My HUGE UniFi Home Security Upgrade

I am a huge fan of self hosted home security and I've been doing it for years. I love the idea of being able to check on my home when I am away. Also, I've always kept my video footage on premise (on prem) and never sent it to the cloud. It started way back with a laptop and a webcam and it evolved into self-hosting my own DVR software on a virtual machine with many PoE and wireless cameras... but this became way too much to manage. Well, this is the next evolution of my home security, integrating it into my recently upgraded UniFi network. I wanted to simplify my home security, just like my network, so I decided to pick up some UniFi Protect G3 FLEX cameras and some new UniFi Protect G3 Instant cameras to help secure my home. I also picked up the UniFi Smart Power Plug that will monitor my internet connection and reboot my modem if I lose connection. This is going to be awesome! I hope you enjoy this complete guide to setting up your new UniFi Protect system!

* Note, everything here was purchased with my own money. 0 outside influence by brands.

► See the entire Kit here

►UniFi Protect UniFi Protect G3 Instant Camera (UVC-G3-INS-US)

(Affiliate links may be included in this description. I may receive a small commission at no cost to you.)

00:00 - Intro
00:50 - Home security considerations
01:39 - Current home network
02:25 - Why don't you use UniFi Protect?
03:36 - G3 FLEX Review
04:32 - G3 FLEX Review
06:04 - Why use an SSD to UDM Pro
07:11 - Configuring cameras with UniFi Protect
07:50 - Configuring G3 Flex Wireless camera
08:17 - Setting up the UniFi Protect app with your devices
09:59 - Setting up UniFi Protect in UDM Pro
10:30 - Drives aren't hot swappable
11:06 - UniFi Protect Dashboard
11:30 - UniFi Protect Devices
12:05 - UniFi Protect Device Details
13:36 - UniFi Protect Motion Events
14:12 - UniFi Protect Zones
15:54 - UniFi Protect Live View
16:00 - UniFi Protect Timelapse
16:14 - UniFi Protect Roles
16:56 - UniFi Protect Activity
17:22 - UniFi Protect Settings
19:38 - Reviewing Alerts / Triggers / Motion
20:24 - My thoughts about UniFi Protect
21:14 - My Steve Jobs moment
21:29 - UniFi Smart Power Plug Review
23:05 - What do you think of UniFi Protect?
23:42 - Stream Highlight - "Home Production is Production to me!"

"EZ PZ" is from Harris Heller's album DANSU.

#UniFi #TechnoTim

Thank you for watching!

[TechnoTim]

Which home security system do you use at home? 🐶 is an acceptable answer.

[subukai]

15:38 The RTSP setting allows you to grab the video feed via rtsp or srtsp to software or a device that can receive rtsp. For example you can rtsp feed a VLC application on a windows machine to see raw video from that camera. I have VLC shortcuts that point to rtsp feeds on my cameras.. If I want to quickly see what is on a camera I just start that shortcut on my desktop. It even feeds audio from the camera. This works in conjunction with the protect software.

[theonenerdyguy]

Using Unifi Video, now protect, for over 5 years. Last gig (k-12) deployed 70 cam 2 site setup, no issues in the slightest. At home, just updated from G3 flex/bullets to G4 domes/bullets, loving the new motion capture.
They live up to the North Dakota winter no problem.

[fullsleevetats]

That plug at 23:50 actually IS related to your camera security. If you're traveling, on holiday, away from the home and your Internet goes down, your cameras might still be recording, but you won't get alerts, because your UDMP + Protect can't send alerts back out so you can call local police and have them check your house or fire department or other important services.

You could be on vacation for a week, while your house is broken into or under some emergency before you even know about it. So yes, very much important and tied to security.

There's another option: Dual WAN failover, and use a GSM modem/router plugged into your second WAN port. Unifi makes a device that ties to your local mobile carrier's towers (but is quite expensive). You could also plug in your own, and have it fail over to that device when your primary WAN connection goes down.

With either of these, you won't lose the ability to manage your Protect/security cameras, nor get alerts when something important crosses their lenses.

[jliang]

Just want to say that I love your channel and followed many of your tips! Still getting use to seeing you my YouTube feed! Keep up the awesome work!

[royboivin]

I have a bunch of D-Link cams im replacing. Started with a 3 pack of the G4 Pros. They are amazing but expensive. I'm a big quality of vidoe guy so its nice to see the smaller cameras quality in your video. I do have a 8Tb 7200 hard drive with 3 G4 pros always recording and have no issues with scrubbing.

