I have not been on the HA forum for a while, and don’t currently have a working HA install as my previous one was installed on a Raspberry Pi which has been re-purposed.
I am looking to replace one or two old Hikvision CCTV camera’s that were installed by a previous owner badly! I have been looking at Reolink and some of their POE camera’s/Battery Doorbell, does anyone have any experience of using them with Home Assistant?
I reached out to Reolink about both HA support and ONVIF (for Ubiquiti/UniFi) who advised me " Wi-Fi and PoE doorbell and Reolink Battery Video Doorbell (2nd Gen) support ONVIF and Home Assistant. Battery-powered doorbells require a connection to a home hub and an NVR to support ONVIF and Home Assistant"
I am somewhat confused on the use of a Home Hub to support HA.
Also I am wondering if installing HA on a NUC would be preferable for storage (if I don’t use the Hub) to use some form of NVR?
Apologies if I have not explained myself fully. Happy to answer any questions.
Reolink core app is pretty awesome. Most things just work and the dev who is a community member and is always adding stuff to keep up with Reolink.
The raspi, however… Let’s just say cameras may be a bit more than it’s ready for. How to Troubleshoot Raspberry Pi Crashing
Hi,
I use Poe doorbell and 3 Poe cameras from Reolink, all without the Hub and it integrates great with Home assistant.
I believe you only need the Hub if you use the battery models.
The hub helps conserve battery life when viewing the device’s recordings. It will also soon serve as a local AI manager for analyzing camera footage.
It’s also worth noting that firmware updates are currently being tested, particularly for the battery-powered wireless doorbell, which will allow it to connect directly to Home Assistant without needing an additional device.
It’s a great brand that integrates seamlessly with Home Assistant.
As for the NUC, even without an NVR, it’s still preferable to the Raspberry Pi if you’re using Model 3 or 4.
They’re very similar, though, but I’d advise you to wait a little longer—a new version of the Home Hub is supposed to be released (I think I saw “October” mentioned somewhere).
Ah OK, maybe worth holding off then which is somewhat of a pity but if a new version is coming I can understand. Is there any more info on the new version?
It will apparently integrate their AI (locally) for customized detection. It works with an HDD, but I don’t have the details. Maybe someone from Reolink will stop by.
Check out the videos from the Reolink booth at IFA—you’ll see more there.