You can use Zerotier but Unifi has it’s own encrypted setup that works great so unlike Blue Iris you shouldn’t need to use any 3rd party services to make Protect accessible remotely.
No, Unifi has its own servers that create the encrypted remote connection for you in Protect. So unlike BI you don’t need port forwarding or any 3rd party services whatsoever to make it work. All you need is an internet connection that’s it.
Interesting. This is sounding more and more appealing.
Yes the UNVR was released in mid 2020 and the UNVR Pro was released in mid 2021. That said they are definitely still well in production and I don’t think there’s any indication they will be phasing them out anytime soon. I have older Edge Switches from Ubiquiti that aren’t even made anymore and they are still making firmware updates for them which is amazing. All their NVRs use Protect and that has also been getting very regular updates so I’d say you are quite safe buying one of these if you were so inclined. There’s also quite a market for used Ubiquiti gear so even if you didn’t want it anymore you could still get most of your money back. If you do pick up a used one then check the box because it will tell you the date that hardware was tested (I’d try to stay within 2024 if possible so you get the latest motherboard revisions). Of course if you find a killer deal on an older used one then a compromise might be worth it.
I haven't been happy with the IR on any of my Empire Tech cameras, except for the ones in rooms in my house and shop. They work great in those scenerios. Outside they look washed out and hard to view. I fixed all that with external IR lighting and turned the onboard camera IR off. I did the same thing with my 4K T cams and their onboard LED's. They were somewhat gimicky so I just installed my own LED soffit lighting in the different areas where I have my 4K T cams.
I have the exact same setup and use external IR illuminators while turning off the onboard camera’s IR. Totally agree it works way better and I find it also cuts down on bugs in front of my cameras on summer nights. I have 10 of those IPC-T54IR-ZE-S3 cams running through Protect and I have no issues capturing good both day and night images.
Ditto for me, the main reason being the center hotspots. We'll see if it's improved in the new PRO cameras.
Maybe turn off recording on my Blue Iris machine and use it only for alerts. Use Protect on the UNVR for everything else.
What kind of alerts do you normally see or need on Blue Iris? Are they usually in the day or at night? Just thinking what might be the best setup for your specific situation. I have a big rural property but really I only need to know when folks come by the doors (guests, packages, workers, etc) so my Reolink app is set to notify me so I know to look if I want. Everyone’s situation is different so it would be helpful to know what you need your system to do and then we should be able to help you achieve that.
Well, a few different things. I mentioned earlier about my three IPC-T54IR-ZE-S3 cams. I have them mounted on the back of my shop which is a busy thoroughfare for night time critters. I will lay in bed reading waiting for the alerts to come in so I can watch the racoons, opposums, skunks (yuck), deer etc. My neighbor shot the local Bobcat that lived on the back of my property, so I can't watch him anymore. Also I like getting alerts when my wife comes home from work so I can meet her at the door. (I'm retired). I also like knowing that I will get alerts from the IPC-T54IR-ZE-S3 cam that I have in my detached shop. Just in case someone decided to enter uninvited. Same goes for the cameras at each entry door of my house. It's just a peace of mind thing.
Ah ok, so primarily watching animals along with the occasional person and you need Home Assistant integration. That's not a huge ask as all really, very doable. I think if I were you there's definitely a few options to consider. Besides status quo, the first option is as you suggested would be just using BI for alerts and HA integrations while using Protect to view footage. Next would be to possibly add an AI port to the cameras you need triggers for (could swap doorbells for Reolink POE, their app also has AI triggers) to be able to take advantage of AI triggering in Protect and use that to integrate into HA. Issue here is that the AI port needs more work IMHO before it's ready for prime time. Obviously the last option is to actually replace some of the cameras with Unifi ones to get native AI capability and integrate into HA. The last one is not a cheap option especially if you're going with the AI Pro versions that have the best night vision, but this would definitely be the slickest setup and nicest to use.
yea, i would say if they were 40 or 50 per cam that may be doable.
Not just price, there’s still too many limitations to them (versus native AI in Unifi cameras) IMHO to really make a good case for adding them to say 10-20 ($2,000-4,000) or more 3rd party cameras and really getting the most out of your investment. It will definitely give you more AI functionality than current 3rd party ONVIF capability without it in Protect but then the question is does it really give you $200 worth per camera considering it's still not as good as the native AI in Unifi cameras? It may make sense to add AI ports to certain cameras (only handles resolution up to 4k) if you only really need AI on a select few of them and again they do have limitations as @quest100 pointed out. I think the perfect AI solution for 3rd party camera integration is coming to Unifi Protect, it just isn’t out there yet.
