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 big open span — a shop, a warehouse, a yard with a fence around it. High ceilings, racking or bays, an overhead door, a yard where trucks and equipment sit overnight.
Two problems you don’t have in a house:
- Distance. The office is at one end and the far corner is 80 metres away. Ethernet stops at 100.
- Weather. Half the cameras are outside, in Calgary, year-round.
The build
| Qty | Item | All-in each | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | UDM-Pro-Max — gateway + recorder, 2 drive bays | $926 | $926 |
| 1 | USW-Pro-24-PoE — 24-port PoE switch, 400W | $1,025 | $1,025 |
| 1 | G6 PTZ — pan-tilt-zoom, yard | $615 * | $615 |
| 4 | G6 Bullet — 4K exterior cameras | $307 | $1,228 |
| 2 | G6 Turret — 4K cameras, interior span | $307 | $614 |
| 2 | U7 Pro Outdoor — IP67 access points | $431 | $862 |
| 1 | U7 Pro — office / interior AP | $257 | $257 |
| 6 | Ethernet Surge Protection Outdoor | $17 | $102 |
| Hardware total (indicative CAD, all-in) | $5,629 |
Not included: drives, rack, cable, poles/mounts, fibre or SFP+ modules if runs demand it, labour, Fluke certification. Priced separately.
\* G6 PTZ’s price basis isn’t cart-verified — confirmed before quoting.
Why each choice
UDM-Pro-Max — 15 cameras at 4K and two drive bays. Seven cameras today, but a warehouse adds cameras — a new bay, a new door, a theft. The second bay matters more here than anywhere: a yard camera is worthless if the recording died with a drive and nobody noticed for three weeks.
USW-Pro-24-PoE — 400W, 24 ports, and 2× 10G SFP+ uplinks, which is the part that solves the distance problem (below).
G6 PTZ ($615) — the yard camera. 4K, and it zooms from 109.9° wide down to 26.6°. One camera watches the whole yard and reads what’s happening at the far gate when you need it to. 30m IR, IP66, 24.5W on PoE+.
Why one PTZ instead of three fixed cameras? A yard is mostly empty and occasionally important. Fixed cameras give you permanent partial coverage; a PTZ gives you the whole yard plus the ability to go look. In practice, on a big open span, the PTZ earns its money the first time something happens at the back fence.
4× G6 Bullet ($307) — the exterior workhorse. 4K, IP66, 30m night vision, 9.9W. The bullet form factor is the one that points down a long approach — building corners, the overhead door, the fence line.
2× G6 Turret — interior span coverage.
2× U7 Pro Outdoor ($431) — IP67, all-weather, integrated directional antenna. For a yard, a loading area, or a shop where the “indoors” isn’t heated or sealed. Indoor APs are not weatherproof. This isn’t a preference — an indoor AP in a loading bay is a dead AP.
1× U7 Pro — the office.
Surge protection ($17 each) — every outdoor Ethernet run gets one. A camera on a pole in a Calgary storm is a lightning path into your switch. $17 per run against a $1,025 switch and a $926 gateway is not a decision. It’s the cheapest line on this page and the one most often cut.
The distance problem
Ethernet is 100 metres. That’s it. Not a guideline — past ~100m the link degrades, then drops, then comes back at 3am and drops again. Intermittent long runs are the worst faults to chase.
Three ways to handle it, in order of preference:
| Approach | When | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Put the switch nearer the devices | If there’s a powered, sheltered spot mid-span. A USW-Ultra-210W in an office or a mezzanine cabinet — 7 PoE ports, 202W with its bundled adapter. | $307 |
| Fibre uplink over SFP+ | The proper answer for a genuinely long haul. The USW-Pro-24-PoE has 2× 10G SFP+. Fibre has no 100m limit and is immune to the electrical noise a shop produces. | modules ~$120 ea + fibre |
| Direct-attach copper (DAC) | Very short switch-to-switch in the same rack. | $19 |
Which one is a site question, and it’s the first thing we measure. Cable route length, not floor plan distance — a run that looks 60m on paper is 95m once it goes up a wall, along a joist, around a bay and back down a pole.
The rule: measure the run before you pick the topology. Everything else on this page is catalogue. This part is site work.
Power check
| Devices | Draw |
|---|---|
| 1× G6 PTZ @ 24.5W | 24.5W |
| 4× G6 Bullet @ 9.9W | 39.6W |
| 2× G6 Turret @ 12.5W | 25W |
| 2× U7 Pro Outdoor @ 21W | 42W |
| 1× U7 Pro @ 21W | 21W |
| Total | ~152W |
Against 400W: 38% loaded. Room for the cameras a warehouse inevitably adds.
What breaks if you undersize
Ignoring the 100m limit. The failure isn’t “it doesn’t work” — it’s intermittent. Links that come up, pass traffic, and drop when it’s cold. You’ll chase it for a year. Measure first.
Indoor APs outdoors. They are not sealed. It’s not a durability question, it’s a rating question — IP67 or don’t.
Skipping surge protection. $102 across the build. One storm.
Fixed cameras instead of the PTZ. Three Bullets ($921) instead of one PTZ ($615) is more money for permanent partial coverage of a mostly-empty yard, and no ability to go look at something.
A USW-Ultra-210W as the main switch. $718 cheaper, and: 7 PoE ports (you have 10 devices), 202W only with its bundled adapter (16W on PoE+ input), and no SFP+ uplinks — so the fibre answer to your distance problem disappears. It’s an excellent satellite switch here. It’s not the main one.
A UDM-Pro instead of the Max. 8 cameras at 4K vs 15, one drive bay vs two. You have 7 cameras and a site that grows. This is the one place the Max is clearly right.
Cat6 for a 10G AP. Not in this build, but worth knowing: Cat6 will not carry 10G at full channel length. If a 10G AP or uplink is ever on the roadmap, that’s a Cat6A conversation at cable time, not later.
The expansion path
| Want | Do | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Cameras 8–15 | Ports, watts and recorder slots all there. | camera only |
| Camera 16+ | UDM-Pro-Max’s 4K ceiling. Add a UNVR ($430). | $430+ |
| A far building / mezzanine | USW-Ultra-210W out there, fibre uplink back. | $307 + optics |
| Licence plates at the gate | AI LPR (25.5W, PoE+). | see catalogue |
| Longer-range night coverage | G6 Edge Bullet — 60m IR (25W, PoE+). Or AI PTZ Industrial — 100m IR, -40°C rated, 51W PoE++ (the Pro-24’s 8 PoE++ ports handle it). | see catalogue |
| The overhead door / gate | UA-Hub-Gate ($431) + opener integration. Needs PoE++ — the Pro-24 has it. | Design 9 |
| Yard WiFi coverage | More U7 Pro Outdoor. | $431 ea |
| Power protection | Rack UPS. (UPS-2U Sold Out 2026-07-16 — confirm alternative.) | — |
The ceilings, in order: ports and run length first — a warehouse grows outward, and the next camera is usually further away, not closer. Then recorder slots (15× 4K). Watts last (38%). The SFP+ uplinks are what make outward growth cheap, which is the real reason the Pro-24 is in this build.
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.