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Adding TP-Link Cameras to Home Assistant

4 min read

Most of the guides out there regarding TP-Link talk about Tapo (non-chinese brand), but TP-Link China has some amazing cameras, cheaper and with built in rtsp enabled!

Camera Model: TL-IPC45CL-V2 HAOS version: 2026.3.4 (worked on 3.3 as well)

Working features

  • PTZ (pan/tilt control) works
  • two-way audio works. You can play audio to your camera!
  • WebRTC works

Steps

  1. Set a password for your camera upon initialization, using the TP-Link app. I think this step is necessary to enable RTSP. This step also connects your camera to your network via wifi.
  2. Add your camera as an ONVIF integration, which should automatically detect your camera. This adds all the entities to HA, including video streams and other camera controls, ie PTZ.
  3. Install and start go2rtc in HA so you get the latest version of it. 1.9.14 is the version I use, and it supports multitrans connection so that two-way audio works.
  4. In the go2rtc web ui, add your streams. Save & Restart.
streams:
  front_door:
    - rtsp://admin:password@<cam-ip>:554/stream1
    - multitrans://admin:password@<cam-ip>:554

4. In HACS, install WebRTC Camera and follow its configuration instructions. 5. Add a Dashboard card which supports PTZ and webRTC

type: custom:webrtc-camera
entity: camera.tp_ipc_mainstream
mode: webrtc,webrtc/tcp,mse,hls,mjpeg  # stream technology, default all of them
media: video,audio,microphone  # select only video or audio track, default both

ui: true  # custom video controls, default false

digital_ptz:  # digital zoom and pan via mouse/touch, defaults:
  mouse_drag_pan: true 
  mouse_wheel_zoom: true
  mouse_double_click_zoom: true
  touch_drag_pan: true 
  touch_pinch_zoom: true  
  touch_tap_drag_zoom: true 
  persist: false  # zoom factor and viewport position survive page reloads

# digital_ptz: false  # to disable all mouse/touch digital zoom and pan

title: TP-Link # optional card title
poster: https://home-assistant.io/images/cast/splash.png  # still image when stream is loading
muted: true  # initial mute toggle state, default is false (unmuted)

intersection: 0.75  # auto stop stream when less than 75% of video element is in the screen, 50% by default
background: false  # run stream when not displayed (ex. for quick video loading), default false

shortcuts:  # custom shortcuts, default none
- name: Record
  icon: mdi:record-circle-outline
  service: switch.toggle
  service_data:
    entity_id: switch.camera_record
    
ptz:
  service: onvif.ptz
  data_left:
    entity_id: camera.tp_ipc_mainstream
    pan: LEFT
    move_mode: ContinuousMove
  data_right:
    entity_id: camera.tp_ipc_mainstream
    pan: RIGHT
    move_mode: ContinuousMove
  data_up:
    entity_id: camera.tp_ipc_mainstream
    tilt: UP
    move_mode: ContinuousMove
  data_down:
    entity_id: camera.tp_ipc_mainstream
    tilt: DOWN
    move_mode: ContinuousMove
  1. Added media player to configuration.yaml so that you can stream audio to the camera directly
media_player:
  - platform: webrtc
    name: Front Door
    stream: front_door # this should match the stream you defined in go2rtc config.
    audio: auto

Now you can try the audio playback, in the media tab. I tried TTS streaming to the cam and it worked!

Notes

Other cards work as well, but might miss certain features (eg microphone for 2-way audio).

Picture glance card

type: picture-glance
title: IPC45CL
camera_image: camera.tp_ipc_mainstream
camera_view: live
entities:
  - entity: camera.tp_ipc_mainstream
    tap_action:
      action: perform-action
      perform_action: onvif.ptz
      target:
        entity_id: camera.tp_ipc_mainstream
      data:
        pan: LEFT
        speed: 0.5
        move_mode: ContinuousMove
    icon: mdi:arrow-left
    name: Left
  - entity: camera.tp_ipc_mainstream
    tap_action:
      action: perform-action
      perform_action: onvif.ptz
      target:
        entity_id: camera.tp_ipc_mainstream
      data:
        pan: RIGHT
        speed: 0.5
        move_mode: ContinuousMove
    icon: mdi:arrow-right
    name: Right
  - entity: camera.tp_ipc_mainstream
    tap_action:
      action: perform-action
      perform_action: onvif.ptz
      target:
        entity_id: camera.tp_ipc_mainstream
      data:
        tilt: UP
        speed: 0.5
        move_mode: ContinuousMove
    icon: mdi:arrow-up
    name: Up
  - entity: camera.tp_ipc_mainstream
    tap_action:
      action: perform-action
      perform_action: onvif.ptz
      target:
        entity_id: camera.tp_ipc_mainstream
      data:
        tilt: DOWN
        speed: 0.5
        move_mode: ContinuousMove
    icon: mdi:arrow-down
    name: Down

This one is quite nice! PTZ works, but no microphone support.

Advanced Camera Card

 
type: custom:advanced-camera-card
cameras:
  - camera_entity: camera.tp_ipc_mainstream
    live_provider: auto
menu:
  buttons:
    ptz_controls:
      enabled: true
      permanent: true
      alignment: opposing
    ptz_home:
      enabled: true
      permanent: false
    substreams:
      permanent: false

I couldn’t get PTZ working on this and it felt a bit clunky. However it seems like it has a ton of features I didn’t get a chance to dig into.

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