Designed directly from the course's Recording System chapter (pp. 74–108): connect the cameras to the recorder, configure the channels, size the storage with the real course formula — and plan for what can go wrong.
At the NVR screen: a discovery list shows the four cameras found on the network — plus one UNKNOWN DEVICE as a distractor. Drag each camera onto channels 1–4. Wrong mapping = the tile shows the wrong room and bounces back with a hint.
Per-channel settings: resolution, frame rate, bitrate, and continuous vs motion recording. A live bandwidth meter responds to every change — push everything to max and it goes red with dropped frames on the preview.
The course formula appears as a live calculator: Storage = ((bitrate/8) × 3600 × 24 × cams × days) / 1,048,576. Given 4 cameras and a 30-day retention target, pick the right drive (2 TB / 4 TB / 6 TB) and choose RAID 1 vs RAID 0 for redundancy.
Choose a UPS for the rack — standby, line-interactive or online. Then the lights flicker: a simulated outage hits. With the right UPS the wall stays live and recording never gaps; the commissioning report files 4/4 channels, retention met, power protected.
| MISTAKE | WHAT THE LEARNER SEES | COURSE CONCEPT |
|---|---|---|
| Camera mapped to the wrong channel | Wrong room on the tile; label mismatch hint | Channel configuration |
| Bitrate / FPS set too high | Bandwidth meter red, preview drops frames | Bandwidth & storage determinants |
| Drive too small for retention | Calculator shows days shortfall vs 30-day target | Storage calculation formula |
| RAID 0 chosen for redundancy | Simulated disk failure = footage lost warning | Redundant storage / RAID |
| No UPS / standby UPS on a critical rack | Power cut = recording gap in the timeline | UPS types & power protection |
This activity is fully specified and ready to implement in the same engine — say the word and it becomes Activity 05 in the lab.