Wired system, offsite storage

[mtnears]

I'm a long time Unifi Protect user, have done quite a few deployments, tends to be my goto. I like their camera selections, I prefer to use POE / wired cameras and leverage the overall unified network / protect environment, seems to be a good solution for those that I help out with it.

That said, I have a friend, building a new very large home. Was looking at a Unifi Dream Machine, about 15 cameras and a half dozen access points for the place, but subject to change.

The one thing he is not keen on is having the video stored on premise, in case of a total loss of the property like in a fire. He will have the network bandwidth to be able to stream to the cloud, not something that many of the folks I work with do in rural areas (one of the reasons I like Unifi Protect).

Looking for some guidance on a few options:
1) Stick with Unifi and work out a way to stream video (rtsp) offsite or to backup the triggered events to cloud storage.
2a) Stick with Unifi for networking but use a different POE wired camera system and a cloud based NVR solution
2b) Different networking and different POE wired camera system and a cloud based NVR solution

For 1, would like to know what has worked for folks in doing either rtsp or triggered event backups to cloud
For 2a/b, been out of the other camera world for a while. What company has a good selection of indoor and outdoor cameras these days, architectural quality. Higher end finishes in this place. POE would be highly preferred, PTZ not required at all but some very wide angle / 360 stuff would be nice for interiors like what Unifi is offering now. And of course what cloud based NVR solutions. All while combining these two things (Camera and Cloud based NVR) into a package that could be comparably priced to what the Unifi solution looks like, which I think is tough.

 

[tangent]

He will have the network bandwidth to be able to stream to the cloud, not something that many of the folks I work with do in rural areas (one of the reasons I like Unifi Protect).

It's not just about network bandwidth it's also about throughput (total data transferred). Even in the city ISPs like Comcast often have a 1TB monthly limit. In the find print of the terms of service with many ISPs and cell carriers there are often restrictions regarding things like continuous video feeds. If you only upload footage to the cloud when there's activity rather than 24/7 it may be possible.

As an example, If we assume each camera's video feed is say 6 mbps * 15 that would be 90mbps upload if all cameras were uploading continuously. Do that continuously for a month and that's just over 29 TB of data transferred.

Local recordings are superior in many ways. It's better to treat the cloud as a backup.

 

[mtnears]

Yea, that is one of my concerns about using rtsp. But there still is likely a viable configuration to do triggered video offsite storage. That's essentially what ring and nest are doing, you don't get all of your video, you just get the triggered sections. Which I admit to not being a fan of because it doesn't capture everything, but it is something rather than ending up with nothing....

Also thinking though if I can't convince him, I'd really like to avoid wireless cameras. Are there any somewhat mainstream systems out there that use POE cameras but operate in a cloud environment like ring or nest?

 

[steve1225]

I use everywhere Unifi Network solutions.
When it comes to the network for Pro user, Unifi is the best. And very simple to use.

When it comes to cameras - I have tested Unifi Protect many times. The mobile application and web panel are really cool and easy to use. They beat everything on the market.

But in terms of hardware - Unifi Protect cameras are mega weak. All cheaper models (non Pro or AI models) are somewhere between Dahua 1xxx and 2xxx cameras.. Very weak and small sensors, fixed optics only in the 2.8mm variant, mega weak IR lighting.. Performance at night mega weak - black/white image only, very blurry, lack of details..

The G5 Pro model seems to be a bit better, but getting a non-blurred color image from it at night even with mega good street lighting is very hard.

Considering the fact that the G5 Pro is much more expensive than the Dahua 5442 with varifocal zoom and the latter beats the G5 Pro in practically everything - it is difficult to choose the Ubiqity solution here.

So - Unifi Network plus external CCTV solution. In my opinion Dahua one, but You can also use Hik-Vision.

ps. in Dahua/Hik cameras You can put SD-cards inside.. they must be from endurance series (Samsung Endurance, SanDisk Endurance, Kingston Endurance etc) - for 24/7 writing usage.. this will create a second copy of video data. Continuous or from events only.

ps2. In case of Dahua NVR - You can enable automatic upload of video files to the any cloud or NAS using FTP/SFTP. You can specify in which hours do the upload (like only in night), which channels and do upload all videos (24/7) or only from motion detection events.