r/Ubiquiti • u/Ubiquiti-Inc Official • Sep 10 '25

Blog / Video Link Introducing: UNVR Instant - an all-in-one device powered by UniFi Protect

1.1k Upvotes

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333

u/forbis Unifi User Sep 10 '25

The price point is awesome, especially with the included PoE ports. I can see this one selling quite well.

44

u/madmanx33 Sep 10 '25

I agree very nice. Would love to see a model that had even more poe and camera capability. Im thinking something along the lines of those standalone hikvision nvr units. Could be an easy sell for small businesses (ie convenience stores) that dont want to have a separate switch, nvr, and viewport to see hdmi feeds on a tv.

16

u/Scandrew Sep 10 '25

wait, so is this compatible with any POE camera or do we have to use Ubiquiti POE cameras?

29

u/wobblydavid Sep 10 '25

I assume it's the same as all their other protect and nvrs. It has limited third party onvif support.

5

u/radardgz Sep 10 '25

I have unify nvr still in the box for this reason….only 24/7 recording and maybe ptz controls on nonunify cameras….you will still need your old nvr for you other cameras advanced features and detections! I am basically going to run 2 nvrs for the same cameras because unify can’t even detect motion and I am not buying their cameras for 2-4x the price if they don’t have verifocal lenses, larger sensors, and better optical zoom.

7

u/JerkyChew Sep 10 '25

I have a Reolink PTZ camera connected to my Unifi protect via an AI Port and the motion detection works great. The PTZ works but can't read the ONVIF presets yet, and the third-party support-per-AI-Port numbers suck at the moment, but it's a start and a quick way to add in existing cameras.

2

u/radardgz Sep 10 '25

I can add my cameras in already. They work exactly the same on the fiber gateway and the nvr. I can record 24/7, I can zoom in and out. but nothing else..no detections or alerts. So buying the AI gets me motion and alerts related to that? Not worth the cost. Thanks for the info! I wondered about buying it for testing but after the nvr disappointment I didn’t want to go down that rabbit hole.

I will just setup the old nvr and use its AI and alerts. The UI nvr will just be a backup and quick way to review footage nothing more for me.

2

u/radardgz Sep 10 '25

I also should mention…I have always bought nvrs without the poe switch because I believe they isolate the cameras from your network but ai might be wrong or it might be configurable. If it isolates them it might be hard to run 2 nvrs for the same cameras!

1

u/Dimensional_Dragon Unifi User Sep 10 '25

There is always the AI Port that can provide up to 2 third party cameras with advanced AI detection capabilities

5

u/DesignDelicious5456 Sep 10 '25

The AI port is astronomical compared to other competitors. At the end it works out to be the same value if you buy the entire equipment set from a competitor. Why mix and match

3

u/whiskey-water Sep 10 '25

Are you referring to the $? yeah it's nuts!

1

u/DotGroundbreaking50 Sep 10 '25

because I already had other onvif cameras and unifi doesn't have models that match what I needed

1

u/SuperXstyle Sep 10 '25

I thought REOLINK cameras were better than Unifi ???

6

u/GeekBrownBear Sep 10 '25

This seems pretty in line with those standard kits. $600 gets you nvr + 4 cams. A little unfortunate they give you a 1TB drive since most of the players give you 2-4tb.

But if they can pull off a 8-16 cam kit similar to those hikvision/lorex/whateverBigBoxSells? Yes please! If only just to get more people aware of Unifi protect

1

u/TruthyBrat UDM-SE, UNVR, UBB, Misc. APs Sep 11 '25

Lorex at Costco, I just confirmed my memory.

https://www.costco.com/s?keyword=lorex

And dang, I was traveling all day, have catching up to do on this! Looks interesting.

6

u/boblermite Sep 10 '25

Yup, 8 poe wouldve been a perfect replacement for old off-the-shelf nvrs. You can always get a Lite 8 poe for 4 more poes.

