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?
I’ve got some RLC-820As working perfectly using PoE and Frigate on a Raspberry Pi.
I also have a Coral TPU USB plugged in to the Pi, so inferencing is lightning fast, and reasonably accurate (I’ve caught my neighbour’s cat many times climbing on my caravan). The sensors for object detection are all available in Home Assistant (and node-red by extension, where I handle all automations).
The Hook Up does regular reviews of cameras, including Reolink, that you might find useful.
That’s the kind of information I was looking for, thanks!
I can’t speak toward Frigate integration, but, for a long time they didn’t play super nice with Blue Iris, but Reolink has since released firmware updates that have fixed many of the issues people had with them.
I currently run a few Reolink RLC-810a cameras. I have them added to both Blue Iris and Home Assistant, and I have no complaints.