Well…sort of. At the most basic level, Blue iris is Windows desktop software, which can also run as a Windows service. So if one had a Windows laptop, running on battery power, with nothing else connected, Blue Iris would be perfectly happy. Add a POE Ether switch and connect some POE cameras and you’d then be able to see the connected cameras in Blue Iris. If you want to see the video that BI captured on something other than the laptop’s built-in monitor, plug in another computer to the Ether switch and you’d be able to monitor and review via the included “UI3” web app. Add a Wi-Fi access point, and you could then add a Wi-Fi camera and/or connect to BI with a wireless device and use UI3 in a browser. If you want tighter integration with the mobile device and some additional features, buy the BI mobile app.
The only time Blue Iris needs the internet is if you want to be able to connect to Blue Iris from outside of you local network. For that purpose BI keeps track of your public IP address and pushes it to the mobile app so that it will always know how to phone home. You could also use the free UI3 web app from outside of your LAN, as long as you manually keep track of your home network’s public IP address. Practically speaking, the IP may not change very often, so that might work fine for non-critical use.
Blue Iris also offers bandwidth management for remote viewing, so you can choose higher quality or lower bandwidth according to your own priorities. The app is aware of when you are on the same LAN as Blue Iris, and it automatically avoids using internet bandwidth when it’s not needed.
Blue Iris has basic motion detection that can be used to trigger alerts, and you can choose to send alerts to your mobile device(s) via push notifications. The beauty of Windows software is that the storage potential is virtually unlimited (and there are no on-going costs), so most people hook up a big hard drive and record 24/7/365. In that case, the alerts make it easier to find events, but even if an event doesn’t trigger an alert for some reason, the footage will still be there. There is also some free AI integration, which can reduce false alerts caused by trees blowing in the wind, shadows, animals, (and bugs, in the case of cameras that need supplemental IR or white lighting at night).
It’s not perfect yet, but it’s constantly under development, and in my mind, it just keeps getting better. I haven’t seen anything that comes close for the same money, unless it would be a hardware NVR, and those all come with their own security holes. All cloud solutions expose the user to the internet, with little or no transparency as to exactly how much privacy is being surrendered.
I find it ironic that so many “security” solutions sacrifice one kind of security for another. One could say, “oh, it’s just amazon”, but that’s a lot like saying, “oh, it’s just Google”. Is there anyone who is not aware that Google is notorious for snooping on everyone and everything? By comparison, with Blue Iris, you are in complete control, and even accessing BI via the internet is between your own BI machine and your own remote device. There are no other servers or third parties involved. You can even encrypt the connection, if you want to. Or access via VPN, if that gives you more comfort.
Gee, I almost sound like a Blue Iris fan…I wonder when that happened…(?) I’ve been a vocal critic for a long time. Maybe it’s just that as I compare it to other solutions, it looks better to me all the time.
