If you intent to use any of the Blue Iris REST API commands (such as profile switching),
it's recommended you create a separate Administrator user for Home Assistant to connect to, and limit access to LAN only.
Use this username and password in your Home Assistant configuration (shown in the next section).
This keeps any accesses or limitations you may wish to set on Home Assistant separate from the primary Administrator.
Enable the Blue Iris Web Server. Select the Advanced... button to proceed to the next step.
Set Authentication to be Non-LAN only. Leave Use secure session keys and login page unchecked. The secure session option uses HTTP_DIGEST_AUTHENTICATION, which isn't fully supported throughout the Home Assistant codebase yet. Also, in the case you want to use Casting and/or Streaming, some media player devices don't support using authentication.
Configure the Encoding settings so they’re compatible for Chromecast devices: H.264 video, AAC audio, and Resize output frame width x height should be set to 1920 x 1080:
Finally, enable re-encoding. Set Hardware accelerated decode (restart) to a setting appropriate to your hardware (e.g. Intel(R)+VideoPostPRoc).
In order to support the MQTT binary sensors for the camera, some additional configuration needs to be performed on both Home Assistant and Blue Iris:
Assuming you are using the built-in MQTT server or the add-on Mosquitto broker,
in the Home Assistant Configuration | Users panel,
create a new user for Blue Iris to connect to the MQTT broker with.
This user may be placed in the Users Group, to limit the scope of its access, since it is only required to connect to the MQTT broker.
Otherwise, create a user appropriate for Blue Iris in your chosen MQTT broker.
In the Blue Iris Options panel, on the Digital IO and IoT tab under MQTT, select "Configure..." and enter the host and port of the Home Assistant MQTT server, and the username and password created for the Blue Iris user.
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Do you have a MQTT broker set up and configured? It is recommend to use the Mosquitto MQTT broker add-on, instead of the HA embedded broker - Mosquitto appears to be much more robust. Check that the broker is starting up clean and the topics are coming in without pitching errors.
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Do you have the MQTT Integration configured? It's not sufficient to just install/start the broker. Make sure to check the
Enable discoverybox when you configure the integration.
For each camera you wish to monitor, select "Camera properties..." and on the Alerts tab, check "Post to a web address or MQTT server" and then select "Configure...".
Binary sensors for motion, external, DIO, audio and watchdog (connectivity) per camera, In order to configure it in BlueIris you will need to go to:
Camera settings -> Alerts: Fire when: This camera is triggered
Motion zones must be checked
At least 1 zone must be checked (A-H) with Any selected in the camera's drop-down OR
All selected in the camera's drop-down
Action section:
Click on On alert,
in the popup window, create new (or modify) alert for MQTT with the following settings:
Topic - BlueIris/&CAM/Status
Payload - { "type": "&TYPE", "trigger": "ON" }
for On reset do the same with payload:
{ "type": "&TYPE", "trigger": "OFF" }
The alert should be sent for the profile you would like it to trigger.
Note: Triggering the camera manually in BlueIris sends a different &TYPE and will not trigger the motion sensor. Motion must be detected on the camera for the sensor change to be detected.
Camera settings -> Audio -> Options:
Check the Trigger the camera during profiles and mark all profiles you would like it to trigger
Check the Use 1 second average intensity and set the sensitivity level to the desired level
Payloads will be sent according to the definition in the Alert's section defined above using the same settings.
Camera settings -> Watchdog
in the action's section click on On loss of signal,
then in the popup window, create new (or modify) alert for MQTT with the following settings:
Topic - BlueIris/&CAM/Status
Payload - { "type": "Connectivity", "trigger": "OFF" }
for On signal restoration do the same with payload:
{ "type": "Connectivity", "trigger": "ON" }
The alert should be sent for the profile you would like it to trigger
