Easily the best videos on youtube about Ubiquiti branded equipment. I make sure I watch all the relevant videos before recommending and purchasing this gear for myself and my clients. It saves a lot of time and aggravation.
We have had excellent experience with Protect. Easy for users to use and the Mobile app is easy for them as well. We have 3 CKG2+ units, each upgraded to 5 TB HDDs. Upgrade was super simple. Each instance of Protect is all that is running on these CKG2+ units. One NVR has 19 cameras with oe of the new G4 Pros installed, net unit has 7 cameras and the 3rd has 12 so far. We had to keep one of the UniFi Video NVRs running managing 4 cameras as we live stream them to a web page and used the UnFi API to display them. When/if the API for protect is available, we would move those 4 cameras over to the respective CKG2+ used as NVRs.
Yeah there are a lot of cases where protect < Unifi video. I built a unifi video server for my wife's child care and we save 30 days worth of full time recordings--because children. I built a DAS with 20TB.
Great Channel, Some more features i have found. 6:10 In multiplezones, you can set different zones with different sensitity, ex a large zone with low sensitivity and a small zone with high sensitivity. 7:50 In Liveview, you can have a multiview with a 4 camera-frame and 8 cameras or a one camera-frame with more cameras, just drag more cameras to the frame, its possible to change if motion or time shall trigger camera change for that view. 10:30 timelaps If you look on one camera on a specific time, if you change to a different camera it will remember that time on the new
PERFORMANCE: I currently have 10 cameras and 11 devices in SDN running on protect, the performance still seems great. Like most unifi hardware protect seems to run quite warm so I'm looking at sitting a large heatsink on top of the unit to help cool it, all that heat can not be good for the HDD and battery over the long term.
What are you planning on using as a heat sink? I hooked a 12 volt silent computer fan behind it to blow air across the g2+, the USG and 16 port 150w switch i have installed in the broom closet.
I have been using a small bit of scrap aluminium just sitting on top of the gen2-plus, it makes a noticable 2 degree Celcius difference. I have ordered a couple of heatsinks like this (second one for us-8-60w) it should be able to dissapate more heat passively so I wont need to run a fan. They are on an open shelf and get some natural air flow. Material: Aluminum Tooth Number: 27 Color: Silver Size: 100 x 69 x 36mm / 3.93 x 2.71 x 1.41 inch Weight: 223g www.ebay.com/itm/Large-Aluminum-Heatsink-Heat-Sink-Radiator-Cooling-Fin-for-IC-LED-Power-Amp-I6S6/283406844320
Hi, I have a simple small desk fan blowing onto my UniFi protect system, keeps it nice and cool to the touch compared to the not using the fan. I do like the idea of a heat sink
Love watching these videos! I started off with a few APs to test and ended up converting my entire network to UniFi. After watching countless hours of these videos I even started offering my customers UniFi products. Great quality videos man. Looking forward to your next one!
So looks like since UniFi Protect 1.12.0 you are now able to define when video get recorded (always, never, motion events) and they added some other nice improvements.
As always, great video Chris. What would be nice, as well as in ubnt NVR, is the ability to create user logins for particular cameras. I am setting up a security solution for people who want to have their properties monitored remotely, but I want them to be able to look at their video feed, motions, footage and download ONLY for their cameras and not to be able to view other customer's cameras. Also, and I have recommended that before from you Chris, it would be nice to see a full deployment of unifi NVR on the cloud, for cameras NOT located on your local network, but remote. Most, if not all your videos are focused on using YOUR Crosstalk Solutions network, and running everything localy. Most case scenarios are for administrators providing a solution for someone else, i.i. a customer located on the other side of the country (for me, on the other side of the world). Show best practices for setting up the network (using ubnt edgerouters), setting up the NVR in a cloud like on DigitalOcean, and to make everything communicate. Also, a similar tutorial for setting up uCRM in the cloud for managing clients and devices that are on a different network (tunnels, pptp VPN etc...). I have a solution currently in place where I use ubnt G3 cameras to secure my tower site where I have airfiber antennas, sectors, a router, solar panels and batteries. You can see either live (when I turn it ON or recordings at ruclips.net/video/J8o2B1vd76I/видео.html Again, I watch ALL your videos, if they apply to my need or simply spark my curiosity. And BTW, Jack Russells are the best......mine is named Tati ;-)
FYI you can set up protect to cycle through camera both by time and motion. Basically when you set up the fire you just drag a second camera onto a tile with an existing camera and it will come option for how you want it to cycle.
To much agreement - The big problem I am seeing is UBNTs lack of hardware availability for over 20 cameras. UBNT effectively abandoned much of UniFi Video software development leaving users who have spent the most money on hardware per location feeling burned. This is why it is the first time in my experience being locked in is having very negative consequences. I know of at least 3 hotels and myself who wish we could use protect but we have 50+ cameras per installation and protect hardware is not progressing fast enough, period.
As Adrian mentioned below, unifi video also now has privacy zones (it;s at the bottom of the video tab in the camera tab) While watching this great video and explanation of protect(thank you for that!) I am now thinking that using "privacy zones" may be a great way to conserve streaming bandwidth and disk space by blacking out un-necessary areas??? I would suspect it would??? (hint, hint for your next video!) Thanks for keeping us all up to date with the new unifi products!
@CrossTalk loved the video and all the insight. I was most attentive at the motion recording part, wanting to hear you speculation whether or not they will add record-only-on-motion feature. Mind speculating further on this?
Great video ! Answering a lot of questions i had. Would love to know if we can use the App to connect directly to the CK2+ (without going through Ubiquiti cloud)
So if you don’t sell this anymore for enterprise, what do you use? More for home, but I would love to see a video comparing camera quality of various brands and different storage setups - ie storage on Synology NAS vs Protect with different camera manufactures - blue iris, reo link etc
I've been using Unifi video and NVR for years and it's been rock solid. I also run my 4 APs at home on a cloud key. I would have no intentions of moving to Protect unless your speculation at the end and I agree. The most important missing part for the consumer level is a doorbell cam. I've held off on Ring, Nest, etc b/c I also feel that's the next logical item for Ubiquiti. That would complete the consumer level security needs and allow me to consolidate two devices into one. Lastly it's a pipe dream but it would be great if the Unifi video platforms had the ability to output MJPG streams like Blue Iris can. This would allow tile integration into my home automation system(hubitat + sharptools)
Chris, Great video. I do need some clarification.... At 4:30 you state that Unifi Protect is Always Recording and no option for Motion Recording, then at 5:32 you talk about setting up motion zones. So which is it, or am I missing something?
