It may have changed but I believe you can only use ubiquiti unifi brand cameras with their protect system.
I also initially ran my ASUS wifi router with the system but you will not have access to all the unifi features and you will just replace it.
One thing I did find go at least one size bigger than you think you need.
I am running 5 separate 8 port POE (power over ethernet) switches and they are all are almost full.
I prefer hardwired connections whenever possible.
I went with separate POE switches to allow me to put a switch in different areas of the house and have POE in each area.
Very helpful when I only had to run one network cable to the garage and a POE switch in the garage off which I ran my POE cameras.
Still a pain to run the network cables but way better than having to run separate power.
This is still true. You can use their camera RTSP to other NVR which I canāt see anyone is crazy enough to do that.
I have 4k Hikvision for my outside running blue iris right now and will eventually pick up a bunch of UniFi Protect G3 Instant Camera for indoor.
My brother has reolink 4k and they are crazily good for the price.
Network āsegregationā. Think Solar Winds hack If all devices can ātalkā to each other, then when one device is compromised the rest of your network is in jeopardy. If they are separate VLANs they are not. Can this be a bit much for home use, yes.
In full disclosure I do not use Unifi firewall myself, I do not like it. We run Untangle firewalls, here and for VLAN networks. No onboard logging makes troubleshooting unnecessarily difficult. That said I also have a very ācomplexā network with upwards of a dozen VLANs. These are mainly for client hosted machines (again segregation), but I also separate stuff like @april.brandt mention.
I can confirm Ring cameras will give you fits if you 2.4/5G networks are not separated. I constantly have to reconfigure Verizon routers to allow for Ring installs and then re-enable the 5G when done. Itās very nice to have multiple SSID/routing control, with or without VLANs.
Second that, I have Reolink as well. The PTZ are great for the cost comparatively. I run mine to Synology NAS, but looking into Blue IRIS for a client that runs a RV/boat lot.
I have the Argus Pro + with Solar on my desk, just waiting for spring! Interested to see how the battery stacks up against my Ring with a large solar and 2 batteries. We have a very shade yard, so it will be a decent test. Will post update come summer if anyone is interested.
Judging by this Unifi thread, and others, Iād say negative on using Reolink, or any 3rd patry cams, with Unifi Protect (Unifiās camera platform).
Most (possibly all) Reolink cameras have SD slots the record to locally. They also support integrations into other ānon-proprietaryā NVR system (Synology Surveillance Station, Blue IRIS, etc. Reolink does also have their own NVR, but I have not used it.
Another vote for unifi here
I just picked up another AP Pro to get better coverage out the front of my house. Between the AP Pro and AP-LR my house of well covered.
I dont run unifi router so canāt comment on that as I run pfsense in a vm on my always on server. I too have multiple vlans for IOT things, dahua cctv network (running on a blue iris vm) and rest of network.
Iām also on the hunt for another 24 port switch as my current 24 port is just about full! Hard-wired everything possible!
And here is a big fear of mine. While Iām in the knows enough to be dangerous group and could likely make all this workā¦ then I wonāt think about it again for six months, something will break or Iāll want to change things and not remember what in the hell I did in the first place.
I have a Reolink NVR with Reolink cameras. I actually donāt mind it because it runs on itās own internal network with POE to the cameras so no issues with bandwidth being consumed on a VLAN and has the additional security layer, doesnāt consume precious network ports on my more expensive Unifi switch and you can access from Nodered via a few APIās.
FYI I donāt have the newer Reolink NVR or cameras that support person and vehicle detection instead I do that with a mixture of outdoor PIR motion sensors (i designed a face shield here), Reolink cameras via API and Google Cloud Vision AI. Itās surprising reliable tooā¦ I actually did it in the beginning just to mess around but it just works too darn well.
thatās what I thought for a while too, but itās not like that at all. Itās not over complicated. Thatās what I like about it. I have wyze and donāt plan on changing anytime soon as crime is not high in my area of 800 residents, but Iām definitely happy with my Unifi. If you want we can discuss what I do with mine in the āknows enough to be dangerousā category and you can draw a conclusion. PM me.
If all devices can ātalkā to each other, then when one device is compromised the rest of your network is in jeopardy. If they are separate VLANs they are not. Can this be a bit much for home use, yes.