HUGE RUMOR: Unifi Protect will support ONVIF cameras (like from HIK/Dahua)

[looktall]

N

It works on Unifi consoles

Not the cloud gateway ultra I just purchased though.

However it is supported on the cloud gateway max.

 

[BenM]

Now that I've spent maybe 100 hours setting up and tweaking BI, I'm starting to like the result.

Now spend that amount of time on a customers or friends BI system and see how quickly you hate life (and bankrupt yourself).

 

[kolt_]

Just purchased their 4 bay NVRs, onvif support in early access had me sold. Probably a little risky but I get a free camera out of it (G4 Bullet, G4 Pro if you purchase the 7 bay version) so that helped pull the trigger. See what happens...

 

[wittaj]

Now spend that amount of time on a customers or friends BI system and see how quickly you hate life (and bankrupt yourself).

You can spend as much or as little time setting up/tweaking BI. If you use BI for the basics, it is just fine without a huge learning curve. It is adding AI and other features/options that an NVR doesn't have that can take more time.

I set up an NVR for my neighbor because that is what he wanted and thought it would be easier/faster and I spend way more time messing with his system than I do BI. I hate that I didn't put BI in.

As someone that started with an NVR, and still have it going for redundancy, and moved to BI, I find BI to be much faster and easier to setup.

As always, YMMV.

 

[fenderman]

N

Not the cloud gateway ultra I just purchased though.

However it is supported on the cloud gateway max.

I think I'm going to grab the cloud gateway max to Play with protect... Probably just keep the ultra as a backup for an emergency router or just return it... There's only a $70 difference between the ultra and the max if you don't get storage on the max and install it yourself.... I don't know if they announced any changes to their dedicated unvr's...

 

[looktall]

There's only a $70 difference between the ultra and the max

Not where i live.

It's a AUD$400 difference. AUD$199 for the ultra and AUD$599 for the max.
Now i don't know if that's just the ultra being at a really good intro price or what, but it's the main reason i didn't get a max in the first place.

 

[fenderman]

Now spend that amount of time on a customers or friends BI system and see how quickly you hate life (and bankrupt yourself).

That's just nonsense, once you know how to set it up it's quick... And there are far more tweakable options than protect

Not where i live.

It's a AUD$400 difference. AUD$199 for the ultra and AUD$599 for the max.
Now i don't know if that's just the ultra being at a really good intro price or what, but it's the main reason i didn't get a max in the first place.

It has to be The retailer over inflating the price or you are quoting a unit with storage

 

[looktall]

or you are quoting a unit with storage

I was literally just checking that out.
The $599 price comes loaded with 512gb storage.
Still seems excessive.

But tech items tend to cost more in Australia anyway.
It's the Australia tax.

EDIT: and that retailer is one of the better ones for competitive pricing.
Not many places around selling the ultra for $199.


EDIT2: Apparently the non storage max doesn't come with a tray for the m.2 ssd.
You have to buy it separately.

M.2 SSD Tray - Ubiquiti Store

Storage insert for Cloud Gateway Max that supports one 2230, 2242, 2260, 2280, or 22110 sized M.2 NVMe SSD.

store.ui.com

 

[tigerwillow1]

That's just nonsense, once you know how to set it up it's quick...

I can agree with that. It's just the first time that has the huge learning curve. Just figuring out how to up the storage is complicated because of all all the features you probably never want to use. Once you know what to set and what to ignore, it's not that hard. Getting to that point takes a lot of time. There are a few BI things I may never have got past without help from the forum.

 

[kolt_]

How were you able to add cameras? I tried the manual adoption to add Dahua cameras but I keep getting "Invalid credentials. Please check and try again."

 

[steve1225]

How were you able to add cameras? I tried the manual adoption to add Dahua cameras but I keep getting "Invalid credentials. Please check and try again."

ONVIF have separate user & password list on Dahua / HIK cams..
Log to camera web service, in System->Account You have separate tab ONVIF users..

 

[kolt_]

ONVIF have separate user & password list on Dahua / HIK cams..
Log to camera web service, in System->Account You have separate tab ONVIF users..

Yup, thought about that and used an account that blue iris already uses. Also made another account under onvif and still same thing. My one reolink camera gets the same error as well, not sure if it's because my cams on on another vlan but the fact I get a login error seems like they are still communicating as if I use an IP address that nothing uses, it times out.

 

[BenM]

Does Protect need a hdd installed even just to load?
I updated Protect to v5.0.21 and when I open protect the dashboard starts to load then flicks to a screen that says "Get started with Unifi Protect; Learn More" and that's as far as I can get.

Edit: Stopping and Starting the Protect service fixed it.

