Home security is something you never want to use, but are immensely grateful you paid for it when you do. Prior to starting our build we spoke at length with our grandpa Ralph, or GPa for short as he built 3 homes of his own and had seen and done it all. The last home he built was a beautiful country house that Lindsey remembers fondly growing up. Unfortunately for GPa, he was unable to be on site every day and home security in the late 90’s was barely available nor practical. More than once he showed up to the job site to find tools, materials, and even appliances missing. Theft during construction is a real threat and we aimed to mitigate our risk as much as possible.
Once the shell of our home was up we planned on getting security cameras up and running. I looked into several solutions ranging from Rings jobsite security, Googles Nest Cam, and countless others. Like any major purchase, I had numerous variants in my cart, removed them, slept on it, and went back to identifying our wants and needs from the system. We wanted a camera system outdoors, high reliability, and able to capture super clear video from every corner of our 112 foot long metal structure.
Thankfully, I stumbled across power over ethernet (POE) cameras during my research and was smitten with the idea of having hard wired cameras that would not rely on wifi to send video. POE cameras use simple and inexpensive ethernet cable to send power to the camera and return video to a base station with local storage. No lag or potential signal loss, no storage fees, and no monthly subscriptions (ADT, Simplisafe).
Reolink
After quite a bit of research, we landed on the Reolink 12mp camera system with a video doorbell and floodlight. Within days of interior framing being completed, I ran ethernet lines from a central location in the home to each location we wanted an electronic eye. I spliced my own cable ends and tested each line with an inexpensive RJ45 tool to ensure I would not be cursing later. Since in bare framing, I also took the opportunity at this point to run ethernet lines from where my modem would be located to all rooms in the house that would benefit from a hard line (Televisions, office, bedrooms).
Install
The most frustrating part of the install was indeed splicing my own cables. At 6’4″ and closer to 300 than 200lbs, my hands are not best suited to handle the tiny cables and jacks. Additionally, Reolink sent a generous amount of pre-spliced cable I could have used on two of my cameras. Depending on your home size, you may not need to buy any additional at all.
Once the cables were ran it was on to installing the physical cameras themselves. Overall quality was quite impressive. They are sturdy with a metal casing and come with all the necessary anchors to secure to your home. Unlike Nest, the cable powering the camera neatly tuck into the mounting bracket making it more difficult to tamper with or become damaged from the outdoor elements.
Once all cameras were installed I powered up the base station and connected it to my TP link ethernet switch. The base station connects to an external monitor (not included) via a VGA or HDMI port and comes with a mouse making setup and navigation a breeze. A few simple on screen prompts and we were in business.
Features
The system itself can be used locally, as in, viewed on the system in the home and nowhere else. The option also exists to add remote viewing via the app. While the app may not be as pretty as those offered by Amazon or Google, it excels at the most important part of home security where those tech behemoths fail. Speed! Our current Nest Doorbell is consistently delayed by several seconds which is extremely frustrating. The Reolink is darn near instant both locally and on app. No more awkward conversations talking over someone at the doorbell!
The higher end units have pet, vehicle, and human detection that you can setup to send a push notification if one or all are identified on any camera. You also havre the ability to sound an alarm, have a two way conversation, and shine a super bright led light from the cameras if a person is detected. All customizable by camera, time of day, etc.
The detection piece I was most nervous about but I can say after running it for a month, it’s really good. When my HVAC tech sets his tires on the driveway I get a push notification. When he walks up to my door, another. Systems can have false alarms and the Reolink is not immune, but it is not obnoxious by any means.
Final Verdict
Overall the Reolink POE system is worth the extra time of running the wires and gives us peace of mind. It has been rock solid reliable and performs its core job exceedingly well. Not long after installing it was put to the test while we were sadly attending GPa’s funeral on a rainy Friday out of town. We were able to get a clear 4k image of a man on our jobsite and send to the authorities to handle. Maybe he was admiring our doors but you never can tell…