topic Re: What is Arlo Smart Hub in Arlo

What is Arlo Smart Hub

Lou7117 — Fri, 22 Jul 2022 14:36:18 GMT

What is the difference between a Smart Hub and a Base Station?

Re: What is Arlo Smart Hub

StephenB — Fri, 22 Jul 2022 14:42:22 GMT

@Lou7117 wrote:

What is the difference between a Smart Hub and a Base Station?

The main difference is that the smarthubs support the direct access to local storage feature. The base stations require that you eject the local storage, and review footage on a PC.

Re: What is Arlo Smart Hub

Lou7117 — Fri, 22 Jul 2022 14:53:33 GMT

Thank you for that information. What is the benefit of having a Smart Hub as opposed to not having a Smart Hub?

Re: What is Arlo Smart Hub

StephenB — Fri, 22 Jul 2022 14:57:31 GMT

@Lou7117 wrote:

Thank you for that information. What is the benefit of having a Smart Hub as opposed to not having a Smart Hub?

What cameras are you considering?

Re: What is Arlo Smart Hub

Lou7117 — Sat, 23 Jul 2022 14:35:19 GMT

I was looking at the XL Essential spotlight camera.

Re: What is Arlo Smart Hub

StephenB — Sat, 23 Jul 2022 14:46:09 GMT

@Lou7117 wrote:

I was looking at the XL Essential spotlight camera.

A smarthub creates a closed wifi network for the camera. If you have a mesh, then you might get better wifi signal to the camera using your normal home network. If you don't, then the smarthub would have the same reach as your router.

One benefit of the smarthub is that you can connect local storage (usb flash drive for the VMB4540; microSD for the VMB5000). That would give you a backup to cloud storage.

It also opens up the option of dropping the monthly subscription for the camera (using the direct access to local storage feature). There are quite a few limitations with direct access to local storage, and personally I don't recommend it - especially if you only have one camera.