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Apple HomeKit Secure Video

Apple announced a new service called Homekit Secure Video...they announced three companies that will start implementing it but unfortunately arlo was not amongst them...I hope arlo announces and enables this service in addition to the promised by not yet seen Homekit integration.
Comments
Sevakesmailian
Apprentice

@kinder 

 

I agree 100% with you! Please message this to the ceo of Arlo!!! On his Twitter account... so he knows people want this feature... send him a DM 

 

twitter acct is 


@mbmcrae

 

kinder
Aspirant

Done!

Just wrote him DM below:

 
Dear Matthew, I'm a proud customer of Arlo with a kit of 6 Ultra cameras, I'm writing to you to ask for Apple Homekit Secure Video feature, this is a very critical feature all of the community really wish Arlo to add it.
Please work to include it in the future company roadmap since multiple users including me already started to look at Eufy solution just because of this feature support.
 
Hope to hear good news from your end.
Thanks.
Sevakesmailian
Apprentice

@kinder 

 

perfect! Hopefully he gets more and more people to message him (dm) about homekit and he fixes it. When I told him about it, he blamed it on apple. Smh hope he understands more people want it so he should move things around and get it done at all costs!!! Please spread the word and have more people informed about his Twitter so we get more people to confront the ceo. 

dgperkins
Onlooker

It’s hard to believe that Arlo have still not implemented this most important part of Apple HomeKit. By definition, if you are a company that produces Security Cameras of all types that are stated to support Apple

Homekit, it stands to reason that your customers will be expecting HomeKit Secure Video (HKSV) Support to be included.


Working as a Broadcast Engineer for the past 25 years and working closely with colleagues through transitioning many broadcast stations from

SD to HD and now UHD and beyond I understand the complexities involved. In knowing that Apple HKSV does not currently support UHD (per your statement) amongst some other up and coming technologies, would you not agree that a step in the right direction would be to add support as per the HKSV current spec?I’m sure many customers would be more than happy to see Arlo take a step in the right direction in adding Apple HKSV support at a user selectable 720p or 1080p as the security benefits that come with these are immense and a primary goal from our perspective. UHD support should be added as and when Apple HKSV can support and have proven on their and even then should be a user selectable option. This would allow those customers with lower bandwidth connections to decide the stream they’d like to upload for themselves, based on their knowledge of the performance of their connections and sub systems.

 

I did post earlier in this chain requesting Arlo add HomeKit Secure Video support to be implemented as felt somewhat deceived in finding out this was not included after purchasing and installing. With that said, the real trigger for my post was the fact that the Arlo Baby Monitor Camera did/does not support HKSV or any encryption for that matter and that to me is simply wrong.

 

If a company makes cameras and they state that those cameras support Apple HomeKit, by definition HomeKit Secure Video should absolutely be one of the transport and encryption methods for said cameras media feeds.

 

It’s dismaying that after several months, we have not even had a response within this forum

(or elsewhere for that matter) regarding this topic from Arlo at any level.

 

Arlo Management, can you please do the right thing and provide us all an update on Apple HKSV support across your Security Camera line of products?

 

If you are never going to implement Apple HKSV at least let us know. That way we can all decide on how we’d like to proceed

 

Your competitors are all ahead of you on this front which is a truly shameful as Arlo were somewhat of a pioneer on the Security Camera front. If nothing else you owe an update to yourselves.

 

Thanks in advance,

dgperkins

 

P.S. If you need assistance or guidance, I can make myself available in order to help make this happen. You have my contact details, just let me know.

ConradC
Onlooker

@dgperkins I agree with everything you've said there.

 

There's no reason why a leading manufacturer like Arlo can't implement this. It can't be a hardware limitation, because we've seen that smaller companies (with cheaper products) have already managed to get HKSV running. If it was a hardware limitation of the existing hubs, I would be ready to buy an upgrade to get this feature.

 

They announced in a recent press release: "Provides focus on the further acceleration of recurring Services business". I guess this means they're trying to make more money from selling subscriptions, which overlaps a lot with HKSV. But I'd like to believe that they're not so short-sighted and stubborn to shoot themselves in the foot to achieve this, since HKSV is the future, whether Arlo acknowledges it or not.

 

@JessicaP I know it has previously been announced that there are no plans to implement HKSV, but do you know if Arlo is willing to have another look into it, given that it is rapidly becoming the standard for home security cameras?

jwm911
Onlooker

Just following up on my previous comment... I went and got a couple of the Logitech Circle View cameras to try out...

 

In all ways the Arlo cameras are so much better - I miss 4K (I know this is a HomeKit restriction, for the moment), it's going to be a hassle to get power to them, they seem to maintain a more reliable signal and the Arlo's just look better...

 

... but ...

 

HomeKit Secure Video just works so well, is so much faster, more secure, and now I have a lot more useful features to use with them Apple Home. None of the hardware advantages the Arlo's have is enough to make up for this.

 

Although there are lots of us asking for it in this thread, you never truly know if you're simply part of a loud minority of a product's customer base, so I understand if we are, and Arlo is never going to support HKSV. It would be good to get (if there isn't already that someone can point to?) a definitive statement to that effect though, and then I'll pack up my Arlo's and sell them on eBay or something. If it were going into the roadmap I would happily keep them.

 

I'd also add, like others have, I'd happily pay a subscription for firmware updates or whatever, as long as I can use HKSV and no other software and be sure that no data is going anywhere else...

fooj
Novice

I’ve just got my 4 Arlo Ultra set up running on HomeKit.  It doesn’t appear that HomeKit can be used to administer the cameras very effective — I’ll still have to use the Arlo app to do that?

 

Now I’m ready to set up video storage on HomeKit Secure Video, but from scanning this threat, I’m concluding that HSV is not supported by Arlo.  Is this correct?  HSV is why I purchased these cameras.

phillip_u
Onlooker

@fooj Correct. HSV is not supported by any Arlo camera and Arlo has indicated that they have no plans to add such support. Contact with Arlo employees has indicated that support is not possible due to differences between Arlo camera features and the features that Apple supports with HSV. Of particular note for you, HSV does not support 4K video so Ultras would not work at full resolution even if Arlo added in such support.

mac_evangelist
Onlooker

Did anybody homebridge already in conjunction with Arlo?
I know that they didn't get HSV working yet, but I guess that they will be quicker in supporting this feature then Arlo will ever be, as they just don't care about the customer's preference it appears.

qstcottage
Onlooker

So I asked this question on FB:

"Is there a plan or timeline to incorporate Apple Homekit Secure Video? Or it is not going to happen at all as Arlo sells its own cloud storage?"

 

Arlo:

"Arlo does not currently plan to support Apple HomeKit Secure Video, but we will support a range of other features that will enable Arlo cameras to participate in the HomeKit ecosystem. ^RM"

 

😞

 

https://www.facebook.com/arlosmarthome/videos/641461553238942