How Unicam works

Unicam has two parts: a hub that records, and apps you watch on.

The hub records

The hub is a small always-on recorder. It runs on something you probably already own: your Mac or Windows PC (the desktop app is the hub), a Raspberry Pi, a NAS, or any machine that runs Docker. See Choosing a hub.

The hub connects to each camera on your network over ONVIF or RTSP, the open standards almost every IP camera, NVR and DVR supports. That is why one app works with Hikvision, Dahua, Tapo, Imou, Reolink, CP PLUS and hundreds of other brands. See supported cameras.

Then, for every camera, it:

• records the camera’s own video without re-encoding it, so quality is exactly what the camera sends and the CPU stays near zero;
• detects motion, then classifies each event as a person, vehicle or animal on the hub itself;
• encrypts every clip with AES-256-GCM before it leaves your home;
• uploads it to the destinations you chose: Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, S3, Backblaze B2, Cloudflare R2, Wasabi, a NAS or a USB drive.

The apps watch

The Unicam app on iPhone, iPad, Android, Mac, Windows or the web talks directly to your hub. You get a live camera wall, a timeline across every brand, alerts, search and settings. Apple Watch and Wear OS apps handle quick decisions like switching mode or snoozing alerts.

What Unicam’s servers do (and don’t)

Video goes camera → hub → your storage. It never goes through Unicam’s servers. We handle licensing and the small amount of plumbing push notifications need, and notifications themselves carry no images: the app fetches the snapshot from your hub.

That means we can’t see your footage, and neither can your cloud provider: they only ever store ciphertext that your recovery key opens.

Why a hub at all?

Phones can’t record around the clock; iOS and Android stop background work. Something always-on has to pull the streams. Making that “something” your existing computer or a cheap Pi is what lets Unicam replace a memory card in every camera and a subscription for every brand.

Ready? Start with the 10-minute setup.