Discipline
Video surveillance
Most camera systems are specified by how many cameras fit the budget. Then something happens, the footage is pulled, and nobody can tell who it was. This is how we specify cameras instead, and what we check before quoting. We supply installers and consultants, and we install directly when a client prefers that.
What a system is made of
Four parts, and each one is decided by something specific rather than by budget.
Cameras
Chosen by what you need to see and from how far. Housing, resolution and whether the position holds colour after dark all follow from that.
Recorder and storage
Channel count comes from the camera count. Disk size comes from how many days you want to keep, which is arithmetic, not a guess.
Network and power
PoE switching, cable runs and a protected supply for the recorder. This is the part most quotes leave out and most installations fail on.
We choose models once we know the positions. Send a site plan or photographs and we work out the count with you.
Four things we do differently, and why they matter
Each of these is settled on paper before we quote. All four are expensive to discover after an incident, when the footage is the only thing that matters.
We ask what you need to see, not how many cameras you want
There is a measurable difference between a camera that shows someone was there, one that shows what they did, and one that shows who they were. The international standard, IEC 62676-4, puts it in pixels on the target: about 25 per metre to detect a person, 125 to recognise someone you know and 250 to identify a stranger. A wide lens covering a gate from forty metres gets you detection and nothing more.
Recording days are calculated before we quote
Camera count, resolution, frame rate and retention give you a storage figure. We work it out first, so nobody discovers in month four that the recorder has been overwriting at nine days. You can run the same sum yourself with our storage calculator.
The system tells you when it stops recording, or when the recorder is taken
A common failure is a system that stopped months ago and nobody knew. Another is losing the recorder itself: at a Changamwe godown, police say thieves broke into the CCTV room and took the recorder before the break in. So the recorder goes in a locked cabinet on its own protected supply, disk and camera faults raise an alert to a named person, and where the site has an Ajax alarm, the room holding the recorder is alarmed too.
Cameras go where something already gets logged
A camera on a door that already logs entries turns the log into an index: it gives you the exact minute to look at, so nobody scrubs through a night of footage. A camera on open ground gives you movement. Controlled points first, general coverage after.
What each person actually gets
Three people live with a camera system and they want different things from it. If you are specifying it for a client, the first column is yours.
Installer or consultant
If you are specifying or installing this for a client.
- Camera positions and counts worked out with you before you quote
- Storage and PoE budget checked against the actual design, not assumed
- The whole scope quoted, including switching, cable and mounting
- Supply only, or supply and install, whichever suits your contract
- Pricing that varies by volume and project type, not one fixed trade rate
Building or facilities manager
The person who has to find the footage when something happens.
- A known number of recording days rather than whatever the disk manages
- Notification when the recorder stops, instead of finding out during an incident
- The access log gives the exact minute to check, where access control is on the same site
- Cameras positioned to answer a question, not to fill a wall
- One supplier for the cameras, the recorder and the network behind them
Residents or staff
The people the cameras are pointed at.
- Coverage at entrances and shared areas rather than over desks
- Signage saying who is recording, why and for how long, as the Data Protection Commissioner's draft guidance expects
- Footage that is retained for a stated period and then overwritten
- Access to recordings controlled and logged, not open to anyone with the password
What this changes on the running cost side
We do not publish payback figures. These are the categories a camera system that actually works moves. Put your own numbers against them.
- Guard hours spent watching ground a camera covers better
- Time spent scrubbing footage, which becomes a search by door and time
- Disputes about what happened, settled by a recording rather than by argument
- Insurance and incident evidence, produced rather than reconstructed
- Repeat callouts on a system nobody was told had failed
- Replacement cameras bought because the first ones were specified for coverage rather than identification
None of these are guaranteed savings. They are the lines a working system touches, and the ones worth measuring before and after.
A worked example
One of our defined systems, with what is included, what is excluded, and the assumptions behind it. Your site will differ, and the scope changes with it.
Tell us what you need to see
Whether you are quoting this for a client or the cameras are for your own building, start the same way. Send a plan or a few photographs and we come back with positions and a count.
Quoting this for a client?
A trade account gets you project pricing, a check on your specification before you order, and support during commissioning.
What a trade account includes →