 

[kolt_]

Yup, thought about that and used an account that blue iris already uses. Also made another account under onvif and still same thing. My one reolink camera gets the same error as well, not sure if it's because my cams on on another vlan but the fact I get a login error seems like they are still communicating as if I use an IP address that nothing uses, it times out.

Turns out having the NVR right on my camera vlan solved the problem.

 

[SFC]

Curious if any of you testing protect are seeing a high false positive rate? It appears protect relies entirely on the camera for object detection without a way to integrate something like codeproject for additional filtering.

 

[wittaj]

Curious if any of you testing protect are seeing a high false positive rate? It appears protect relies entirely on the camera for object detection without a way to integrate something like codeproject for additional filtering.

If it accurately pulls ONVIF triggers from the camera, then it would be no different now than many of us relying on the AI of the camera with BI and not using Code Project.

 

[looktall]

Isn't this still in beta or at the very least still very early in the life cycle to be near enough to beta?

I imagine there will be plenty of things not working as we would expect.

 

[SFC]

Isn't this still in beta or at the very least still very early in the life cycle to be near enough to beta?

I imagine there will be plenty of things not working as we would expect.

Sort of. Protect did ONVIF originally, then they pulled it to sell their own cameras, and are now adding it back in. Regardless, protect relying on the camera to do object detection is a fundamental architectural decision if that's the route they went. My searching didn't show any way to either pull the logic into the NVR or tie it into a third party system, so I was curious if anyone here who has tested it saw something non-obvious in the documentation to alleviate false alarms.

In my current setup, I know one thing the cameras pretty much always trip on, but codeproject accurately dismisses are hornets. For whatever reason they love the cameras and must land on them 50 times a day - relying on IVS alone caused me endless false alerts.

 

[fenderman]

Sort of. Protect did ONVIF originally, then they pulled it to sell their own cameras, and are now adding it back in.

This is the biggest problem. They can remove it on a whim. More competition is always good and if they add the ability to get human/vehicle triggers from onvif cams it would be great.
That said I Just ordered the cloud max to play with. Unifi also has some unique interior camera designs. Their standard cams are relatively cheap at 130 - but dont have the best optics. They do have some great cameras at higher prices like the 4k AI pro with 3x optical zoom and a 1/1.8 sensor and AI DSLR 10mp camera with a huge 4/3 sensor for $2500. They even have a 170 add on to the AI camera that has built in radar to get the subjects range, loudspeaker and enhanced IR.
Honestly you can't beat a great feature rich router and NVR for 220+ storage. This small unit is limited to 7 4k cameras...more for lower res. cams.. but for most setups that's more than sufficient. Limited storage to 1 ssd is another issue - but they have dedicated NVR's with more power and storage options starting at 300. The gateway will also support unifi talk which will give you voip for 10 bux a month per number not per phone, which is great. I tried talk a while back but had issues with a bad controller and the phones had issues activating. Im sure those bugs are gone. I am just waiting on a better phone - not a hugh fan of all touch and the small phone doesnt have enough options for business.

 

[steve1225]

Sort of. Protect did ONVIF originally, then they pulled it to sell their own cameras, and are now adding it back in. Regardless, protect relying on the

This is the biggest problem. They can remove it on a whim. That said more competition is good and if they add the ability to get human/vehicle triggers from onvif cams it would be great.

Unifi Protect never had any ONVIF support before.
It was always a closed system - working only with Unifi cams...

I don't known from where @SFC have that information, but it isn't true..

That said I Just ordered the cloud max to play with. Unifi also has some unique interior camera designs. Their standard cams are relatively cheap at 130 - but dont have the best optics. They do have some great cameras at higher prices like the 4k AI pro with 3x optical zoom and a 1/1.8 sensor and AI DSLR 10mp camera with a huge 4/3 sensor for $2500. They even have a 170 add on to the AI camera that has built in radar to get the subjects range, loudspeaker and enhanced IR.

G5 Pro camera have little bigger sensors (1/2") and optic zoom, but they aren't at 5xx2 level..
I didn't have any chance to test latest AI Pro cam - it has 1/1.8" sensor with 8Mpx - so it should be at 5842 level..

Honestly you can't beat a great feature rich router and NVR for 220+ storage. This small unit is limited to 7 4k cameras...more for lower res. cams.. but for most setups that's more than sufficient. Limited storage to 1 ssd is another issue - but they have dedicated NVR's with more power and storage options starting at 300. The gateway will also support unifi talk which will give you voip for 10 bux a month per number not per phone, which is great. I tried talk a while back but had issues with a bad controller and the phones had issues activating. Im sure those bugs are gone. I am just waiting on a better phone - not a hugh fan of all touch and the small phone doesnt have enough options for business.

They are very good in upselling different solutions..
You buy 100 USD router and start playing with their unified web/mobile interface.
2 days latter you want to switch all WIFI access points and switches..
2 weeks latter you want switch cctv and access system..