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Comment by infecto

1 day ago

The cost is just insane though. $4-$500 for a camera that I can get equivalent specs for $50-100.

With face detection? License plates? Tamper protection?

I'm guessing you're thinking Reolink or other Chinese ultra-commodity cam. It's fine, it's just in a different product class and ecosystem - and that's where enterprises fit in, they want that support+ecosystem and not DIYing.

Reolink CX820 8MP $129 https://reolink.com/product/cx820/

Unifi G6 8MP ~$300 https://techspecs.ui.com/unifi/physical-security/uvc-g6-dome...

Avigilon H6A 8MP ~$1200 https://www.avigilon.com/security-cameras/h6a-dome

  • > With face detection? License plates? Tamper protection?

    I do that with my Unifi Protect doorbell. RTSP streams. Google Coral. Frigate. Scales very well. Do ML on low quality stream. Look/save the high quality stream. You do it all centralized, and you can put the camera(s) on a seperate VLAN. They don't even need internet access. If you run them over PoE twisted pair, the attacker would need physical access to perform MITM. Wireless, one should assume the camera is insecure (e.g. KRACK).

    • Wow, that's cool, learned something new today. Does that work better in your estimation than the UI Protect software?

      The purpose of my comment had only been pointing out those features don't come onboard a $100 cam.

      2 replies →

  • I have rather a lot of Reolinks ... and Frigate on Home Assistant. The cameras are on a VLAN with rather minimal internet access (ie none) I make pool.ntp.org etc resolve to my own NTP servers too.

  • I never really thought of Ubiquity as enterprise always felt more of the premium small to mid sized business but I am sure some enterprises use them.

    • They definitely started in the turnkey SME/consumer space, and still do a lot that's relevant there, but they've got a ton of very enterprise hardware targeted at large offices/campuses/stadiums and the like. There's APs specifically designed to be pointed at a sports or concert crowd and handle 1500+ active clients per access point at a time, and similarly specced switches and routers so that you can have TV crews turn up and hook into your network for live streaming.

    • The new enterprise NVRs work pretty well.

      I think they're definitely not Avigilon, Genetec, Verkada, but we run a few hundred UI cams in some edge areas. It works, esp if you don't demand orchestration.

IME those sub-$100 Chinese IP cameras have you at the mercy of whatever firmware they cut from the master branch the week they shipped it. People don't buy UI because they win on specs-per-dollar. They buy it because they win on results-per-dollar.

You've clearly not owned many IP cameras, especially not outdoor cameras that go through true seasonal weather. Now, I will say that the first generation of cameras from Ubiquiti were just OK everything after the 3rd generation has been very good overall.

As others have pointed out they are supported for a long time. I have some earlier generations cameras that are going on 7 years of updates. Not only are you barely getting maybe a year of firmware updates at the $50-100 range but there's no comparison on the quality of the optics, sensor and overall hardware at that price differential.

Ubiquiti has done some shitty things over the years but Ubiquiti isn't competing against the $50-100 market. They're competing against the Axis and Panasonic quality builds. You've definitely got it backwards here.

And while, yes, you can get a decent camera from Reolink and the like at a good price it isn't surrounded by an exceptionally mature and well supported ecosystem that has yet to nickel and dime its customers with half ass SaaS and paid for features.

This comment couldn't be further from the reality of Ubiquiti's lineup in comparison.

They're not all $500, some are $150-300. Overall price comparable to Honeywell, but more than, say, Lorex.