[borealis]

this sort of felt like a unifi-ad :D

(I also run unifi :P )

[Galactu]

Love your channel. Just getting into this world somewhat seriously and your delivery is nearly the best overall. Not a lot of fluff, background music is not overpowering or annoying, you explain very clearly without an annoying childish gimmick or trying to be funny or overly clever.

You deserve many more subs, and please don't change your formula or get too clickbaity or cringy [ as an ex-millionaire ] for example.

[Dylartri]

Very good video Tim! Thanks for going through the whole process from unboxing to setup.

[DVMovies]

It’s like ur reading my mind man. Just thinking about going for unifi protect. Thank you so much! Keep up to good work!

[TitelSinistrel]

Think it would be cool to also present your previous solution, like what software you're using, how you're connecting the various typs of webcam. I recently helped friend setup some cameras from different manufacturers for example. And it would be cool if there was a solution to have them all in the same panel/UI. You mentioned your old setup is also mixed with various cams.

[snowmanmcb]

Thanks for the video, you're killing it.

A few ideas for some future videos.
Bitwarden (password manager) container build in Rancher
Headless Kodi w/ Database (sync other kodi clients with this database)
Some type of music server like "koel" or "navidrome" or if you can find a better option.
Evernote replacements like "paperwork" or "bookstack"
Google Photos replacement like "Ownphotos".
ProtonMail

Keep up the good work man.

[techieboy]

I've got a solitary G3 Flex amongst my various cameras as the form factor and partially recessed ceiling mount was perfect for what I needed. I just struggle with the price of the better specified G4 cameras in comparison to other manufacturers, certainly here in the UK. There are much better quality options out there with nice features like 4K, in-camera AI and colour night vision at a quarter of the price. Granted, none of them have as nice a UI and complete ecosystem as a whole Ubiquiti setup. The one thing Ubiquiti does better than everyone else is the integrated PoE port in the base of the cameras. That really helps with installation when compared to the stupid captive fly leads for power/video/PoE that all of the opposition seem to use and which often means a nasty additional junction box to hide them in.

[gswhite]

Fantastic review. Just going down the same path myself, so the overview was brilliant, really enjoyed it!

[maximravinet]

I'm a simple man, I see Technotim, I press like

[kellanstevens]

Awesome video, I'm actually starting slow into the unifi ecosystem, we currently have amplifi which is also ubiquiti, but I want to slowly switch to unifi sometime soon. I'm starting out with a couple unifi switch flex minis and hopefully will grow from there

[guerbie]

Run similar system with UniFi cameras, networking etc. Am also looking to install the UniFi Access gear to see if its any good. Not too worried about using proprietary gear because realistically you will face similar problems no matter what you are installing. Because UniFi gear is PoE it should be easy enough to replace it later on down the track with a competitor should I not want to use their equipment anymore.

In relation to the UDM and UDMPro security features I am not entirely convinced that these are sufficient for enterprise use and don't think I would ever recommend them for serious security setups, so typically run a suitable enterprise firewall in front of the gear and leave the UDM to protect inter-VLAN. Also since the UniFi Access gear is powered by the PoE (that includes the door locks) you can put a suitably sized UPS on the switch to prevent it from losing charge to the doors and unlocking (or just install fail-locked strikes on the doors).

Also in relation to the WiFi AP's they are hit and miss sometimes, always dependant on the drivers. Would suggest not automatically upgrading drivers as the IoT devices sometimes lose WiFi connection and can't connect back again (you need to swap them onto a different SSID for some reason).

[davidwright]

I hope your Unifi systems work well. I was thinking of doing the same thing that you have done. UDM pro, switch, ap's, G3 flex, I just haven't made the leap yet.

[gregsullivan]

How did it work out? Is it able to show an event "timeline" of recorded footage, allowing one to quickly move around the footage, from event to event? (without having saved each event as separate clips)

[rgarza]

Great video!!! You’re the first video that I’ve seen that goes through the alerts screen. I’ve been wondering that type of alerts you could set up. I’m getting a UDM Pro soon and going all Unifi Protect and this video helped so much.
I would love to see an in depth video of the app.

I would like to know if it’s as easy to scrub through the footage as the Nest cams.