@@atisvitols I'm still a bit confused here. Does it only save clips based on motion? I have an application with only one camera at an entrance door... I don't need 23 hrs of nothing happening just to capture a 1hr of someone going in our out the door. I just want to review and save clips that actually show someone entering the location.
@@robkircherjr UniFi Video will give you that. Protect will save 23h of nothing happening and mark those moments when your motion alert is triggered. Well atleast for now that seems to be only option.
Thank you Chris for another wonderful review. For home and small office this is just fine. Enterprises will have to go with the big installs. FYI I have 6 G3 cameras on Video at home and another elsewhere and it's been easier to manage than I thought. I really like Video. Going to try out protect soon when I can get my hands on a G2 CloudKey Plus. Kinda upset about the wait time on that item.
Another great vid Chris! I hear you about the rain causing motion sensing to trigger. Living here in the PNW makes it difficult for that. Even moths flying around the camera and even fog can make it trigger and I'm having having a hard time finding balance in the sensitivity settings. I'm very happy with Protect as a home user, but I can see how it won't be a solution for the enterprise folks. Maybe they will have two divergent platforms for the different market segments?
I hope they'll take the motion sensing stuff from Video and put it in Protect. I understand you want full-time recording for many cams, but for a lot of stuff I can see the benefit (just in the needed HD space) of just recording actual motion. Oh well. It seems they're moving forward and it would be nice to see support for other cameras (I like Axis), or even if someone comes up with a Ubiquiti camera adapter that lets any PoE camera be like a Ubiquiti camera and record into a Protect system.
I just recently set up my own full Unify home network which so far has one Unify camera running through Unify protect. I absolutely love everything so far but you touched on the one thing I hate about protect and that’s not being able to set time windows for alerts and motion detection. I’m so sick of getting alerts when I’m at home. I feel I have to cover my camera while at home so I don’t get notifications and uncover it when I leave.
Chris. As usual, you are thorough with your review and analysis. We have stopped moving forward with Unifi Video as well because we have built massive surveillance solutions that use a Ceph cluster on the back end, more so than small office deployments. I doubt Protect will reach that flexibility any time soon. Even if they did I would not be willing to pay for it. Ubiquiti is going to have to clarify their intentions. There is no way they can offer a solution at the scale we want at prices we are willing to pay, especially given the price of the cameras. The Unifi Video Controller is/was a perfect answer. Drop the software in a HA VM or container (we use LXC not Docker) talking to a highly redundant back end. Apparently @JohnJones had an "admissive" conversation with their team, but a more public commitment needs to be made by Ubiquiti.
Do you need to have the Cloud Key Gen Plus in order to install these cameras? What if you have multiple sites? Do you need one for each site or can you use one for multiple locations on different local networks?
Hi Chris, great review and has convinced me to look at this as a serious replacement for my current setup. One question though I'm struggling to find the answer to: How do you display these feeds onto a monitor installed inside, so as to be able to view it at a glance like traditional CCTV setups please? Many thanks, Josh
9:53 multiple download was a big issue and still is with UFV (max 10files FTR) or you get a corrupted 0kb zip or something. AFAIK the NVR is not storing them in files but in a database , basicly fragmented chunks of video data. To push a continuous stream of video data into a .ZIP file is simply said , resource intensive (especially hdd I/O). By allowing only one file to download , they "solved" the problem/hw limitation. Also CK+ Gen2 is not a beast and also limited by single HDD I/O. SSD could solve this but ... as you know ssd is not really a path for now in NVRs.
looks like what i wanted to do will not be easy then. I was going to use the protect for the full time recording for the front of my house and the NVR for the backyard. Yet i can not change the IP address on the protect.
Great Video! I can confirm that the G4 pro camera does work with UFV3. I purchased one for our warehouse in Lubbock, TX. When I made the purchase though I wan't aware that UFV3 was likely in end-of-life. I do hope Ubiquiti will eventually release a build of Protect that we can install on our own hardware but I agree with you and believe that not be likely.
@@JoeyDee86 I honestly haven't played with it too much yet. I really just took it out of the box and adopted it into Unifi Video. My quick impressions were that the video quality wasn't great for the $450 price tag, but admittedly, I have not had much experience with security cameras yes, so perhaps it is much better than the other cameras in that price range. I should have more time to play around with it this week and perhaps I will do a review video on it or whatnot.
Great videos Chris, newcomer to your videos from the UK but glad I found them. For me, Protect is missing a cloud redundancy option. What happens if my home gets raided and they take the Cloud Key Gen2?
Just a quick question (cause I couldn't find it) .... there's no docker image for Protect, is there? Also thanks for you cool videos! Really well made!!!
Chris - I'm sure I'm missing something here, but what is the point of the motion zone if the cameras don't record on motion? Does motion trigger email alerts? Does it trigger segmenting the recorded video into a separate, shorter recording? EDIT: 10:26 Haha, nevermind... answered my question RIGHT after I paused to write this!
Gonna ask a dumb question probably. But how do you download the saved video? Also, I noticed there is a usb-c expansion slot on back that I assume is used to expand storage space or provide additional backup. Can anyone elaborate on how to utilize the storage and access backups? I'd really also like to back up the video in case the internal HD crashed. Thanks in advance BTW your videos are always very professional and informative, well presented.
@Crosstalk Solutions - Do you think you will be able to do a video on their server appliance.? Especially when they eventually release UniFI Video on it (which seems like the correct way to go on their end).