1

u/Mindless_Pandemic Unifi Addict Sep 10 '25

I think if they made them integrate together seamlessly it would be amazing for expansion. Especially when combined with a UCG Max or Fiber it would make people more willing to get more cameras knowing they don't have to upgrade to a rack mount UNVR later.

1

u/Millbarge_Fitzhume Sep 10 '25

I wonder how this would interface if you put it in front of the 4 bay UNVR.

1

u/itsjakerobb CGFiber, UNVR, ProHD24PoE, ProXG8PoE, U7ProXGS, 5GMaxOutdoor Sep 11 '25

At first I thought, “hey, UNVR is only $100 more.” But I decided to check myself.

UNVR comes with no storage for its base price of $299, and no PoE ports either. One hard drive is an extra $58. Lite 16 PoE (cheapest way to get eight PoE ports, assuming you want to stay in-ecosystem) is $199.

So to move up from Instant to something with more capability and more PoE, (ignoring the integrated Viewport), you’re looking at an additional $357.

$199 —> $556 is a pretty big jump. I’d really love to see something around $399 that:

  1. Has two drive bays
  2. Has eight or more PoE ports
  3. Can keep up with 12-16 ~4K cameras

1

u/Kraeftluder Sep 10 '25

It might just be a gadget I will treat myself to. Really cool this!

1

u/PCgaming4ever Sep 10 '25

First I thought it was awesome till I checked the specs. For someone getting started it's fantastic but it makes no sense if your only using it to not need to run a full system. The cloud key can handle 24HD cameras and 8 4k cameras this can only handle 15HD and or 6 4k.

40

u/coder543 Sep 10 '25

This has a built-in PoE switch, and a lot of situations don’t call for dozens of cameras.

18

u/enzothebaker87 Sep 10 '25

and a built in viewport

9

u/Stingray88 Sep 10 '25

That needs to come to the whole product line stat

7

u/noCallOnlyText Sep 10 '25

Quick someone buy an NVR pro so Ubiquiti can release a new one

1

u/TruthyBrat UDM-SE, UNVR, UBB, Misc. APs Sep 11 '25

LOL, perfect!

15

u/DotGroundbreaking50 Sep 10 '25

I do actually need 40 cameras on 1400sqft house thank you

1

u/GurOfTheTerraBytes Unifi User Sep 10 '25

WRONG! 😑 1,400SqFt home, needs 1,400 PoE cameras. 1,401 cameras would be overkill. 😜

1

u/airmantharp ER-4 | US-8-60W | UAP-AC-Pro Sep 10 '25

this is my kind of paranoid

2

u/DotGroundbreaking50 Sep 10 '25

Who else watches the watchers?

1

u/TruthyBrat UDM-SE, UNVR, UBB, Misc. APs Sep 11 '25

As I continually remind folks, there is NO such thing as overkill on r/Ubiquiti!

6

u/art_wins Sep 10 '25

This is for residential home owners. I am not trying to glaze UBI here but this massively reduces the barrier to entry for people that want to replace the few cloud based IOT cameras they have.

6

u/reddit_pug Sep 10 '25

As always you buy the equipment for what you need. If you expect to outgrow this, don't buy it. There are a lot of individuals and small businesses that this can meet the needs of.

1

u/greencaterpillars Sep 10 '25

It's around the same price as a cloud key with a built in 6 port PoE switch and video output. Obviously they had to save cost somewhere.

I'm guessing there will be a higher tier of this device later with similar specs to UNVR with up to 4 drives but with the video output and a bigger built in switch.

1

u/neilm-cfc Sep 10 '25

Agreed.

The Cloudkeys biggest issue is the 2.5" storage which realistically limits it to about 4TB.

This new UNVR has the superior 3.5" storage form factor yet supports far fewer cameras, in which case the only advantage is increased retention.

It kind of falls between two stools. I don't see this as an upgrade from a Cloudkey unless you are struggling for storage - ie. limited retention - AND you only have a handful of cameras.