What Is Frigate NVR?
Frigate is an open-source Network Video Recorder (NVR) designed specifically for IP cameras and built around real-time, local AI object detection. It uses OpenCV and TensorFlow to detect people, cars, animals, and other objects without sending your footage to the cloud. You can accelerate Frigate’s detection engine with a Google Coral or Hailo AI accelerator and even modest hardware can process over 100 frames per second with very little overhead. By default, Frigate comes packaged as a Docker container, but there is also a helper script if you want to install Frigate as an LXC container in Proxmox. This makes installation and updates straightforward on virtually any Linux-capable host.
How Frigate Works
Motion-Guided AI Detection
Rather than running expensive object detection on every frame, Frigate uses a low-overhead motion-detection algorithm to only run TensorFlow on regions where something has moved.
Multiprocessing & Hardware Acceleration
Frigate spins up separate processes for each camera feed and detection task, ensuring maximum throughput and low latency. Offloading AI inference to a Coral TPU (or similar) vastly outperforms CPU-only setups, enabling real-time detection on multiple high-resolution streams.
Integration & Streaming
– MQTT & Home Assistant: Frigate publishes events (e.g., “person detected”) over MQTT, integrating seamlessly with Home Assistant, Node-RED, OpenHAB, or any MQTT-capable home automation platform.
– RTSP/Re-Streaming: It can re-serve camera feeds over RTSP, reducing the connection load on your cameras.
– Web Interface: A built-in dashboard provides live view, multi-camera scrubbing, zone editing, and a streamlined review workflow: all in your browser.
Why Frigate Is So Appealing
1. Privacy-First, Local-Only Processing
All video processing and storage happen on your own hardware. No cloud, no vendor lock-in, and no third-party access to your footage.
2. False-Positive Reduction & Efficiency
Traditional NVRs often trigger on shadows, wind, or tree movement. Frigate’s AI filters out irrelevant motion (cars vs. leaves, people vs. pets), saving time and disk space.
3. Tight Home Automation Integration
Deep Home Assistant integration means camera entities, binary sensors, and notifications are first-class citizens. Use object events to trigger lighting, alarms, or any custom automation.
4. Hardware Flexibility
Run Frigate on a Raspberry Pi with Hailo, an Intel NUC with Docker/Proxmox, or inside an LXC/VM with GPU and TPU passthrough: Frigate adapts to your homelab.
Homelab Use Cases
- Replacing a Dedicated NVR: Many homelab enthusiasts swap out proprietary NVR appliances for Frigate to centralize surveillance under one roof, enhance privacy, and leverage existing compute resources.
- Cost-Effective DIY Pi-Based NVR: Enthusiasts have built 1U Raspberry Pi Frigate servers (e.g., using the Axzez Interceptor case) that handle multiple cameras and Hailo acceleration in a compact footprint.
- Containerized Efficiency: Advanced users deploy Frigate in an LXC/Podman setup on Debian, with systemd-managed containers, GPU decode, and Coral TPU passthrough for maximum performance per watt.
- Virtualized Lab Integration: Running Frigate on ESXi with both Coral USB TPU and Intel iGPU passthrough on an Intel NUC offers a fully virtualized, production-grade homelab service.
- Event-Driven Alerts & Analytics: Use Frigate’s AI to detect packages on the porch, alert when a car enters the driveway, or even monitor wildlife in the backyard. Frigate’s expanding object-model library powers diverse scenarios.
Conclusion
Frigate NVR brings enterprise-grade, AI-driven video surveillance into the hands of home users and homelab enthusiasts alike. Its local-only processing ensures privacy; its efficient, selective detection conserves CPU, GPU, and storage; and its seamless integration with home automation platforms makes intelligent, event-driven workflows a breeze. Whether you’re swapping out a legacy DVR, building a Pi-powered NVR rack, or running a containerized pipeline in your Proxmox cluster, Frigate offers a flexible, open-source solution that grows with your needs. Dive in, self-host Frigate, and give your homelab true vision.