Systems by site
Start with the building, not the product
Different buildings fail in different places, and the order you fix them in changes what the job costs. Find the closest match, see what these sites usually need, and go from there. Nothing here is a fixed package. Every one is quoted against your actual site.
Not sure which fits? Answer five questions and get a written scope
Apartments and multi unit residential
Usually 4 to 20 controlled doors and gates, plus cameras at the entrances
Blocks, courts and mixed developments with shared entrances. Control is usually lost at the entrance, the vehicle gate and the back of house doors.
What these sites usually need
- Access control on the entrance, gate and lift core
- Intercom once the entrance design is fixed
- Cameras where a door already records an entry
- Alarm on plant, meter and refuse rooms
Gated homes and compounds
Usually one hub, 6 to 20 detectors and an outdoor siren
A standalone house on a walled plot, usually half an acre to an acre, often with an electric fence already up. The boundary is the first line, not the building, and the property is finished so nobody wants a trench through the garden.
What these sites usually need
- Detection at the boundary before anything reaches the house
- A photograph on the phone, so a night alarm can be judged without getting up
- An existing electric fence brought onto the same system
- Detectors that ignore dogs and moving foliage, or the system gets switched off
- Nothing cast into the building, so it moves with you if you do
Offices and headquarters
Usually 4 to 20 controlled doors and 8 to 32 cameras
A tenancy on one or more floors of a commercial tower. Reception, the server room and the restricted departments are where a company cannot afford to be vague.
What these sites usually need
- Access control at reception, the comms room and restricted areas
- Cameras at the controlled doors before general floor coverage
- Out of hours arming on the same controller
- Reporting that survives an audit
Schools and institutions
Usually 8 to 32 cameras and access control on gates and offices
Schools, colleges, clinics and churches. A gate that hundreds of people pass through at the same times each day, visitors who need signing in, and stores, labs or records rooms that hold what gets stolen.
What these sites usually need
- Gate and reception control, so visitors are recorded and pupils or patients stay where they should be
- Cameras on gates, corridors and stores, never in classrooms, washrooms or changing rooms
- Access control on offices, labs and stores, with a card cancelled the day someone leaves
- An alarm on stores and offices outside hours
- A defined recording period and restricted access to footage, especially where children are recorded
Retail and small business
Usually 4 to 8 cameras and one alarm
Shops, salons, pharmacies, restaurants. The entrance, the till and the stock room, and somebody who needs to see it from their phone.
What these sites usually need
- Cameras on entry, till and stock area
- An alarm somebody actually arms at closing
- Remote viewing that works on the connection you have
- Storage sized to how long you need to keep footage
Forex bureaus and cash handling
Usually one alarm hub, a panic button at every cashier and fingerprint doors on the strongroom and cubicles
A counter at the front, cashier cubicles behind glass, and a strongroom and principal officer's office at the back. Robberies here happen in daylight with staff at the counter, and the Central Bank inspects the premises before licensing each outlet.
What these sites usually need
- Silent panic buttons in the strongroom, each cashier's cubicle and the principal officer's office
- An alarm connected to Urban Eye PRO Monitoring or your own security firm
- A strongroom door that needs two people to open
- Cashier cubicles that open only for their cashier
- Smoke and heat detection in every room
Warehouses and yards
Usually 16 to 32 cameras, a perimeter alarm and controlled staff entry
Goods movement, loading bays, a gatehouse and a perimeter that is longer than anyone budgets for.
What these sites usually need
- Cameras at the gatehouse and loading bays first
- Perimeter detection before interior movement
- A contact on every roller shutter, because those are the real doors
- An alarm that keeps reporting when the recorder is taken or the mains is cut
- Number plate capture where vehicles are the risk
- Power and network that reach the far corners of the site
Construction sites
Usually 2 to 6 cameras on 4G and solar, moved as the site changes
A site whose layout changes every few weeks, with materials, plant and a generator left overnight, and builder's power that goes off at night or has not arrived yet.
What these sites usually need
- Cameras on the materials store, the plant and the gate, not every metre of hoarding
- Solar power at each camera, so recording carries on when the generator is off or stolen
- 4G where there is no fixed connection
- Poles that move to the next position as the build progresses
Farms
Usually 2 to 4 cameras on 4G and solar at the pens, store and pump
Dairy and poultry units, avocado and produce stores, and solar pumps, often far from mains power and with no internet line. Livestock and produce are taken at night, sometimes by gangs that outnumber the watchman.
What these sites usually need
- Cameras on the way in and out: the boma door, the store and the gate path
- A light and a warning at night, and an alert on the phone
- Solar and 4G at each pole, so nothing is trenched back to the house
- Nobody going out alone to confront what the camera shows
Homes
Usually 3 to 6 cameras and a wireless alarm
Houses and apartments you live in, from a flat in a block to a house on a walled plot.
What these sites usually need
- Cameras on the approach and entrances
- An alarm that can be armed and disarmed remotely
- Something the owner can check from anywhere
- Staff told where any indoor camera is
Short-stay lets
Usually one door camera for an apartment, or two to three outdoor cameras for a house
Airbnb and short-stay apartments in Nairobi blocks, and holiday houses in Naivasha, Nanyuki and on the coast. Guests change every few days, and nobody is on hand to see who comes in with them.
What these sites usually need
- A record of who comes through the door, never a camera inside: Airbnb has banned them since April 2024
- Cameras disclosed on the listing, and a sign saying who records, why and for how long
- Guest ID checked at check-in, as the Ministry of Tourism guidelines ask
- Written consent from the building manager for a corridor camera
None of these match your site?
Most projects do not fit a category exactly. Tell us what the building is and we write the scope from scratch, with the exclusions and assumptions on it before you order anything.
Request a quote