Rhombus’ Brandon Salzberg explains how Relay helps users breaks the cloud migration barrier

Switching systems can come with many pitfalls, and migrating to the cloud is especially challenging for user who run infrastructures containing devices that arent cloud-ready. With its two new Relay suites, Rhombus Systems is offering solutions tailored to those who want to take the next step, professionalize their hardware setup and migrate to the cloud, but keep their stock of legacy devices. Brandon Salzberg, CTO at Rhombus, told asmag.com how it works in this exclusive interview.
 
Q: Rhombus just released Relay Lite, which allows users to manage legacy and other third-party cameras in the Rhombus cloud. Tell me a bit more about this innovation. What niche in the market does it target, what pain points does it address?
 

Salzberg: Relay Lite is one of the most exciting new products that we’ve launched recently. In a market filled with a lot of players all doing the same thing, Relay Lite is both highly differentiated and highly useful.
 
Our belief has always been that customers want to manage less hardware. For organizations that have existing investments in legacy security technology, their only path to date has been to buy more hardware if they want to leverage those existing investments. With a first-of-its-kind approach, Relay Lite allows customers to begin migrating to a cloud-native camera system without buying any additional servers.
 
We’re seeing that Relay Lite isn’t just targeting a niche, but also where the market is headed.
 
Q: Rhombus unveiled Relay Lite together with Relay Core. What’s the difference between the two systems? Do they complement each other or do they address different needs?
 
Salzberg: Relay Core and Relay Lite address the same problem from two different angles, giving our customers the ability to choose the option that’s right for them—which aligns with our core company values.
 
Relay Core offers an innovative and simple approach to achieving cloud benefits while still using legacy cameras. It focuses on those customers who want a plug-and-play solution and are looking for convenience over complexity when moving all their legacy cameras at a location.
 
Relay Lite brings the same value, but for customers looking to reduce their server room footprint and move toward a truly serverless camera deployment, or those who want to transition to Rhombus cameras through a mixed deployment approach.
 
Q: What sets the Relay lineup apart from third-party-friendly cloud offerings by other security solutions providers?
 
Salzberg: Having built software for both our own cameras and third-party cameras, I can tell you definitively that only companies that have done both can really understand how to build a great product. Understanding how to work with video all the way down to the image sensor gave us unique insights into optimization.
 
One of the major design considerations we focused on while building the Relay lineup was affordability. We saw the market flooded with products that we felt were heavily overpriced for the functionality they delivered. We suspect much of that inflated cost came from under-optimized technology (built years ago and without a deep understanding of how to optimize video processing). Because we started with camera firmware, which offers a small fraction of computational power compared to rack-mount servers, we began with an already heavily optimized software environment.
 
These optimizations allow us to pass on the savings to our customers and offer solutions comparable to the market at a fraction of the price. Combined with our flexible licensing options, we hope to show the market that much of what’s available today from other vendors simply isn’t worth what customers are paying for it.
 
Q: What verticals and users does Rhombus focus on with Relay Lite? In which region do you see the most potential for the new product?
 
Salzberg: We’re seeing demand across verticals and business sizes. Relay’s target market is any customer that has made a recent investment in cameras, is unhappy with that investment, but for financial reasons can’t walk away from that investment. In a macro economy where every dollar matters, you can imagine how widespread the identification with that sentiment is.
 
Q: Let’s talk about concrete use cases. What is actually needed to use legacy third-party cameras with the Rhombus cloud? What steps do users need to take to make the setup work, especially if they want to link multiple cameras?
 
Salzberg: It’s estimated to take customers 30 seconds or less to bring a third-party camera into the Rhombus platform. The steps are straightforward:
 
Step 1 (Relay Core Only) – Plug in power and network.
Step 2 – On startup, Rhombus Relay automatically discovers all the cameras on your network.
Step 3 – Assign each camera (or multiple cameras) to a specific Relay Core, or assign to Relay Lite and we’ll automatically identify an Edge partner device.
Step 4 – Experience your old cameras in a brand new way.
 
