You have a customer in front of you right now. This page is for that.
This is not a manual. It is a lookup. Five questions, a table of what to say, three mistakes that cost the sale, and the line where you stop and hand it to AVNFi. Everything deeper lives in Product Ladders.
The five questions that unlock any sale
Ask these in order. You do not need to know the answers — you need to collect them. AVNFi designs from them.
| # | Ask | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | What kind of building? House, office, shop, warehouse, acreage? | Decides everything downstream. A warehouse and a bungalow are not the same job. |
| 2 | How many cameras — now, and in three years? | This is the money question. Ask the second half out loud. People answer “two” and mean “two for now.” |
| 3 | Any doors you want to control? Fobs, codes, buzz-in, a gate? | Doors change the job completely. It also means you refer it — see below. |
| 4 | Is it wired, or is running cable a problem? | Cameras and access points need a cable. If there isn’t one, someone has to run it. |
| 5 | Who looks after it once it’s in? | An owner who wants to tinker and an owner who never wants to think about it need different designs. |
Write the answers down. Hand them to AVNFi. That is the referral. You do not have to interpret them.
The one to press on
Question 2, second half. “And in three years?” The gateway is the one box that cannot be added to. If they buy a small one and want six cameras later, the small one gets shelved — the money doesn’t transfer. Asking “and in three years?” today is what stops a difficult conversation in eighteen months.
If the customer says X → ask Y → show Z
| They say | You ask | You show / say |
|---|---|---|
| “I just want better wifi.” | “How big is the place, and where does it drop out?” | Access points — but an access point is not a router. It needs a gateway and a cable. Say: “Wifi is the easy part. The question is what it plugs into.” Then ask Q2 anyway — half of “just wifi” turns into cameras. |
| “I want cameras.” | “How many, now and in three years? And is there a network already?” | Cameras first, then the box that records them. Point at the G6 Turret as the default. Then: “The camera’s the fun bit. What decides the job is what records it.” |
| “Is this like Ring or Nest?” | “What do you like about those, and what annoys you?” | The honest difference: this records to a drive in their building, not to a company’s cloud. No monthly fee, no one else holding the footage. The trade is that it’s installed, not stuck on with adhesive. Say it plainly — the honesty is the pitch. |
| “Do I need a subscription?” | — (nothing to ask) | No. There isn’t one. UniFi Protect has no cloud recording plan. But say the other half: because there’s no cloud, the drive is theirs to buy and size. Never let them hear only the good half. |
| “Can I use my existing cameras?” | “What brand are they?” | If they’re not Ubiquiti: no. UniFi Protect records UniFi cameras. There’s no adapter, no plugin, no workaround. Say it early — this one gets expensive if they find out after they’ve bought. |
| “What’s the difference between these two cameras?” | “Where’s it going, and can anyone reach it?” | If it’s Turret vs Dome vs Bullet: nothing you’d see. Same sensor, same 30 m of night vision, same picture. You’re choosing a housing, not a camera. |
| “Why is this one more expensive?” | “What’s it looking at, and how far?” | Sometimes it isn’t better — it’s tougher. The Dome costs more for vandal resistance, not picture. The G6 Pro costs more for a genuinely bigger sensor and 40 m of infrared instead of 30. Know which kind of “more expensive” you’re standing in front of. |
| “Can I install it myself?” | “Are you running the cable, or is there cable there already?” | If it’s one camera on an existing cable — maybe. The moment cable has to be run, or a gateway configured, that’s AVNFi. And say the good part: “The design’s done remotely and it’s not a big deal. Let me get you a number.” |
The three things that lose the sale if you get them wrong
These are not opinions. Each one is a specific promise that becomes someone’s problem later.
1. Never say a small gateway “can take cameras later”
Everything below the UDM-Pro records one to five 4K cameras. Everything from the UDM-Pro up records eight to forty.
That step is the whole decision. A modest house — front, back, both sides, garage, driveway — is six cameras. Six sails straight past everything below the UDM-Pro.
If they say “cameras eventually”, the gateway choice is already made. Say: “If cameras are anywhere in the plan, we pick the box for that now — it’s the one thing you can’t add to later.” More in Choosing a Gateway.
2. The drive is not in the box
Not with any gateway. Not with any recorder. A UDM-Pro arrives as an empty bay.
There is no cloud plan to fall back on, so this isn’t optional — with no drive, there is no recording. Say it while they’re still deciding, not at the till. See Storage and Retention.
3. A PoE switch is needed even when the gateway records
This is the one that surprises people, because it feels like it shouldn’t be true.
The gateway records the cameras. It does not power them. The UDM-Pro has no PoE at all. The cameras need power over their network cable, and that comes from a PoE switch.
The trap inside the trap: USW-Ultra and USW-Ultra-210W look identical. Without the 210 W adapter, the budget is 42 W — three G6 Turrets at 12.5 W each and you’re out. With it, 202 W. Same spec sheet, different box contents. Exception worth knowing: UDM-SE is the one mainstream rack gateway with its own PoE budget (180 W).
When to stop and refer to AVNFi
Referring is not losing the sale. Referring is how you get paid. You earn a share of the design fee — the equipment sale stays with the store, and you don’t have to design anything. See How the Partnership Works.
| Trigger | Why |
|---|---|
| Anything with doors | Locks, egress, and a hub that may or may not survive a Calgary January. This is never a shelf conversation. |
| Anything commercial | Offices, clinics, shops, warehouses. Different scale, different consequences. |
| Cable has to be run | Someone has to physically pull it. AVNFi has installers for that. |
| More than about 8 cameras | Past 8 you’re into gateway and storage arithmetic that has to be done properly. |
| They ask “how many days of footage will I get?” | It’s a real calculation, not a guess. Don’t guess. |
| You’re not sure | Genuinely. “Let me get the designer to look at this” costs you nothing and makes you look better, not worse. |
How to say it
“The gear’s here and it’s yours to take home today. The part that decides whether it actually works is the design — where each camera goes, what records it, what powers it. That’s done by a certified Ubiquiti installer, remotely, and it’s quick. Let me get them your details.”
You’ve kept the equipment sale. You’ve added a design fee you share in. And you have not promised anything you’d have to unpromise.
The five lines to remember
- Turret, Dome and Bullet are the same camera in three housings. Identical sensor, field of view, night range and frame rate.
- The drive bay is the gateway decision. Below the UDM-Pro: 1–5 4K cameras. From it up: 8–40.
- The drive is never included. Neither is a cloud plan — because there isn’t one.
- The gateway records; the switch powers. Almost always two boxes.
- Doors, commercial, cable, or 8+ cameras → refer it. That’s the paid part.
Related
- The Shelf Talk — what to say standing in front of the products
- How the Partnership Works — the model, plainly
- Product Ladders: Step Up, Step Down — every family, every rung
- What Works With What — the compatibility rules
- Choosing Cameras — what each one sees, and how far into the dark
- Glossary — PoE, IK, IR, NVR, all of it
Specs on this page are from techspecs.ui.com, read 16 July 2026. Where Ubiquiti doesn’t publish a number, we say so rather than estimate one. If you find an error here, tell us — we’d rather be corrected than confident. AVNFi, Calgary.