Reolink Baichuan WebRTC for Home Assistant

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Low-latency Reolink camera streaming and integrated controls in the standard Home Assistant interface.

Reolink camera <-> Baichuan <-> go2rtc <-> WebRTC <-> Home Assistant

This community project extends the standard Home Assistant camera dialog with fast live video, stream quality selection, multi-lens support, PTZ, zoom, floodlight control and two-way audio. It uses the entities created by the official Reolink integration and does not add a separate dashboard or Lovelace card.

Author and maintainer: Bartosz Supcziński — bartek@env.pl

Why this project exists

Home Assistant exposes advanced Reolink functions as separate entities. Its standard camera dialog does not combine them into one camera-oriented interface, and the normal RTSP/HLS path can add startup delay. This project routes the native Baichuan stream through go2rtc and augments the existing dialog without replacing the Reolink integration.

Interface

The same camera dialog adapts to portrait, landscape and full-screen layouts. The image below shows the normal mobile view and the full-screen landscape view.

Reolink camera controls in Home Assistant

Features

Video

Camera controls

Audio

Interface integration

Compatibility

Home Assistant

The current release targets Home Assistant Core 2026.8.x installed as a Python service. Home Assistant OS, Container and supervised installations are not installation targets because this project installs a host systemd service and a custom go2rtc binary.

The frontend module uses internal Home Assistant web components, and the backend integration extends an internal go2rtc provider method. A Home Assistant frontend or Core update can therefore require a compatibility update even when the public camera entities remain unchanged.

Cameras

The official Reolink integration must expose the main, sub, PTZ, zoom and light entities supported by the camera. Functions unavailable on a particular model are omitted from the dialog.

Clients

go2rtc

The supported build uses:

scripts/build-go2rtc.sh reproduces this build. Revision e8952ef99d91fe10c85836934c5ecd28b37ff7fa is not used because it can stop some 4K H.265 streams after the first frame.

Requirements

Security model

Remote access still uses the authenticated Home Assistant connection on port

  1. If remote WebRTC is required, forward TCP and UDP 8555 to the Home Assistant host without exposing ports 1984 or 8554.

Repository layout

Path Purpose
custom_components/reolink_baichuan_stream/ Home Assistant backend integration
frontend/reolink-webrtc-first.js Camera dialog and stream handling
config/go2rtc.yaml.example Private go2rtc API, RTSP and WebRTC listeners
systemd/go2rtc.service Hardened host service
scripts/build-go2rtc.sh Reproducible go2rtc build
scripts/install.sh Installation of project files
docs/images/ Public README images

Installation

Add every camera through the official Reolink integration and confirm that the standard camera entities work before installing this project.

2. Download the repository

git clone https://github.com/supczinskib/reolink-baichuan-ha.git
cd reolink-baichuan-ha

3. Build and install go2rtc

./scripts/build-go2rtc.sh
sudo install -m 0755 go2rtc /usr/local/bin/go2rtc

Create the service account if it does not exist:

id go2rtc >/dev/null 2>&1 || sudo useradd --system --home /var/lib/go2rtc --create-home --shell /usr/sbin/nologin go2rtc

Install the configuration:

sudo install -d -o go2rtc -g go2rtc -m 0700 /var/lib/go2rtc
sudo install -o go2rtc -g go2rtc -m 0600 config/go2rtc.yaml.example /var/lib/go2rtc/go2rtc.yaml

Edit /var/lib/go2rtc/go2rtc.yaml and replace 192.0.2.10 with the LAN address of the Home Assistant host.

4. Install the Home Assistant files

sudo ./scripts/install.sh

The default Home Assistant configuration directory is /var/lib/homeassistant. Set HA_CONFIG when a different directory is used:

sudo HA_CONFIG=/path/to/homeassistant ./scripts/install.sh

5. Configure Home Assistant

Add the following entries to configuration.yaml:

frontend:
  extra_module_url:
    - /local/reolink-webrtc-first.js?v=1.0.0

stream:
  ll_hls: true
  segment_duration: 2
  part_duration: 0.2

go2rtc:
  url: http://127.0.0.1:1984

reolink_baichuan_stream:

Merge the frontend section with an existing section instead of creating a second key.

6. Start the services

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now go2rtc.service
sudo systemctl restart home-assistant.service

Confirm that both services are active:

systemctl is-active go2rtc.service home-assistant.service

7. Enable camera entities

In Settings → Devices & services → Entities, enable the Reolink main and sub camera entities. The sub cameras may remain hidden from automatically generated area views; the frontend module still uses them for LO video and thumbnails.

Open each camera from an area view and verify:

  1. LO and HI video;
  2. speaker and microphone;
  3. PTZ and monitor-point return;
  4. zoom;
  5. floodlight where available;
  6. portrait, landscape and full-screen layouts.

Operation

LO is the default profile and uses less bandwidth. The LO/HI button switches between the camera’s sub and main entities. The stream transition keeps the last frame visible until the new profile produces video.

The zoom slider updates visually while it is moved and sends one command after release. On TrackMix, the range up to about 2.5× uses the wide view, the camera then switches to its fixed-focal-length telephoto lens, and further enlargement up to 6× is digital. Returning to the monitor point also resets local digital zoom for a wide lens.

The speaker button enables sound from the camera. The microphone button asks the browser for microphone permission and opens the talkback channel. Closing the camera dialog closes media sessions.

Updating

git pull --ff-only
sudo ./scripts/install.sh
sudo systemctl restart home-assistant.service

Rebuild and reinstall go2rtc only when the pinned commits in scripts/build-go2rtc.sh change.

After a Home Assistant update, verify video startup, LO/HI switching, audio, PTZ, zoom, thumbnails, full screen and back navigation.

Troubleshooting

No live image

WebRTC is unavailable

The frontend automatically selects HLS in an incompatible embedded browser. An HLS picture has higher latency but should remain functional. Test in Safari or Chrome to distinguish a client limitation from a camera or go2rtc problem.

Audio or microphone does not work

Controls are missing

Confirm that the official Reolink integration exposes the corresponding button, number, switch or light entity. Hidden entities can be used; disabled entities cannot.

Problems after a Home Assistant update

Reload the page without cache. If the problem remains, compare the installed Home Assistant version with the supported version above. A frontend structure or internal provider change can require a project update.

Uninstallation

  1. Remove reolink_baichuan_stream:, the go2rtc: entry and /local/reolink-webrtc-first.js from configuration.yaml.
  2. Stop and disable go2rtc.service.
  3. Remove:
    • /var/lib/homeassistant/custom_components/reolink_baichuan_stream/;
    • /var/lib/homeassistant/www/reolink-webrtc-first.js;
    • /etc/systemd/system/go2rtc.service;
    • /usr/local/bin/go2rtc;
    • /var/lib/go2rtc/.
  4. Reload systemd and restart Home Assistant.
sudo systemctl disable --now go2rtc.service
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl restart home-assistant.service

The official Reolink integration and its entities remain available.

License

Copyright (C) 2026 Bartosz Supcziński.

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See LICENSE.

Support

When reporting a problem, include the Home Assistant version, browser or application version, camera model, firmware version and relevant sanitized logs. Remove passwords, tokens, camera addresses and network identifiers.

This is an independent community project and is not an official Reolink, go2rtc or Home Assistant product.

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