POE camera to cloud without NVR?

clarky280

I'm planning a surveillance camera setup to a new house. So far, I plan to use the Reolink RLC-410 with POE connections.

I'm no expert on this, but from what I understand the more common solution for storage would be to connect the cameras back to an NVR and store locally. The NVR will be connected to the internet through the house switch, and therefore the NVR can be accessed remotely, for live feedback and to access recordings.

Is there an option within some NVRs to store triggered recordings to the cloud, for free? Or, is it possible to go without an NVR and connect the cameras back to the house POE switch and just rely on the free cloud storage?

Thanks the input

Bluefoam

No idea.

What are the advantages of using a wired system over a wireless one?

clarky280

Bluefoam wrote: »

No idea.

What are the advantages of using a wired system over a wireless one?

From what I can tell, the cameras are cheaper and also you won't be unnecessarily using up lots of the Wifi network bandwidth.

Bluefoam

clarky280 wrote: »

From what I can tell, the cameras are cheaper and also you won't be unnecessarily using up lots of the Wifi network bandwidth.

It doesn't sound like a compelling arguement for them... Blink xt cameras are cheap, and don't eat up bandwidth... Have you got particular concerns about your data consumption?

Do you have a plan to trail wires thought your house?

Seems like allot of messing to get a wired system to do what a wireless one can do out of the box, unless you have a particular use case that would need a wired system.

THE ALM

I have a number of the Reolink cameras wired to a POE switch with no NVR.

Can can store locally on each camera as they have a sd card for storage and only records when motion is detected, you can set to record a set length of time pre and post motion.

You can set it also that a video clip is emailed to you to see if it is worth further investigation and not just the neighbours cat.

If you had an always on pc you could run the reolink client on this as well, is handy for initial setup.

Great cameras for the money and often deals on them.

clarky280

THE ALM wrote: »

I have a number of the Reolink cameras wired to a POE switch with no NVR.

Can can store locally on each camera as they have a sd card for storage and only records when motion is detected, you can set to record a set length of time pre and post motion.

You can set it also that a video clip is emailed to you to see if it is worth further investigation and not just the neighbours cat.

If you had an always on pc you could run the reolink client on this as well, is handy for initial setup.

Great cameras for the money and often deals on them.

Thanks, that sounds promising. I understand Reolink provide a cloud storage service but that it's only available in certain countries (ROI not included). Is that something you looked into?

Bluefoam

I chose a wireless system (Arlo). Initially I just put one camera in a room where I felt needed a bit of security... That was about 5-6 years ago. Now I have 5 cameras and a doorbell... Happy enough with the system... It just sits in the background. I wouldn't be a big fan of wires through the house and cloud storage is free on the system I have. I can also record the footage locally. I'll consider adding the window/door sensors to my system when they go on sale too.

Wired systems are great if you have more advanced needs, but if you are just looking for a bit of added security, then I think wireless systems are fine.

clarky280

Yes there are some arguments to go for a wireless system. At the moment I'm just trying to establish the capabilities of a POE system with regards to storage. Anyone else have experience with POE cameras and storage solutions?

THE ALM

clarky280 wrote: »

Thanks, that sounds promising. I understand Reolink provide a cloud storage service but that it's only available in certain countries (ROI not included). Is that something you looked into?

Correct, only available in certain countries (USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand) and seems to be for only the wireless range on cameras at present, they are working on adding to this.

You could look at setting up an ftp server, something like cerberus.

I am happy enough without the cloud storage as I can view any notifications through the app if needs be, get the clip emailed, and could record anything onto my phone through the app if I want a copy remotely.

Make sure when fitting cameras that they can not be easily tampered with would be a very important consideration.

STB.

clarky280 wrote: »

Yes there are some arguments to go for a wireless system. At the moment I'm just trying to establish the capabilities of a POE system with regards to storage. Anyone else have experience with POE cameras and storage solutions?

Depends on the cameras pixel size, codec and the number of cameras. I have an 8 cam NVR running 4 POE 2MB H264 CAMS. I use a TB hard drive which is probably a bit low. The bigger the HDD the bigger the archive to view from. Also recording on motion rather than all the time means your write over wont be as much.

H264 is not as efficient as H265 and will have bigger file sizes.

https://www.cctvcalculator.net/en/calculations/storage-needs-calculator/

wexfordman2

Bluefoam wrote: »

No idea.

What are the advantages of using a wired system over a wireless one?

