The next step in my HA journey is adding cameras; indoor, outdoor, and doorbell so I’ve been exploring my options. I had originally intended to do a Frigate setup, I even have a Coral module and PC to do it with, but then I discovered Reolink.
Without having any experience with them they look nearly ideal. They seem to have tight integration with HA 2023.3 or later and their pricing and functionality look good.
They seem like a no brainer but I’ve noticed that they’re often NOT the first recommendation in the HA Community. Why is that and why shouldn’t I use them?
Problem with the Frigate recommended ones is they are all currently being removed from government offices worldwide for security reasons. I mean, if you don’t care about that then there’s lots of cheap cameras going for auction…
If you need tinfoil don’t get cameras.
If you just have a security concern as you should with all IP cameras put them on an isolated vLAN and punch just rstp access to them through the firewall from a separate local vLAN for the NVR. Don’t give them internet access.
If it was that simple why are they being removed by governments?
They need to prove that they are using the allocated budget and they need an increase of the budget next year, definitely not a cut