Hello friend! Thanks for all your videos and feeding my hobby aka obsession! Is there a way to adopt camera after a gen2 controller complete reset other than a manual reset? I do not have a back up - of course ugh.
How would you stream specific cameras to an external monitor like the camera by the doors? This way you can have a monitor mounted in a central area that consistently shows both of those cameras so you can quickly see who is at the door?
How about using that extra USB C on the back of the cloud key 2 plus to add an external hard drive which could act as redundancy + extra capacity. Make it configurable so that the 1 (or 5) Gig is mirrored on the external, or make it so that the 1 (or 5) Gig purges older video to the external. 🤷🏼♂️ Please and thank you UBNT.
Hey Chris, I think they will most likely release Protect to be install on your own hardware in the future or release higher end hardware with it installed. Why else would they be releasing 4K cameras and new products like the flex camera? Just my thoughts.
Chris you're a very latent guy and your videos is fun to watch and I've learned a lot from you. I see that you do most of your review of Ubiquity product buy why not HP, Cisco or Netgear? I'm curious to know why. Merry Christmas by the way.
Chris, thanks for all the insightful videos. I have the Cloudkey Gen 2+, USG, 2 cameras, and an 8 port Ubi switch. I need to add either the 16 port or 24 port Ubi switch. What is the support difference between buying directly from Ubi or buying from your Amazon storefront? Will Ubiquiti RMA the same should something go wrong? Oh, and can I get the 16 port POE switch from your storefront? I don't see it there. Thx.
Thank you! Yeah, if they set focus on home customers, what we gonna do if we have large deployment (300+ cameras)? Maybe it's time to enable RSTP and look to BlueIris and don't buy Ubiquity cameras in future
Thanks Chris for the video. Very informative. My challenge is that I can buy a full system with 8 cameras for 250 bucks here, vs 2 cameras roughly on the Unifi platform. I will likely still go for that though as it is just a much more comprehensive package. Appreciate the very fair comparisons of features, and hopefully Ubiquiti will indeed improve the feature set of the Protect platform further.
another video well done! I am extremely disappointed that they seem to have abandoned UVC for home built NVR installations. Curious as to what you are telling your current customers who have your custom built Unifi Video systems.. I am currently running Ubiquiti wireless on Cloud Key Gen 1, and was just getting ready to pull trigger on home NVR system (Unbuntu 18.04). everything on hold now until they make announcements about the future of Protect. what a shame! Love the videos though. Keep up the good work.
They've stated that they'll eventually bring Protect to custom servers. They're just focusing development on their own fixed hardware for now. Makes sense from a development perspective. Lets them iron out the features on known hardware.
Hi Chris, Do you know how many Cloud Keys you can have on a corporate network? The reason I ask is that I plan on deploying on using the bigger UniFi UNVR and UCK-G2-PLUS at the same time at same location but for different locations in the same big warehouse.
For the most part I like Protect better than the old Video. Though the hardware I had for Video seemed to be a lot faster than the CloudKey G2+ when pulling up feeds off my 9 cameras. I do wish they eventually support offloading to a NAS. I swapped the drive out for a 4TB, so I have some room to grow, but planning on adding 2 more 4k cameras shortly.
What I want to see is the addition of MQTT alerts so I can trigger events in my home lighting system. MQTT is supported by many systems including Smart things.
I know if you're talking MQTT then you're probably above this but you could always use the motion email notification to trigger IFTTT and take it from there but I'm sure you knew that, don't mind me I'm smart home noob.
@@CrosstalkSolutions Got it. Personally, I'm starting to look into some of the home-gamer NVR options. I'm starting to see some writing on the wall for Unifi Video and I have no desire to invest in additional hardware when I already invested in beefier servers and NAS setups. I'll keep an eye out for what you land on... if you do.
Crosstalk Solutions We’ve recently begun selling a new, lower price focused product from Axis. Works great, has same build and warranty as the more expensive variants, and is price competitive to reolink, Hik, and Unifi. It’s also easy to install and support, which is important for busy installers.
Any plans to update this video? I just migrated from an aging UVC-NVR to the Protect built in to a Cloudkey Gen 2+, and it looks like motion only recording is added in.
Question: does each physical location (site) of a Unifi-Protect protected object need its own CKG2+ or can I manage multiple protect locations from one CKG2+ just as one can with "normal" (i.e. without protect) remote sites? Or is it just matter of bandwidth? I'm talking about maybe 3-4 cams in my home, and maybe 3-4 cams at my parents house, managed and viewed etc. from my home via the CKG2+ at my home.
Have you tried this with the G4 cameras set to 4k? I was reading that the recording was laggy with standard drives. The writer recommended an SSD. I question the reliability of an SSD for 24 hr surveillance recording. I would think it would burn out quickly.
If the protect doesn't offer record on motion and instead records continuously, why is it that you can configure motion zones to detect motion? Protect sounds interesting if only for the working TimeLine feature that Unifi Video never finished (perpetual beta)
I have been nervous about Unifi Video - I have also been reading in-between the lines. I think you are right on with adding additional proprietary unifi hardware in time. Seeing the Ubiquiti stance on all of this, they prefer to keep all things on a single "unified" platform. Unifi Video requires 3rd party hardware that they don't fully control. I look forward too and hope it happens soon. I have some excited clients that have needs that exceed the NVR or Unifi Protect capabilities. Thanks for being direct in sharing that as of 2019 you made that call not to build any more. I'm excited to see what comes next and I don't think it's dead. Just headed in a more Unified direction like the rest of the products. (My guess/opinion only) Thanks Chris!!
7:24 Then when your neighbor's house gets broken into and they ask you if you could check your cameras to see who broke in... Sorry neighbor. There's a trade-off for privacy, that's for sure.
Thank you for the RTSP info. I have been looking for a solution since UniFi Video to keep a stream up 24/7. The Protect stream times out after so many hours.
Can you hook this up to a Synology Raid? Should be able to install Unifi video software on a PC and use a NAS for storage? Would be amazing if you could just add a SynVolume to upload the data to, so much easier to manage storage as well.
