Footage you still have the day you need it.
Retention is arithmetic, not a feeling. Cameras, multiplied by resolution, multiplied by the days you want to keep. Get it wrong and the clip you need was overwritten last Tuesday.
Record on the console, or give it its own box.
Several consoles take a drive and record directly, which is the cheapest route. Past a certain camera count, a dedicated recorder earns its place.
Network Video Recorder
A dedicated recorder when the console has no room, or the camera count is serious.
UNAS Pro
Rack mounted storage for footage and files, on the same system you already run.
UNAS 4
Four bays. The usual answer for a business that wants its own files kept locally.
UNAS 2
Two bays. A home or a small office that wants footage and backups off the console.
Prices are all-in CAD, Ubiquiti’s own price including their memory surcharge, and we add nothing to them. They move when Ubiquiti moves them, so we confirm every line on the quote.
What decides how many days you get.
- Resolution costs days. 4K on every camera looks like the safe choice and it is the fastest way to shorten your retention. Most of the value is in placement, not pixels.
- Drives are not interchangeable. Surveillance rated, CMR, always. Never an SMR drive and never a plain desktop drive. This is not a place to save money.
- Recording stays local. The footage lives on your hardware, in your building. There is no per camera cloud fee to keep it.
- Size it for the cameras you will have. The ninth camera arrives with the next renovation. Leaving room now is far cheaper than a second recorder later.
How many cameras, and how many days?
Those two numbers decide the recorder and the drives. We size it against the finished design and supply it with everything else.
Want the full detail? Storage and Retention in the wiki has the complete tables and the specs behind these choices.