Cameras that never upload your footage — Frigate explained for homeowners
Frigate is open-source software that watches your camera streams on a small computer in your home and understands what it sees: a person, a car, a cat, a parcel. It records continuously or on events, keeps the clips on your own drive, and sends your phone a sentence, not a shrug.
Why "local" matters
A cloud camera uploads everything to someone else's server and charges you to look at it. If they raise the price, change the app or get breached, you find out later. With Frigate the video never leaves the house. Your phone reaches it through your own hub — no third party in the middle.
What "understands what it sees" means
Every frame is checked by a small AI model on the hub. Motion alone (leaves, headlights, spiders) does not wake you; a person on the drive at 2am does. Number-plate recognition can tell you "your car is home" or "an unknown car stopped at the gate". Face recognition, if you turn it on, can greet the family and flag strangers — and it all runs on your hardware.
What you see on your phone
A wall of every camera on one screen, a timeline you can scrub with a thumb, and a feed of events written in plain English: "A man in a red coat left a parcel at 14:02." Tap it and the clip plays. Share a clip with the police or a neighbour with one button; nothing else ever leaves.
What it needs
Cameras that speak a standard protocol (most wired and many Wi-Fi ones do), a hub with a small AI accelerator, and a drive sized for the days you want to keep. Your existing cameras can often join — send a photo of what you have and I will tell you which.