Serious question, I had no trouble scheduling alerts with UniFi NVR, but the basic feature of scheduling alerts is missing from Protect. Have you figured this one out?
Can we use the Cloud Key Gen2 device for UniFi protect only? We host our Unifi Controller on Hostifi. Or is there another means to host the UniFi Protect part stand-alone?
Hello, Chris. What is your opinion on integrated apps like Synology Surveilance app inside DS NAS arrays ? It supporting tons of cams and uses storage provided by NAS. Licencing is a bit expensive though... How is licensing model works on UNIFI ? How many cameras included out of the box in the license ?
So much detail on Ubiquiti products, thanks!! Our 3rd party IT admin I work with at work turned me on to Ubiquiti stuff & gave me a Cloudkey Gen2, 3 APs & a gateway he had laying around. Now I'm on the hunt for a 24 or 48 POE switch & checking out all your camera reviews. I currently have 5 Ring cameras which are nice because they are tied into the Ring app & our Ring alarm system but they are seriously limited for someone who wants more control. Example, I prefer (& kind of need) continuous recording due to a shithead neighbor who has been harassing us. Ring only records motion, only about 30 seconds of it, & you cannot go back 20-30 seconds and also record 20 seconds after the event.. So once a Ring camera detects say a car driving by & the camera wakes up to record, I get the tail lights & hope the other linked camera caught it. I have my Cloud Key setup now, the gateway still boxed & was going to wait until I get the new switch to install all of that together. Now I want to sell my 4 Ring stickup cams & get a couple G3 or G4 cameras going but need to run a few CAT6 cables 1st & find the damn $$$. p.s. - Just got to the end, if they add motion sensors, Ring type doorbell, that'll make things interesting. Think they are getting into an alarm type system to tie all this together? I'll have to keep my ears open, however, Ring's alarm & monitoring center does a very good job for now.
Also, if you have any tips for my install & setup I'm all ears. My house is a 5 floor split level. basement hosts the FIOS gateway/router & most network equipment. I have a Unifi AP wired in the basement, one 3 floors up in an attic space wired, then a 3rd 2 floors up over to another side of our house in our bedroom also wired off a FIOS extender that is connected via COAX. The APs can offer POE to a camera right? I'll need to run CAT6 through walls outside for the cameras & prefer not to have to run cable all the way back down to the switch in the basement. Being 5 split levels cabling would be a very large pain in the ass.
So, I'm planning to change my home set up from netgear to Ubiquity HD nano, switch, USG and the cloud key Gen 2 Plus. I want to use the Gen 2 plus for the storage alone. Can I use the Gen 2 plus for recording only? I have differents brand cameras in my home such as Dahua, etc... TIA.
Nice video about UniFi Protect, I am planning on doing an network upgrade in the near future, and your video's have been a great help in my choice to go with Ubiquiti.
I love the software but all the cams really need a upgrade when compared to Dahua starlight 2mg pixel cams in low light conditions . I really wish ubiquiti add support for other vendors . Even if they added a pay option for that .
What kind of retention would I see with 10x 1080p cameras and a 5TB drive? Worried about the single-drive redundancy to say the least, trying to decide between Protect and Video for a coffee shop with 10 cameras (Edit, did the math. About 31 days depending on formatted capacity) Really wish I could put this on my own hardware for multiple disk redundancy and expansion...
thanks, great video. Which Switch would you recommend for me, im setting up a 6 camera home setup. I want to know which switch to use which will also provide power over ethernet for them? cheers
@Matt Armstrong - I'm by no means an expert on this, but this is something I've been looking into myself. So from my research so far I think I would chose the US-16-150W. If you need more POE ports you can use the US-24-250W.
When viewing the video from the mobile app, does it eventually timeout and force me to close and re-open, or can I keep it streaming a live view indefinitely? I want to use the G3 Flex as a baby monitor.
Unifi Video is still being updated, I am considering using it as I can build hardware to suit any number of cameras I desire. Still hoping that protect will be able to be put on custom hardware at some point so I can build some monster NVRs to handle our stores needs.
Easily the best videos on youtube about Ubiquiti branded equipment. I make sure I watch all the relevant videos before recommending and purchasing this gear for myself and my clients. It saves a lot of time and aggravation.
We have had excellent experience with Protect. Easy for users to use and the Mobile app is easy for them as well. We have 3 CKG2+ units, each upgraded to 5 TB HDDs. Upgrade was super simple. Each instance of Protect is all that is running on these CKG2+ units. One NVR has 19 cameras with oe of the new G4 Pros installed, net unit has 7 cameras and the 3rd has 12 so far. We had to keep one of the UniFi Video NVRs running managing 4 cameras as we live stream them to a web page and used the UnFi API to display them. When/if the API for protect is available, we would move those 4 cameras over to the respective CKG2+ used as NVRs.
Do only users use them?
Yeah there are a lot of cases where protect < Unifi video. I built a unifi video server for my wife's child care and we save 30 days worth of full time recordings--because children. I built a DAS with 20TB.
Great Channel, Some more features i have found. 6:10 In multiplezones, you can set different zones with different sensitity, ex a large zone with low sensitivity and a small zone with high sensitivity. 7:50 In Liveview, you can have a multiview with a 4 camera-frame and 8 cameras or a one camera-frame with more cameras, just drag more cameras to the frame, its possible to change if motion or time shall trigger camera change for that view. 10:30 timelaps If you look on one camera on a specific time, if you change to a different camera it will remember that time on the new
PERFORMANCE: I currently have 10 cameras and 11 devices in SDN running on protect, the performance still seems great. Like most unifi hardware protect seems to run quite warm so I'm looking at sitting a large heatsink on top of the unit to help cool it, all that heat can not be good for the HDD and battery over the long term.
Great feedback - thanks!
What are you planning on using as a heat sink? I hooked a 12 volt silent computer fan behind it to blow air across the g2+, the USG and 16 port 150w switch i have installed in the broom closet.
I have been using a small bit of scrap aluminium just sitting on top of the gen2-plus, it makes a noticable 2 degree Celcius difference.
