REOLINK 4K Security Camera System, RLK16-800B8 8pcs H.265 PoE Wired with Person Vehicle Detection, 8MP/4K 16CH NVR with 4TB HDD for 24-7 Recording

Excellent System
Reolink 16 cameras nvr poe system is excellent.This system was chosen because it had good reviews, slightly better than the competition. The part number for the system was RLK16-810B8-A. It includes a 16 channel box, 3 Tbyte hard drive, 8 POE cameras, part number RLC-810A, some misc cables and hardware. I purchased three additional cameras, a single point and zoom Reolink camera, part # RLC-423-5MP for over two hundred dollars, and a twin pack of two dome cameras, part # RLC-520 2PACK for about ninety dollars.Overall I am very pleased with the results so far. I’ve installed an IPhone app called simply “Reolink” in the apple store. This app smoothly and flawlessly connected to my system and works well to see through the cameras both live and playing back previous recordings, remotely as well as on site. Presently I have 8 cameras hooked up including the ptz camera above. The ptz camera is easy to use aiming left right and up and down as well as zooming. It does not, however, aim up above the horizon. So if you have a house up a hill, it shouldn’t be placed down the hill from it. This is exactly what I did and I can see most of my house but can’t zoom in on details much. But I can spin this camera around and zoom in on much of the rest of my property. Very good camera.I also installed the Reolink app on my laptop and tested it outside my home network. It too worked great to access the camera system remotely.I should talk about “poe” or power over ethernet. Each camera gets only one cable connected to it. This cable, called a cat5e cable in my case, supplies the power down to the camera and returns the collected video. I made a decision to purchase 1,000 ft of this cable for a number of reasons. Part # 5ECMXBLK_1Krl, True Cable direct burial cable. First, if anything had gone wrong with the Reolink camera system, I wanted to be able to return it, so didn’t wish to take down all the cabling as this is a major amount of work to install. I could simply leave the seperatly purchased cable in place, allowing a replacement of one poe system with another if something went wrong. I also purchased a couple of 100 pack packages of mounting clamps to install the cat5e cables. Part # CMP-SCRW-SGL-WHT-100P. These were excellent and could easily be removed after install if needed.Also, I didn’t wish to drill big holes in the walls of my house. So I decided to learn how to install the connectors, called RJ45 connectors, on the cable ends. This way I could use a small hole in the walls for each cable needed and install the connectors after positioning the cable in place. This was a good decision and a great way to get it all done. I purchased a crimping kit, part number Ninhao01. This crimping kit included several items, the crimper, which worked flawlessly, and an electronic test module, which displayed a sequence of lights clearly indicating whether the connectors were correctly wired. Very important. Worth it even if you don’t attach any connectors. The first cable I checked was incorrectly wired, even though it was purchased with connectors! It was obvious and easy to see using the little diagnostic checker. This was my first time ever doing ethernet wiring and it was fairly easy to do with this crimping kit. I did watch a video on how to do it. You’ll have to search for this as Amazon won’t let me post a link. I used 568B cable endings, which turns out to be recommended by Reolink as well.I’ll talk about where I placed the console. I put it in our basement. This was less cluttering for me and eliminates the fan noise, which runs 24/7 by the way. There were a few added complexities because I placed the console in such a remote location. I wanted to be able to quickly see through the cameras and accomplished this by running a display cable from the basement to my 51 inch living room TV. How? By using VGA over ethernet. Part # B07F3RW1C1. Once again I could wire the connectors myself and drill small holes. I also purchased a wireless mouse that worked in my living room as well. Part # M8126AB01. This worked one floor up from where the console was located and allowed me to select cameras and operate the ptz camera just as if the console was in the same room with me.A little note about exterior connections to the cameras. Reolink supplies supposedly sealed connectors, but these did not work for me as the direct burial cat5e cable I was using had too large of a diameter. So instead I opted for heat shrink tubing and glue to seal off the ends. The heatshrink was 3/4 inch by 4 ft xhf brand. I used a map gas torch to do the shrinking.All in all the Reolink camera system is the best of three different camera systems that I have worked with. The other two were gw security and lorex, both older systems that were dvr coaxial cable plus seperated power wires. Those systems were pretty good as well, but the Reolink system has been smoother and easier to use.

Pretty good system with a couple issues
The company that I work for uses these systems at several of their locations. These are the Pros and Cons we have dealt with so far:PROS:1. Excellent video quality2. Great motion detection3. Great night vision4. Fairly easy to install (plug and play)5. Neatly packaged with everything you need for an install6. They have a PC app and a mobile app in which you can view multiple of these devices simultaneously from anywhere.7. You can setup email and phone alerts for when motion is detected.8. Fairly easy to use interface.CONS:1. One of the units we purchased had a bad port on the system which was DOA. (We were able to get a replacement, though.)2. One of the units has been having issues where it continuously reboots when connected to the internet. Solutions for this problem found online have proven unsuccessful.3. When using the PC or mobile app, there is no way to log out of one user and into another user without deleting the entire NVR from the app and re-adding it. (This needs to be added)4. When using the PC or mobile app with multiple NVRs connected, and you are trying to view only one NVR system, the other devices automatically reload/reconnect multiple times, and you have to manually drag each camera over to the view area for the device you want.5. The record time with the 3TB drive only lasts for about 7-9 days. (This can be extended a bit when turning off continuous recording and turning the quality down or adding another HDD)All-in-all, these are decent systems and work great for the most part. Just make sure to check all of the equipment before installation to verify it is working before installing.

Very satisfied with the product and value. Easy to configure.

8 cameras are the right # for a small to medium sized property, but having 16 ports is a must if you are uncertain if 8 will be enough. It’s easy to just add more as needed. The camera setup is plug and play, all you have left to do is name the cameras and set up the level of detection (person, vehicle or motion); you can even toggle sound recording on or off. Picture quality is excellent daytime, good for the infrared night vision, but motion detection at night is only moderately okay at the edge of the viewing area. If the object is moving fast, they appear ‘ghost like’. The one thing that caught me by surprise is the red ring of the infrared led’s that is visible at night. They are quite noticeable at 100 feet (30 m) or less, dropping off in visibility beyond that. The bullet cameras are much smaller than they appear in the picture, and so are much more discreet than I had originally thought they would be. Against white soffits, they blend in, with only the black face drawing your attention. And then, you only notice them if you “look”. Overall, at first blush, this system while not cheap per se, seems to be good value for protection of property. I would give the system an overall score of 8.5 out of 10.

image quality is good up to 300 feet but the details are dropping at 75 feet.a 12 Mp should do the trick at longer range ( for a liscence read )overall this is a very good unit and crisp clear images. it also have a built in microphone !I am very satisfied of my purchase and will look forward to add on an extra hard drive and one or two 12mp camera when they become available.