but I'm talking about recommending and/or installing Protect for other people.

I don't know hardly anything about Apple stuff, but it sounds like you need either an iphone, mac, or apple tv to view your video?

With Ring, for example, when someone is at the door you go straight to live video and two way talk on an echo show. My wife and kids need that, and honestly I find it pretty slick. Is there a way to do similar with homekit?

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Sure I can pull it up on my phone, but my wife is going to ignore that alert on her phone just like she ignores everything else on there.

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Yeah we get desensitized by too many notifications. Boy who cried wolf.

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Once you are installed, most of the "verified" plugins IE Unifi, MyQ,

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Are you saying that this device could act as a MyQ homebridge?