New Blog / Update Please?

[BeanBagKing]

I'm not sure how many other people feel this way, but I would love to get a new blog post (https://www.sighthound.com/blog). I'm currently looking at purchasing Sighthound Video as it seems to do decent at eliminating false positives. However, I want to make sure I'm not purchasing a dying product. So I went looking for information. Some of the things I read in the "Where is Sighthound Video 6" post looked very promising.

- A commitment to "be more open and communicate more often"
- Better low-light/IR-light support
- Better UI (in v7 or 8)
- v7 as an open beta "later this year" (2019)
- Re-evaluating support forums

And for a few months after, it looks like things were going well. That post was from April 2019, there was another in April (Open Beta), a month later in may (Beta 2), three months later in Aug (RC1), and another Aug post when v6 was released.

After that though, crickets. Nearly 9 months with no news, what happened to communicating more often? I can see v6.1.1 was released was released in December (5 months ago), no blog post for that, no updates since. No news on v7 that I see, or on low light support. Forums have a bit of activity, but honestly, the community looks pretty quiet. Looking at other blog posts, NVidia support has been talked about since Beta 2 ("later this year" - 2019). It didn't make it into v6 per the blog there, and I don't see it in the 6.1.1 release notes.

Honestly, it feels like a dead product line. Is this the case?

[foustep]

It is the same reason why I am not renewing my license just yet. I am currently running Sighthound Video 5 and it runs fine (it's not getting improved anyway).

Sighthound 6 takes up more resources and as I have limited resources I was waiting for a Linux daemon version (no GUI needed, just a web interface). However as there are hardly any updates or news at all, I will just wait (until either a better product comes a long, it this product is updated with features, resource savings etc).

I think they have other products which get their attention. The moment my camera's start to fail, I might have a look into UniFi Protect. Maybe not as great as the motion analytics in Sighthound, but it receives a lot of more updates.

[BeanBagKing]

Protect is what I'm using. My current setup is to use it for full-time recording storage and playback, but RTSP stream from the NVR to SightHound to do alerting (sent to email so I get a quick screenshot I can check). It works well, except for spider webs at night (I woke up this morning to HUNDREDS of false positives).

I think Unifi Protect would work well in a fairly static environment (parking garage, hallway, etc.). However, anywhere that there are shadows or moving branches, it's impossible to get right. They don't have "people" or "animal" detection, it's just area (zone), and sensitivity. Back in Unifi Video (their previous product), you have a waterfall graph that would tell you how much motion was in the current video, making it a lot easier to dial in. In the new line, they don't have this. Adjusting it to be too sensitive triggers constant false positives on branches and shadow. Adjusting it the other way and you miss a ton of things. Honestly, I'm not sure with their current algorithms if it is possible to tune it to only hit on people in an outdoor environment, it's just too sensitive to any movement at all. There isn't even an "ignore smaller than 30 pixels" type option that SightHound has, and of course no distance/horizon calibration.

I hope they get some cool features, but honestly, their motion/detection algorithm is one area I'm not holding my breath.

*edit* - I posted this, then edited a grammatical error, and it dissappeared. Tried posting again and nothing. If this eventually comes through three or four times, I appologize.

[foustep]

I hope they get some cool features, but honestly, their motion/detection algorithm is one area I'm not holding my breath.

You sir, are correct. However UniFi gets updates regularly. This includes algorithm improvements, but also security improvements. I am using Sighthound Video to the web and I am beginning to realise I should use VPN to access SH Video. The lack of updates mean the web server/service doesn't receive any security updates or improvements (like 2FA/MFA).

[BeanBagKing]

[...] I should use VPN to access SH Video

Definitely. That's one of the reasons I went with email for my notifications. I can glance at the attached image and determine if it's worth connecting to Protect (w/ 2FA enabled) and/or VPNing to my house. 99+% of the time it's not and I hit delete real quick.

[foustep]

Interesting, did you try connection any UniFi camera's (G3.. and so on) to Sighthound Video over RTSP? How did that work out for you? Would be a good reason in the future to swap my Hikvisions for UniFi.

[BeanBagKing]

Yes, not direct connection, but via RTSP. So the data flow goes:
Cameras -> Unifi Protect --RTSP--> Sighthound

You can setup the cameras in "unmanaged" mode and stream directly to Sighthound (or another NVR, from what I understand anyway, I haven't tested this).

My cameras are managed, so all streams come from the Protect NVR address, e.g.

Camera 1 = rtsp://192.168.1.56:7447/hZtZu8ubBWqjoiF7
Camera 2 = rtsp://192.168.1.56:7447/xyj1D5jO6QKZn5yM
Where 192.168.1.56 is my Protect NVR

In Sighthound you use Network Camera / Ubiquiti -> "Other IP camera", and set the stream path to the unique string ("hZtZu8ubBWqjoiF7").

Unifi Protect holds my long term storage, timelapse review, software updates, and does note motion events, but doesn't alert on them. Sighthound does short term storage of clips trigged from rules, and email alerts of those trigged events. All my cameras are Ubiquiti, and so far I have the G3, G3 Flex, and G3 Micro versions streaming without issue.

I'm happy with Ubiquiti, and don't plan on leaving. That said, I've always wondered about the value of their hardware. Their only 4k offering is $450. Everything else is 1080p, and the only one of those that I feel is somewhat competitively priced is the G3 Flex at $80 (https://store.ui.com/collections/unifi-protect). By comparison, it looks like a Hikvision DS-2CD2083G0-I is 4k and only $150, a 1080 camera (DS-2CD2025FWD-I) is only $60. Maybe I'm comparing apples to oranges though. I know it's not only about the pixel count, maybe the optics really are better. You do get the Ubiquiti ecosystem, with it's software/firmware updates and central management.

If you end up switching, I would love to hear your opinions on the quality and pros/cons of each.

[emhvoy]

I am really disappointed about the company. iOS app is still buggy and wasn’t updated to the new screen size since iPhone X was released. A lot of false alarms and my Eufy cams can handle it better. They made a promise to release updates more often but this is not the case. Last update was released in December 2019.

[foustep]

If you end up switching, I would love to hear your opinions on the quality and pros/cons of each.

Thank you for your insight in UniFi to Sighthound (or vice versa). Very valuable. I am not switching just yet, first one of my Hikvisions have to fail....which I doubt in the near future will happen. But when I want to replace one, I will replace both and you'll hear from me.

[alphatech]

Coincidence, the major updates are released around the annual renewal. Great product but terrible that there are no updates or status updates. It looked like the new CEO was promising in delivering new features, I guess he does not longer work there anymore....