Ring opens its official app to surveillance cameras from other manufacturers: the announcement is official, but there are some clauses that are important to clarify: first, the cameras will have to support the standard known as ONVIF (Open Network Video Interface Forum), which greatly limits the options; second, it will not be free – it will be a feature reserved for subscribers to the Ring Protect Pro premium plan, which we do not even exist and which in the US costs 20 dollars per month or 200 per year (in addition to requiring the purchase of a Ring Alarm Pro, which costs $ 250). The feature will be active from April.
The ONVIF standard it is generally adopted by older school IP cameras, with ethernet connections, or by professional / commercial grade products from companies such as Panasonic, Bosch, Amcrest, Axis and Reolink. Most of the surveillance cameras that are popular in the consumer world today, such as the Nest or the Arlo, do not implement it. Ring hasn’t released an official list of compatible models, but has shared a number of requirements that should be mostly final. we mention:
- 1080p or less video stream.
- 264 encoding support.
- ONVIF protocol enabled.
- Valid password set configured.
In short, it can be argued that this solution is not exactly designed for private individuals; but it can make a lot of sense for small and medium-sized businesses who own an old system and want to modernize it – above all to make it smarter and more current from the point of view of management, notifications and interactivity. For example, users will be able to see the video feed of old cameras from the Ring app, will be able to activate smart notifications if motion is detected (including the ability to activate the “people only” mode), and consult the history of recordings made when they were detected movements.
After all, it is not the first time that the Amazon subsidiary has presented initiatives of this type: about three years ago, for example, the Retrofit Alarm Kit was released, which allowed you to add an existing alarm system to a system based on Ring Alarm.