A) Security
reliability
C) throughput and relieving bandwidth in your wifi network overall.
D) power and simplicity


Wifi, only if you have to, last resort.

BillyBoy

wexfordman2 wrote: »

A) Security
reliability
C) throughput and relieving bandwidth in your wifi network overall.
D) power and simplicity


Wifi, only if you have to, last resort.

From your experience, would you have any systems/brands that you would recommend or ones to avoid? Moving into a new house over the next few months and want to put a system in place, but am confused with all of the recommendations and options online. I always find recommendations from boards are spot on.

If it can integrate with Home Assistant it would be a bonus!

wexfordman2

BillyBoy wrote: »

From your experience, would you have any systems/brands that you would recommend or ones to avoid? Moving into a new house over the next few months and want to put a system in place, but am confused with all of the recommendations and options online. I always find recommendations from boards are spot on.

If it can integrate with Home Assistant it would be a bonus!

Hi Billy,

Sorry, Video camera systems are not my forte, the network side of it was what I was commenting on. I would 100% stay clear of any wireless cameras if at all possible, and go for a fully fledged IP camera system.

When considering something like this, and in particular if you are looking at wiring, you should consider your overall network within the house for all devices including tv, storage, smart camera systems, wireless access points etc.

From a network quipment perspective, I have recently gone the ubiquiti route, which is excellent stuff, leaps and bounds above typical consumer type devices.They also do poe camera systems, but I dont have any of those yet (they are pricey).

If you have the option, avoid a mish mash of different solutions such as wireless repeaters, ethernet extenders over mains etc, all very messy.
Perhaps others can advise on suitable systems, but again, avoid wireless if you can.#

BillyBoy

wexfordman2 wrote: »

Hi Billy,

Sorry, Video camera systems are not my forte, the network side of it was what I was commenting on. I would 100% stay clear of any wireless cameras if at all possible, and go for a fully fledged IP camera system.

When considering something like this, and in particular if you are looking at wiring, you should consider your overall network within the house for all devices including tv, storage, smart camera systems, wireless access points etc.

From a network quipment perspective, I have recently gone the ubiquiti route, which is excellent stuff, leaps and bounds above typical consumer type devices.They also do poe camera systems, but I dont have any of those yet (they are pricey).

If you have the option, avoid a mish mash of different solutions such as wireless repeaters, ethernet extenders over mains etc, all very messy.
Perhaps others can advise on suitable systems, but again, avoid wireless if you can.#

Thanks for the reply and that is fair enough. Yeah its a new build so I'll have to figure out the wiring that comes as standard and go from there, but in general I always prefer to go wired unless totally impossible.

I'll have a look into the Ubiquiti stuff

Thanks again

wexfordman2

BillyBoy wrote: »

Thanks for the reply and that is fair enough. Yeah its a new build so I'll have to figure out the wiring that comes as standard and go from there, but in general I always prefer to go wired unless totally impossible.

I'll have a look into the Ubiquiti stuff

Thanks again

Ooh, if it's a new build, i would really urge a good plan for your network. It's also a good time to spend in decent kit as it doesn't sound as expensive relative to the build cost :-)

A few bits of advice.

1) plan your network points for hard wired devices (TVs etc). At least 2 points at each location.
2) plan your wireless access points , not just from a coverage perspective but capacity and throughput. 1 device may look like it will.cover your whole house, but really you want to break it down further to localise your traffic and capacity to different areas.
3) think about outdoor wifi points, and external buildings.
4) for your security cameras, ethernet cable to each point.

Once you have a number from the above, then you can start scoping out your requirements hardware wise, but main components are

A) your router, and by that I mean, dont settle for a standard consumer router, ginger something like the ubiquiti USG. There is no wireless onenthat router, and that makes absolute sense.
A switch, ideally a poe switch and get one that has 25% more ports than you need for expansion.
C) your wireless access points, type, number and location dependent on your requirements.
D) in the case of ubiquiti, a cloud key, which gives you a management interface to configure and maintain your network.

BillyBoy

Unfortunately the builders are not allowing any changes to the house like extra network or power points. Basically it is phase two of an estate, and phase 1 took a lot longer then they planned due to people making so many changes. Now all we get is 'as per show house' when requesting even minor changes. Its a real pain, but we have been delayed getting in by 6 months already so I just want in at this stage!

Thanks for the notes re the networking equipment, I'll certainly look into it. I work in IT, but networking would not be an area of expertise so any advice is greatly welcomed.