I think one of the greatest advantages about the setup experience is that it doesn’t require customers to make any changes to their existing setup. If they want to just trial Rhombus alongside their existing NVR, no problem. There’s no need to disable the old system to try us out.
 
Q: With Relay Lite, users can pair third-party devices with Rhombus cameras 1-to-1. Doesn’t that limit the scalability of systems running on Relay Lite? In what types of environments does this setup make the most sense?
 
Salzberg: We don’t anticipate a technical constraint that would prevent scaling more existing cameras with a single Rhombus camera. We’re continuing to take feedback from partners and customers, and iterating on what ratio makes most sense. Even at 1:1, we think Relay Lite is a strong fit for customers who want the single pane of glass experience with Rhombus but currently don’t have the financial capability to migrate all their cameras.
 
We see this setup almost every day, where customers have bought various camera lines over time. Some are 10+ years old and may not be NDAA-compliant, while others might be less than a year old but are installed in locations where replacement would be expensive. Relay Lite allows a customer to selectively upgrade the cameras that need it most (because they are obsolete) or are easiest to replace from an installation-cost perspective.
 
Q: Will the advanced AI features that are available in the latest Rhombus cameras also be available for third-party cameras integrated in Relay Lite?
 
Salzberg: We are in the process of developing the capability to support even more functionality, including AI features, for customers using Relay Lite. We are very excited about being at the forefront of this technology development, and will have more details to share as these capabilities become available.
 
Q: “Paired” Rhombus cameras have to manage the additional video stream of the third-party camera. Can you explain the technology behind it? Do the primary cameras compress the signals, or stream two signals separately, using twice the bandwidth?
 
Salzberg: I think it’s important to remember that a Rhombus camera doesn’t stream its footage constantly to the cloud like many other cloud solutions. Footage is only uploaded when someone is attempting to view that footage remotely (viewing on the LAN also does not trigger footage upload). The beauty of Relay Lite is that it doesn’t consume any more bandwidth than running two individual Rhombus cameras would; you’re simply “converting” the third-party camera into what appears to be a Rhombus camera.
 
Q: Relay Lite offers live view for third-party cameras, but not cloud recording. For customers who need to store their footage, what are the options? Can Relay Lite still serve a useful role in those workflows?
 
Salzberg: A FREE 24-hour Cloud Archive license is now included with Relay Lite, and additional Cloud Archive licenses can be stacked on top of that for customers who want to have their footage backed up to the cloud for longer retention periods.
 
Q: What’s the pricing model for Relay Lite? Since each Rhombus camera can stream both its own feed and one third-party feed, do customers pay per stream or per device pairing?
 
Salzberg: I believe the pricing model for both Relay Core and Relay Lite is perhaps the most disruptive decision we’ve made with this product. Relay Lite is FREE. This is clearly a statement about our objective of making the transition from on-premises NVR solutions simpler and more affordable.
 
We are watching the market move toward cloud-native solutions, and we’re hearing loud and clear that customers want to manage LESS hardware, not more. But the one objection we hear over and over is around the cost of making that move. By offering Relay Lite free to all customers, we’re removing those obstacles and making it easy for customers to get closer to where they want to end up.
 
Q: Looking ahead, what developments in the field of security systems are you most excited about?
 
Salzberg: I certainly think the advances in AI technology right now are changing the game, and I like to say that they’re creating a chasm in our market. Physical security companies are going to need to choose which side of the chasm they are going to be on, because as it grows, getting from one side to the other is going to be impossible.
We are seeing this already with LLM-based approaches to problems. The companies that sell only NVR hardware are simply not going to be able to compete with companies that can leverage modern cloud infrastructure. At some point, more and more of this will be able to run at the edge, but in the meantime, there is a set of highly impactful technologies that are only going to be available from vendors that leverage the cloud effectively. Everyone else is going to be left on the other side of the chasm.