*** Official Ubiquiti Discussion Thread ***

You *******, introducing an entry level 10Gbe switch with Etherlighting right after me buying a 10Gbe switch (though I'm sure it costs far more than what I paid).

Edit - only epeen want. If the baby version costs $500, the Pro XG 10 PoE must a good $100-200* more and it doesn't look silent. Tidy though.

*£666 to be exact.
 
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Welcome to the new XG Line





 
Since I'm replacing my well served Hikvision cameras/nvr (I want to go 4k, my NVR can only handle 2 cameras @ 4k, I need 3 and a doorcam ) I was looking at going Unifi with a UCG Fibre/Max and their G6 Turrets which are actually cost equivalent to the Hikvision ColorVu3 4K cameras. I think I could then ditch using Frigate (via RTSP) since I only use that for basic object/event detection which I think the G6 Turrets come with.

This prompted me to think about switching over from TPLink (Omada SDN) to Ubiquiti, the main reason being I have been looking to upgrade to a 2.5/10gbe backbone as I'm currently 1gbe throughout and have some WiFi 6 APs that are limited on it and was going to get a 10gbe TP Link switch for the homelab, Plus TPLinks IDS/IPS/VPN throughput is woeful.. Their advantage is that even their cheapest stuff is L2+ with loads of features..


So my questions are
1. I doubt anyone would suggest not switching from TPLink -> Ubiquiti?
2. Is it a folly to just switch (rather than upgrade) brands rather than just carry on with separate NVR/Cameras to the SDN stuff?
3. How well does Unifi Protect work on something like a UCG Fibre? With the G6 Turrets having 'AI' would that all be used by the UCG Fibre?
4. What practically might I lose that is useful in a VLAN home network by using Flex products that seem to have absolutely next to no L2 features?
5. I've read of VLAN limitations on Flex products, I think I can limit port VLAN selection to either trunk or a single VLAN, but each port may have a different VLAN..


Lots of questions, but I'm on the fence and with TPLink not being that trusted, even though they've massively improved their software and feature set to a point I find it a really compelling offering, Ubiquiti have really not had much bad press other than some poor VFM at times and 'it just works' springs to mind..
 
1. I doubt anyone would suggest not switching from TPLink -> Ubiquiti?
2. Is it a folly to just switch (rather than upgrade) brands rather than just carry on with separate NVR/Cameras to the SDN stuff?
3. How well does Unifi Protect work on something like a UCG Fibre? With the G6 Turrets having 'AI' would that all be used by the UCG Fibre?
4. What practically might I lose that is useful in a VLAN home network by using Flex products that seem to have absolutely next to no L2 features?
5. I've read of VLAN limitations on Flex products, I think I can limit port VLAN selection to either trunk or a single VLAN, but each port may have a different VLAN..
1. If what you have works, then stick with it. No point in spending money unless it's a significant overhaul. Which if you are going to 10 GbE it seems like it might be.
2. I guess everyone will have a different opinion on this. It would be nice to have everything under the same brand/UI though.
3. I've no doubt it will work absolutely fine, it was great on my UDMSE and the CGF is a rocket ship. Just be weary or limited NVMe capacity and you have to pay extra for the disk tray.
4 & 5. If you just want one port as a trunk and different ports on different VLANs (ie, for IoT stuff) they're absolutely fine. You can't do tagged management, ie, you can't allow VLAN 3, 4 and 5 on port 1 but drop VLAN 6. Which for most homes is absolutely fine.

Personally, I think UniFi are great and they've done some huge upgrades to both their software and hardware in recent years. I was chatting to @RSR the other night and it seems like since Chris Buechler left the shackles have been removed.

For non-Chinese, non-subscription based with generally decent support and new releases they're a solid bet and you can do much worse.
 
If you plan to use Protect, I wouldn’t use the UCG-Fibre’s storage and I would buy either a UDM-SE or the UCG Fibre AND the U-NVR.

The UCG-Fibre only has a single NVME tray for storage which is a bottleneck for 4K cameras and basically restricts you to smart detections only.

If you are spending this sort of cash and don’t have 24/7 recording with a (decent) 30 day retention period, it’s a bit of a miss IMO.

When I used a Cloud Key Gen2+ for recording which uses a 2.5” hdd so maxes out at 5TB, I could only record 3 2k cameras and a door bell for 30 days and that was my lot. 4K would have dropped that considerably.

A £200 4TB is only really big enough for smart detections and an 8tb NVME is £550 :eek:
 
If you plan to use Protect, I wouldn’t use the UCG-Fibre’s storage and I would buy either a UDM-SE or the UCG Fibre AND the U-NVR.

The UCG-Fibre only has a single NVME tray for storage which is a bottleneck for 4K cameras and basically restricts you to smart detections only.

If you are spending this sort of cash and don’t have 24/7 recording with a (decent) 30 day retention period, it’s a bit of a miss IMO.

When I used a Cloud Key Gen2+ for recording which uses a 2.5” hdd so maxes out at 5TB, I could only record 3 2k cameras and a door bell for 30 days and that was my lot. 4K would have dropped that considerably.

A £200 4TB is only really big enough for smart detections and an 8tb NVME is £550 :eek:
Interesting!

I thought (like Hikvision), the newer cameras have far more efficient codecs, the new Hikvision 8MP uses less storage than my existing 4MP ones.. (H265+ vs H264)

e.g. for the Unifi G6 Turrets
20GB/day for the G6 Turrets 24/7 @ 4K, thats 600GB per 30 days, so x3 cameras, 1.8TB.. I have a spare 4TB NVME I can dedicate to it.

Good shout on the u-nvr though..

I'll have to double check, I thought 4TB would stretch to 3 x 4k turrets..
 
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As much as I like h265 which I initially used when I needed to look at the CCTV the computer I was using didn't support it so I have gone back to H264 for compatibility.
 
Interesting!

I thought (like Hikvision), the newer cameras have far more efficient codecs, the new Hikvision 8MP uses less storage than my existing 4MP ones.. (H265+ vs H264)

e.g. for the Unifi G6 Turrets
20GB/day for the G6 Turrets 24/7 @ 4K, thats 600GB per 30 days, so x3 cameras, 1.8TB.. I have a spare 4TB NVME I can dedicate to it.

Good shout on the u-nvr though..

I'll have to double check, I thought 4TB would stretch to 3 x 4k turrets..
I’d not factored in h265, clearly I am using h264 on my older g4 and g5 cameras!

The fibre may work then for a small number of cameras with its with a 4TB SSD.

I would expect H265 is more compute intensive but you’ll be miles off the limits of the Fibre so just need to consider the playback device as above.
 
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Is anyone regularly running Hikvision cameras off their setup reliably?
I'm still using the Hikvision NVR with two 4MP (H265+ capable apparently) cameras but now I'll be switching to a smaller rack, That NVR will have to go. I do have a spare 2TB laying around so that will have to go in the CGF. I'm aware I won't get detection etc.
 
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