A worked example, not a specific customer project — illustrative reference design showing how the pieces fit.
Hardware prices verified 16 July 2026. Ubiquiti pricing changes — we confirm current pricing on every quote. Prices are indicative CAD, all-in. Contact AVNFi for a current quote.
The scenario
A normal house. Front door, back door, driveway, back yard — four cameras. There’s already internet coming in. The homeowner wants to see who’s at the door, keep an eye on the driveway, and have the footage stay in the house rather than on someone’s cloud subscription.
This is the smallest build that’s still worth doing properly, and it’s where the most expensive mistake in UniFi gets made.
The build
| Qty | Item | All-in each | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | UDM-Pro — gateway + camera recorder | $588 | $588 |
| 1 | USW-Ultra-210W — 8-port PoE switch (210W adapter included) | $307 | $307 |
| 4 | G6 Turret — 4K camera, 30m night vision | $307 | $1,228 |
| Hardware total (indicative CAD, all-in) | $2,123 |
Not included, priced separately:
| Item | Why it’s not here |
|---|---|
| Hard drive (3.5″ CMR, sized to how long you want to keep footage) | Third-party. Priced at source. |
| Cable, mounts, junction boxes | Site-dependent. |
| Labour | Always quoted separately. |
Every line above is cart-verified all-in (UDM-Pro $545 + $43; USW-Ultra-210W $285 + $22; G6 Turret $285 + $22). We still re-confirm every line in the cart before a quote goes out — Ubiquiti reprices without notice.
Why each choice
UDM-Pro — the gateway, and the reason this build works It routes your internet, runs your WiFi controller, and records your cameras onto a drive inside it. One box, no separate recorder. It handles 8 cameras at 4K — so four cameras uses half of it. That headroom is the whole point.
USW-Ultra-210W — the switch, and where the power comes from The UDM-Pro records cameras. It does not power them. It has no PoE at all — not one port. Cameras need Power over Ethernet, which means a PoE switch, which means this box. Seven PoE ports, and with its included 210W adapter it has a 202W power budget. Four G6 Turrets draw 50W total. You are at a quarter of capacity.
G6 Turret ×4 — the cameras 4K, 8MP, 30-metre infrared night vision, IP66 weatherproof, and they draw only 12.5W each. Available in black or white. They’re the default for a reason: they do the job, they mount anywhere, and they’re the cheapest 4K camera in the current line.
What breaks if you undersize
This is the section that matters. Read it before you decide to save $150.
The cheap desktop gateway is a dead end
The obvious saving is to swap the UDM-Pro ($588) for a UDR7 ($431 — basis unconfirmed, not in our cart-verified price data). It’s a gateway, it has WiFi built in, it records cameras, and it looks about $157 cheaper. It looks like the smart budget move.
The UDR7 records one 4K camera.
Not four. One. Its published capacity is “(5) HD / (2) 2K / (1) 4K” — and every current UniFi camera, including the G6 Turret, is 4K. The “5 cameras” number on the box is an HD number, and you are not buying HD cameras.
It gets worse:
| UDM-Pro | UDR7 | |
|---|---|---|
| 4K cameras | 8 | 1 |
| PoE budget | none (needs a switch) | 15.4W — one port |
| Drive | 3.5″ bay, any size | no drive bay at all |
That 15.4W PoE port won’t even power a U7 Pro access point (21W). And with no drive bay, there’s nowhere for the footage to go.
So the $157 “saving” buys a box that does roughly a quarter of this job. When the fourth camera goes up, you buy the UDM-Pro anyway — and you’ve now paid for both. The cable is already in the wall; the gateway was never the expensive part.
The honest version: if you genuinely will never have more than one camera, the UDR7 is a fine product. If you’re reading a four-camera design, it isn’t for you.
The other three ways this goes wrong
Powering the switch with PoE instead of its adapter. The USW-Ultra-210W’s 202W budget only exists when it’s running on the 210W adapter in the box. Feed it from a PoE+ port instead and the budget collapses to 16W — that won’t run two cameras. Use the adapter. It’s included; it’s not optional.
Buying the plain USW-Ultra to save money. Same switch, same spec sheet, adapter not included. Without it you have a 42W switch at best, and a 16W one in practice. The “210W” in the name is the box contents, and the box contents are the budget.
Using a USW-Flex-Mini. It’s $39 and it has five ports and it is not a PoE switch — it’s PoE-powered. It sources no power to anything. Your cameras will not turn on.
The expansion path
This design is built to grow, which is the argument for it.
| Want | Do | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Cameras 5 through 8 | Add them. Three PoE ports free, 150W of budget spare, 4 slots left on the recorder. | camera only |
| A doorbell | Doorbell Lite, 8W, one port. | $151 |
| A chime for it | PoE Smart Chime, 3W. | $105 |
| WiFi worth having | U7 Pro access point (21W, PoE+). The switch handles it. | $257 |
| Camera 9+ | You’ve hit the UDM-Pro’s 4K limit. Add a UNVR ($430) as a second recorder, or move up to a UDM-Pro-Max (15× 4K). | $430+ |
| Longer retention | Bigger drive. The bay’s already there. | drive only |
| Power protection | A rack UPS keeps the gateway and drive up through an outage and shuts them down cleanly. (UPS-2U is Sold Out as of 2026-07-16 — we’d confirm an alternative.) | — |
The ceilings you’ll hit, in order: PoE ports (7) → recorder slots (8× 4K) → PoE watts (202W). Ports run out first, and a second small switch is cheap. Nothing in this build is a wall you have to demolish.
Prices indicative CAD, all-in, hardware at cost, labour separate. Ubiquiti reprices without notice; lead time ~7–10 days. Verified against ca.store.ui.com and techspecs.ui.com 2026-07-16.