I have ordered a couple of heatsinks like this (second one for us-8-60w) it should be able to dissapate more heat passively so I wont need to run a fan. They are on an open shelf and get some natural air flow.
Material: Aluminum
Tooth Number: 27
Color: Silver
Size: 100 x 69 x 36mm / 3.93 x 2.71 x 1.41 inch
Weight: 223g
www.ebay.com/itm/Large-Aluminum-Heatsink-Heat-Sink-Radiator-Cooling-Fin-for-IC-LED-Power-Amp-I6S6/283406844320
Adam Dawson thank you for the link and idea.
Hi,
I have a simple small desk fan blowing onto my UniFi protect system, keeps it nice and cool to the touch compared to the not using the fan.
I do like the idea of a heat sink
I have this Setup for 8 months, Cloud Key gen 2 + 5 tb hd and 9 camera,, and wow,, quite perfect,, only asking is nas storage option,, ;)
Love watching these videos! I started off with a few APs to test and ended up converting my entire network to UniFi. After watching countless hours of these videos I even started offering my customers UniFi products. Great quality videos man. Looking forward to your next one!
Using it since january and its the most comfortable system i ever used. Love the Smooth Timeline
That delivery guy was in a hurry! LOL the best video on this I have seen! Thanks
So looks like since UniFi Protect 1.12.0 you are now able to define when video get recorded (always, never, motion events) and they added some other nice improvements.
FYI: Unifi Video does have privacy zones too. I set this up last night on mine.
It also has the multi-select feature that Protect doesnt.
I'll check that out! Last I saw, that feature didn't exist in UniFi Video.
@@CrosstalkSolutions it is in v3.10.1
Can you direct your the camera's to record and save to a separate drive/NAS?
Loved that intro. Was waiting for the usual music. Knew something was up. Beautiful.
In the Protect iOS application you can set the user Role. Admin or View Only.
+1 on the scheduler for motion alerts. Don't need motion alerts during business hours.
has this been fixed yet?
My Cloud Key Gen2+ should be arriving Monday. After watching this video, I'm really looking forward to setting it up
Amen on the scheduling of the motion alert push setting it is desperately needed.
As always, great video Chris.
What would be nice, as well as in ubnt NVR, is the ability to create user logins for particular cameras. I am setting up a security solution for people who want to have their properties monitored remotely, but I want them to be able to look at their video feed, motions, footage and download ONLY for their cameras and not to be able to view other customer's cameras.
Also, and I have recommended that before from you Chris, it would be nice to see a full deployment of unifi NVR on the cloud, for cameras NOT located on your local network, but remote. Most, if not all your videos are focused on using YOUR Crosstalk Solutions network, and running everything localy. Most case scenarios are for administrators providing a solution for someone else, i.i. a customer located on the other side of the country (for me, on the other side of the world). Show best practices for setting up the network (using ubnt edgerouters), setting up the NVR in a cloud like on DigitalOcean, and to make everything communicate. Also, a similar tutorial for setting up uCRM in the cloud for managing clients and devices that are on a different network (tunnels, pptp VPN etc...).
I have a solution currently in place where I use ubnt G3 cameras to secure my tower site where I have airfiber antennas, sectors, a router, solar panels and batteries. You can see either live (when I turn it ON or recordings at ruclips.net/video/J8o2B1vd76I/видео.html
Again, I watch ALL your videos, if they apply to my need or simply spark my curiosity.
And BTW, Jack Russells are the best......mine is named Tati ;-)
FYI you can set up protect to cycle through camera both by time and motion. Basically when you set up the fire you just drag a second camera onto a tile with an existing camera and it will come option for how you want it to cycle.
To much agreement - The big problem I am seeing is UBNTs lack of hardware availability for over 20 cameras. UBNT effectively abandoned much of UniFi Video software development leaving users who have spent the most money on hardware per location feeling burned. This is why it is the first time in my experience being locked in is having very negative consequences. I know of at least 3 hotels and myself who wish we could use protect but we have 50+ cameras per installation and protect hardware is not progressing fast enough, period.
As Adrian mentioned below, unifi video also now has privacy zones (it;s at the bottom of the video tab in the camera tab) While watching this great video and explanation of protect(thank you for that!)
I am now thinking that using "privacy zones" may be a great way to conserve streaming bandwidth and disk space by blacking out un-necessary areas??? I would suspect it would??? (hint, hint for your next video!)
Thanks for keeping us all up to date with the new unifi products!
@CrossTalk loved the video and all the insight. I was most attentive at the motion recording part, wanting to hear you speculation whether or not they will add record-only-on-motion feature. Mind speculating further on this?
Great video ! Answering a lot of questions i had. Would love to know if we can use the App to connect directly to the CK2+ (without going through Ubiquiti cloud)
So if you don’t sell this anymore for enterprise, what do you use?
More for home, but I would love to see a video comparing camera quality of various brands and different storage setups - ie storage on Synology NAS vs Protect with different camera manufactures - blue iris, reo link etc
I've been using Unifi video and NVR for years and it's been rock solid. I also run my 4 APs at home on a cloud key. I would have no intentions of moving to Protect unless your speculation at the end and I agree. The most important missing part for the consumer level is a doorbell cam. I've held off on Ring, Nest, etc b/c I also feel that's the next logical item for Ubiquiti. That would complete the consumer level security needs and allow me to consolidate two devices into one. Lastly it's a pipe dream but it would be great if the Unifi video platforms had the ability to output MJPG streams like Blue Iris can. This would allow tile integration into my home automation system(hubitat + sharptools)
Chris, Great video. I do need some clarification.... At 4:30 you state that Unifi Protect is Always Recording and no option for Motion Recording, then at 5:32 you talk about setting up motion zones. So which is it, or am I missing something?
It always records, but you have motion alerts to specify when there is movement.
@@atisvitols Thanks for the clarification.
@@atisvitols I'm still a bit confused here. Does it only save clips based on motion? I have an application with only one camera at an entrance door... I don't need 23 hrs of nothing happening just to capture a 1hr of someone going in our out the door. I just want to review and save clips that actually show someone entering the location.
