Video surveillance
Your cameras & your recordings
Video surveillance for a business as an engineered system: cameras chosen for each zone's task, a network on UPS power, a recording server, remote access with no holes to the outside — and an archive that survives to the day it is needed. The passwords, the accounts and the wiring diagram are handed over to you in writing.
- 25
- systems implemented
- 19
- years in development
- Yours
- the passwords, accounts and documentation
The check
Five questions for the system
How many days does the archive hold?
In reality, not on the kit's datasheet. On a busy site the promised thirty days often turn out to be two weeks — and this comes to light on the day the recording is needed.
How is remote access set up?
The vendor's cloud, a port forwarded to the outside, or a VPN — three different levels of risk. The app on the phone looks the same in all three.
Are the cameras on their own network?
A camera on the same network as the register and the books is a ready-made way into the company.
What happens if the recorder is stolen?
Taking the recorder is a standard part of a prepared theft. If there are no copies, the evidence leaves together with it.
Who can export a recording?
When one admin password serves the whole shift, there is no way to establish who watched and who downloaded.
The scope
A system in four layers
Cameras and lenses
Resolution is chosen by computing pixel density for each zone's task: telling a face at the register and seeing a car at the gate are different requirements, and megapixels on their own guarantee nothing. Selection is vendor-neutral — Hikvision, Dahua, Uniview, Reolink, Axis — with ONVIF compatibility.
Network and power
A separate network for the cameras, PoE switches with a power margin, and a UPS that holds not only the recorder but the switch and the cameras — otherwise a blackout leaves the recording running into nothing.
Recording server and archive
A hardware NVR or a recording server, chosen for the task. Surveillance-class disks, an archive depth computed in advance, key clips protected from overwriting, the configuration kept in a backup.
Access and security
A mobile app for viewing, a VPN instead of forwarded ports, personal accounts with roles: who sees the live view, who sees the archive, who exports. Every factory password is changed, firmware gets updated.
The order
Six steps to handover
The survey
The site, the zones and each camera's task, the light and the blind spots. The result is a placement diagram and an understanding of what the recording is meant to show.
Design and estimate
An equipment specification line by line and the work priced separately — an estimate to be read, not taken on faith. The stage dates are fixed here too.
Installation
Cable and mounting are an installation crew's hands, working to the design and under supervision. The design answers for the result switching on.
Commissioning
Aiming and focus, a night test, people detection instead of pixel triggers, checks of recording, access and notifications.
The handover
Passwords, accounts, the diagram and the settings — yours, in writing. Not one account stays tied to somebody else's cloud.
Support
Recording, disks and firmware under watch. Remote diagnostics within hours; a visit — the next working day.
The archive
Depth is arithmetic
Computed in advance
Gigabytes per day are bitrate times 10.8. Eight 4 MP cameras in H.265 for thirty days come to about ten terabytes — a figure known before the disks are bought, not after the surprise.
A terabyte is smaller than it looks
A labelled terabyte holds 931 gigabytes in practice, and smart codecs make depth depend on how much moves in the frame. The calculation carries a margin — otherwise thirty days quietly become twenty-six.
Copies live away from the recorder
RAID is not a backup: it saves nothing from deletion or from the recorder being carried out. The system configuration and the key clips are kept separately.
The price
What it is made of
The survey and the design
A fixed sum, named before the visit. The design stays with you and works for any contractor.
Equipment and the work
Equipment on an open specification: every line and its price visible, with no margin added to the hardware. The work is priced separately: installation to the design, commissioning by node.
Support
Monthly: recording, disks and firmware watched, remote diagnostics, a visit the next working day. You can drop it any month.
A figure before the survey would be an invention — which is why there is none here. After the survey the specification, the cost and the dates are fixed in the design and the contract.
Boundaries
What is not done here
Not a guard service
No monitoring desk, no response crews, no fire alarms: that is licensed security-company work. This is engineering — the design, the network, the server, the setup.
No hidden cameras
Covert recording is not a service. Cameras are visible and the filmed zones carry notices — a recording nobody knew about creates problems for its owner instead of solving them.
No private areas
Washrooms, changing rooms, rest rooms: no cameras there, including at the client's request.
Audio is off by default
Recording sound is a separate, deliberate decision with consequences of its own — not a checkbox in the settings.
Questions
Before you write in
Start
Fill in the brief
Describing the site and what should end up in the frame is enough. The conversation costs nothing; the answer names the system's makeup and what the price would be made of.