NVR System smart home integration?

[Timmins Home_908982812340408]

Re: RLN8-410 + RLC810 Alexa compatibility
Smart home integration with an nvr system? How to do this properly, and what extra hardware is needed? I recently replaced my system with a Reolink 8 camera 12mp camera system from Costco (added 2 additional cameras as well) and wired all the cameras to the nvr, only to find out they don't work with Alexa, the whole point was for my wife to have an easy to use system while still recording everything on a single nvr, without relying on wifi. I keep finding old posts saying that we are working on integrating with alexa, but havnt been able to find a solution. I dont mind buying a poe switch, but how does it connect to the smart home? if someone from Reolink could chime in and give me a specific answer, that would be great. I already returned my TPlink cameras and doorbell, and paid for an electrician to come out and install the cabling to the cameras, and would like to get this figured out sooner than later.

Thank you, looking forward to your response.

[Chopstix]

@timmins-home_90898281234040 you will need to connect all the cameras to a PoE switch or get PoE injectors to connect them to a non-PoE switch. You are NOT connecting the NVR at this point. Get all of your cameras setup as stand alone cameras on your home network. Alexa functionality should then work. Once you get all the cameras setup the way you want, connect the NVR to the network and add the cameras to the NVR via the app. DO NOT plug the cameras' ethernet cables to the NVR. Everything gets plugged into your PoE switch.