@@robkircherjr UniFi Video will give you that. Protect will save 23h of nothing happening and mark those moments when your motion alert is triggered. Well atleast for now that seems to be only option.
Thank you Chris for another wonderful review. For home and small office this is just fine. Enterprises will have to go with the big installs. FYI I have 6 G3 cameras on Video at home and another elsewhere and it's been easier to manage than I thought. I really like Video. Going to try out protect soon when I can get my hands on a G2 CloudKey Plus. Kinda upset about the wait time on that item.
Another great vid Chris! I hear you about the rain causing motion sensing to trigger. Living here in the PNW makes it difficult for that. Even moths flying around the camera and even fog can make it trigger and I'm having having a hard time finding balance in the sensitivity settings. I'm very happy with Protect as a home user, but I can see how it won't be a solution for the enterprise folks. Maybe they will have two divergent platforms for the different market segments?
I hope they'll take the motion sensing stuff from Video and put it in Protect. I understand you want full-time recording for many cams, but for a lot of stuff I can see the benefit (just in the needed HD space) of just recording actual motion. Oh well. It seems they're moving forward and it would be nice to see support for other cameras (I like Axis), or even if someone comes up with a Ubiquiti camera adapter that lets any PoE camera be like a Ubiquiti camera and record into a Protect system.
Thanks for this video! I have been waiting for this video for months. It answered all my questions (for now). Thanks mate!
I just recently set up my own full Unify home network which so far has one Unify camera running through Unify protect. I absolutely love everything so far but you touched on the one thing I hate about protect and that’s not being able to set time windows for alerts and motion detection. I’m so sick of getting alerts when I’m at home. I feel I have to cover my camera while at home so I don’t get notifications and uncover it when I leave.
Chris. As usual, you are thorough with your review and analysis. We have stopped moving forward with Unifi Video as well because we have built massive surveillance solutions that use a Ceph cluster on the back end, more so than small office deployments. I doubt Protect will reach that flexibility any time soon. Even if they did I would not be willing to pay for it. Ubiquiti is going to have to clarify their intentions. There is no way they can offer a solution at the scale we want at prices we are willing to pay, especially given the price of the cameras. The Unifi Video Controller is/was a perfect answer. Drop the software in a HA VM or container (we use LXC not Docker) talking to a highly redundant back end. Apparently @JohnJones had an "admissive" conversation with their team, but a more public commitment needs to be made by Ubiquiti.
22:48 Will you be doing a video on the changes with Unifi Video being given the axe?
You nailed it... great product but not enterprise ready. I'm running one at home and it's fantastic, would be great for small businesses.
Do you need to have the Cloud Key Gen Plus in order to install these cameras? What if you have multiple sites? Do you need one for each site or can you use one for multiple locations on different local networks?
Hi Chris, great review and has convinced me to look at this as a serious replacement for my current setup. One question though I'm struggling to find the answer to: How do you display these feeds onto a monitor installed inside, so as to be able to view it at a glance like traditional CCTV setups please? Many thanks, Josh
You said that Privacy zones are not available in Unifi Video. That is wrong, you do have that in the latest stable release.
Can you fast forward/rewind to look through footage quickly? (not talking about thumbing up/down but something more "smooth" than that)
Hi good video just installed one of these units could you review the G4 camera at some point
9:53 multiple download was a big issue and still is with UFV (max 10files FTR) or you get a corrupted 0kb zip or something. AFAIK the NVR is not storing them in files but in a database , basicly fragmented chunks of video data. To push a continuous stream of video data into a .ZIP file is simply said , resource intensive (especially hdd I/O). By allowing only one file to download , they "solved" the problem/hw limitation. Also CK+ Gen2 is not a beast and also limited by single HDD I/O. SSD could solve this but ... as you know ssd is not really a path for now in NVRs.
looks like what i wanted to do will not be easy then. I was going to use the protect for the full time recording for the front of my house and the NVR for the backyard. Yet i can not change the IP address on the protect.
Great Video! I can confirm that the G4 pro camera does work with UFV3. I purchased one for our warehouse in Lubbock, TX. When I made the purchase though I wan't aware that UFV3 was likely in end-of-life. I do hope Ubiquiti will eventually release a build of Protect that we can install on our own hardware but I agree with you and believe that not be likely.
How do you like the G4?
@@JoeyDee86 I honestly haven't played with it too much yet. I really just took it out of the box and adopted it into Unifi Video. My quick impressions were that the video quality wasn't great for the $450 price tag, but admittedly, I have not had much experience with security cameras yes, so perhaps it is much better than the other cameras in that price range. I should have more time to play around with it this week and perhaps I will do a review video on it or whatnot.
I really hope they add the missing features you mentioned to their system. that would be super handy and incentivise buyers! keep up the great work :)
Great videos Chris, newcomer to your videos from the UK but glad I found them. For me, Protect is missing a cloud redundancy option. What happens if my home gets raided and they take the Cloud Key Gen2?
Its been a few months now have they added a scheduler feature???
I'm curious, what did you switch to from Unifi-Video?
Great way to start with that video from the phone. It made me smile and had to pause and send this comment.
Just a quick question (cause I couldn't find it) .... there's no docker image for Protect, is there?
Also thanks for you cool videos! Really well made!!!
Chris - I'm sure I'm missing something here, but what is the point of the motion zone if the cameras don't record on motion? Does motion trigger email alerts? Does it trigger segmenting the recorded video into a separate, shorter recording?
EDIT: 10:26 Haha, nevermind... answered my question RIGHT after I paused to write this!
Gonna ask a dumb question probably. But how do you download the saved video? Also, I noticed there is a usb-c expansion slot on back that I assume is used to expand storage space or provide additional backup. Can anyone elaborate on how to utilize the storage and access backups? I'd really also like to back up the video in case the internal HD crashed. Thanks in advance BTW your videos are always very professional and informative, well presented.
@Crosstalk Solutions - Do you think you will be able to do a video on their server appliance.? Especially when they eventually release UniFI Video on it (which seems like the correct way to go on their end).
Is there an updated version of this review coming besides the review notes for 2.0 updates?
Is it possible to set up record preservation on a second registrar or on a cloud key? In case the disk is stolen from the first registrar?
Hello friend! Thanks for all your videos and feeding my hobby aka obsession! Is there a way to adopt camera after a gen2 controller complete reset other than a manual reset? I do not have a back up - of course ugh.
How would you stream specific cameras to an external monitor like the camera by the doors? This way you can have a monitor mounted in a central area that consistently shows both of those cameras so you can quickly see who is at the door?
15 seconds in and i'm already thumbing up. Nice intro Chris.
Have you had a chance to review UniFi XG Server? I'm trying to understand how it fits into the overall security suite.
How about using that extra USB C on the back of the cloud key 2 plus to add an external hard drive which could act as redundancy + extra capacity. Make it configurable so that the 1 (or 5) Gig is mirrored on the external, or make it so that the 1 (or 5) Gig purges older video to the external. 🤷🏼♂️
Please and thank you UBNT.
Yes, and I’m suggesting they use it to add an external HD. 🙂
Hey Chris, I think they will most likely release Protect to be install on your own hardware in the future or release higher end hardware with it installed. Why else would they be releasing 4K cameras and new products like the flex camera? Just my thoughts.
Chris you're a very latent guy and your videos is fun to watch and I've learned a lot from you. I see that you do most of your review of Ubiquity product buy why not HP, Cisco or Netgear? I'm curious to know why. Merry Christmas by the way.
Chris, thanks for all the insightful videos. I have the Cloudkey Gen 2+, USG, 2 cameras, and an 8 port Ubi switch. I need to add either the 16 port or 24 port Ubi switch. What is the support difference between buying directly from Ubi or buying from your Amazon storefront? Will Ubiquiti RMA the same should something go wrong? Oh, and can I get the 16 port POE switch from your storefront? I don't see it there. Thx.
Thank you! Yeah, if they set focus on home customers, what we gonna do if we have large deployment (300+ cameras)? Maybe it's time to enable RSTP and look to BlueIris and don't buy Ubiquity cameras in future
Thanks Chris for the video. Very informative. My challenge is that I can buy a full system with 8 cameras for 250 bucks here, vs 2 cameras roughly on the Unifi platform. I will likely still go for that though as it is just a much more comprehensive package. Appreciate the very fair comparisons of features, and hopefully Ubiquiti will indeed improve the feature set of the Protect platform further.
another video well done! I am extremely disappointed that they seem to have abandoned UVC for home built NVR installations. Curious as to what you are telling your current customers who have your custom built Unifi Video systems..
I am currently running Ubiquiti wireless on Cloud Key Gen 1, and was just getting ready to pull trigger on home NVR system (Unbuntu 18.04). everything on hold now until they make announcements about the future of Protect. what a shame! Love the videos though. Keep up the good work.
They've stated that they'll eventually bring Protect to custom servers. They're just focusing development on their own fixed hardware for now. Makes sense from a development perspective. Lets them iron out the features on known hardware.
@@Xero852 well that is good to know. i was not aware that Unifi had made that announcement.
You also get snow alerts for bad snow storm.
Hi Chris,
Do you know how many Cloud Keys you can have on a corporate network? The reason I ask is that I plan on deploying on using the bigger UniFi UNVR and UCK-G2-PLUS at the same time at same location but for different locations in the same big warehouse.
Any sign of the mobile app video Chris? Just looking to set up mobile app protect, do you have to start from scratch resetting your controller?
For the most part I like Protect better than the old Video. Though the hardware I had for Video seemed to be a lot faster than the CloudKey G2+ when pulling up feeds off my 9 cameras. I do wish they eventually support offloading to a NAS. I swapped the drive out for a 4TB, so I have some room to grow, but planning on adding 2 more 4k cameras shortly.
Motion-only recording is available as of v1.12 firmware release.
You noted that you stopped installing UniFi cameras for your customers... what is you preferred camera platform now?
What I want to see is the addition of MQTT alerts so I can trigger events in my home lighting system. MQTT is supported by many systems including Smart things.
I know if you're talking MQTT then you're probably above this but you could always use the motion email notification to trigger IFTTT and take it from there but I'm sure you knew that, don't mind me I'm smart home noob.
Chris, you mentioned that you stopped using Ubiquiti for large installs for your clients. What did you migrate to for NVR software and cameras?
Nothing (yet). We just stopped selling surveillance systems entirely. It's kind of in limbo.
@@CrosstalkSolutions Got it. Personally, I'm starting to look into some of the home-gamer NVR options. I'm starting to see some writing on the wall for Unifi Video and I have no desire to invest in additional hardware when I already invested in beefier servers and NAS setups. I'll keep an eye out for what you land on... if you do.
Crosstalk Solutions We’ve recently begun selling a new, lower price focused product from Axis. Works great, has same build and warranty as the more expensive variants, and is price competitive to reolink, Hik, and Unifi. It’s also easy to install and support, which is important for busy installers.
@@jcnash02 What are you using for the NVR or are you using local storage and Axis' software?
Any plans to update this video? I just migrated from an aging UVC-NVR to the Protect built in to a Cloudkey Gen 2+, and it looks like motion only recording is added in.
Question: does each physical location (site) of a Unifi-Protect protected object need its own CKG2+ or can I manage multiple protect locations from one CKG2+ just as one can with "normal" (i.e. without protect) remote sites? Or is it just matter of bandwidth? I'm talking about maybe 3-4 cams in my home, and maybe 3-4 cams at my parents house, managed and viewed etc. from my home via the CKG2+ at my home.
Have you tried this with the G4 cameras set to 4k? I was reading that the recording was laggy with standard drives. The writer recommended an SSD. I question the reliability of an SSD for 24 hr surveillance recording. I would think it would burn out quickly.
If the protect doesn't offer record on motion and instead records continuously, why is it that you can configure motion zones to detect motion?
Protect sounds interesting if only for the working TimeLine feature that Unifi Video never finished (perpetual beta)
I have been nervous about Unifi Video - I have also been reading in-between the lines. I think you are right on with adding additional proprietary unifi hardware in time. Seeing the Ubiquiti stance on all of this, they prefer to keep all things on a single "unified" platform. Unifi Video requires 3rd party hardware that they don't fully control.
I look forward too and hope it happens soon. I have some excited clients that have needs that exceed the NVR or Unifi Protect capabilities.
Thanks for being direct in sharing that as of 2019 you made that call not to build any more.
I'm excited to see what comes next and I don't think it's dead. Just headed in a more Unified direction like the rest of the products. (My guess/opinion only)
Thanks Chris!!
7:24 Then when your neighbor's house gets broken into and they ask you if you could check your cameras to see who broke in... Sorry neighbor. There's a trade-off for privacy, that's for sure.
Makes sense - they can go after the Nest family and SimpliSafe at the same time.
Thank you for the RTSP info. I have been looking for a solution since UniFi Video to keep a stream up 24/7. The Protect stream times out after so many hours.
Is there a way to view Unifi cams on a Roku? I would love that option.
Allot more features on the Unifi Protect mobile app. Users and roles are on the app! Please read the update guide online.
Can you hook this up to a Synology Raid? Should be able to install Unifi video software on a PC and use a NAS for storage? Would be amazing if you could just add a SynVolume to upload the data to, so much easier to manage storage as well.
Serious question, I had no trouble scheduling alerts with UniFi NVR, but the basic feature of scheduling alerts is missing from Protect. Have you figured this one out?
Can we use the Cloud Key Gen2 device for UniFi protect only? We host our Unifi Controller on Hostifi. Or is there another means to host the UniFi Protect part stand-alone?
Which cameras did you choose? Any suggestions if you are trying to hold down costs?
Hello, Chris. What is your opinion on integrated apps like Synology Surveilance app inside DS NAS arrays ? It supporting tons of cams and uses storage provided by NAS. Licencing is a bit expensive though... How is licensing model works on UNIFI ? How many cameras included out of the box in the license ?
It is unlimited. That is why UNIFI video / protect only works with UNIFI cameras.
So much detail on Ubiquiti products, thanks!!
Our 3rd party IT admin I work with at work turned me on to Ubiquiti stuff & gave me a Cloudkey Gen2, 3 APs & a gateway he had laying around. Now I'm on the hunt for a 24 or 48 POE switch & checking out all your camera reviews. I currently have 5 Ring cameras which are nice because they are tied into the Ring app & our Ring alarm system but they are seriously limited for someone who wants more control. Example, I prefer (& kind of need) continuous recording due to a shithead neighbor who has been harassing us. Ring only records motion, only about 30 seconds of it, & you cannot go back 20-30 seconds and also record 20 seconds after the event.. So once a Ring camera detects say a car driving by & the camera wakes up to record, I get the tail lights & hope the other linked camera caught it.
I have my Cloud Key setup now, the gateway still boxed & was going to wait until I get the new switch to install all of that together. Now I want to sell my 4 Ring stickup cams & get a couple G3 or G4 cameras going but need to run a few CAT6 cables 1st & find the damn $$$.
p.s. - Just got to the end, if they add motion sensors, Ring type doorbell, that'll make things interesting. Think they are getting into an alarm type system to tie all this together? I'll have to keep my ears open, however, Ring's alarm & monitoring center does a very good job for now.
Also, if you have any tips for my install & setup I'm all ears. My house is a 5 floor split level. basement hosts the FIOS gateway/router & most network equipment. I have a Unifi AP wired in the basement, one 3 floors up in an attic space wired, then a 3rd 2 floors up over to another side of our house in our bedroom also wired off a FIOS extender that is connected via COAX. The APs can offer POE to a camera right? I'll need to run CAT6 through walls outside for the cameras & prefer not to have to run cable all the way back down to the switch in the basement. Being 5 split levels cabling would be a very large pain in the ass.
What about the synology route ?
So, I'm planning to change my home set up from netgear to Ubiquity HD nano, switch, USG and the cloud key Gen 2 Plus. I want to use the Gen 2 plus for the storage alone. Can I use the Gen 2 plus for recording only? I have differents brand cameras in my home such as Dahua, etc... TIA.
Can I adopt a CloudKey into another controller if I only want to use the protect feature? Using the gen2 ck as an nvr?
Unify Video: supports motion recording
Unify Protect: does not
GREAT TO POINT THAT OUT 👍😎
Nice video about UniFi Protect, I am planning on doing an network upgrade in the near future, and your video's have been a great help in my choice to go with Ubiquiti.
I love the software but all the cams really need a upgrade when compared to Dahua starlight 2mg pixel cams in low light conditions . I really wish ubiquiti add support for other vendors . Even if they added a pay option for that .
What kind of retention would I see with 10x 1080p cameras and a 5TB drive?
Worried about the single-drive redundancy to say the least, trying to decide between Protect and Video for a coffee shop with 10 cameras (Edit, did the math. About 31 days depending on formatted capacity)
Really wish I could put this on my own hardware for multiple disk redundancy and expansion...
Good job Chris. I want to love Ubiquity but what's stopping them from completely F'ing us again with a 180 turn with Protect?
Can you use unifi video (NVR) and unifi protect (gen2+) at the same time? I own both.
thanks, great video.
Which Switch would you recommend for me, im setting up a 6 camera home setup.
I want to know which switch to use which will also provide power over ethernet for them?
cheers
@Matt Armstrong - I'm by no means an expert on this, but this is something I've been looking into myself. So from my research so far I think I would chose the US-16-150W. If you need more POE ports you can use the US-24-250W.
Do you have a one page cheat sheet comparing these solutions? video vs protect vs nvr
When viewing the video from the mobile app, does it eventually timeout and force me to close and re-open, or can I keep it streaming a live view indefinitely? I want to use the G3 Flex as a baby monitor.
Unifi Video is still being updated, I am considering using it as I can build hardware to suit any number of cameras I desire. Still hoping that protect will be able to be put on custom hardware at some point so I can build some monster NVRs to handle our stores needs.