Security · Durham Region
Security camera installation with a local NVR
A camera system is only worth what its footage is worth. Most systems fail at exactly the wrong moment — pointed at the wrong place, recording too few days, or at a resolution that turns a face into four pixels.
At a glance
- PoE cameras with a local NVR on site
- Retention set to what you actually need
- No monthly fee to keep recording
- Remote viewing on phone and desktop
Placement decides whether footage is useful
The single most common problem we find in existing systems is cameras mounted for coverage rather than identification. A camera surveying a whole yard from a high corner shows you that something happened. A camera at head height on the approach path shows you who did it.
A good design uses both: overview cameras for context, and identification cameras at the choke points everyone has to pass through — doors, gates, tills, loading bays.
Why a local NVR is still the right answer for most sites
A network video recorder sitting in your own rack records everything to disk on site. There is no subscription keeping the footage alive, no upload bandwidth consumed all day, and nothing stops working if the internet drops. For a single building with a handful to a few dozen cameras, that is almost always the sensible design.
The trade-offs are real and worth stating: the recorder is a single point of failure, and someone who steals the NVR takes the evidence with it, which is why we site it somewhere secure. Where you need multi-site viewing, off-site copies or analytics, that is a cloud VMS design instead, and we will say so.
Retention, resolution and the storage trade-off
Higher resolution and longer retention both cost storage, and most systems are quietly configured to overwrite far sooner than the owner thinks. Insurance claims and police requests routinely arrive more than a week after the event.
We work out the retention you actually need first, then size storage for it, and show you where to check it. Thirty days is a common commercial requirement; some sectors need more.
What's included
What you get
- Security survey — We walk the site and identify what's being protected and from where.
- Camera plan — Overview and identification cameras positioned for usable footage.
- Cabling & power — Cameras cabled and powered over Ethernet — no wall-wart adapters.
- NVR & storage sizing — Local recorder sized for the retention you actually need, sited securely.
- Remote viewing — Secure access from phone and desktop, set up and demonstrated.
- Camera map & hand-over — Device map, credentials and a walkthrough of the system.
How it runs
The process, start to finish
Every job follows the same shape, so you always know where you are in it.
Security walk
We walk the site with you and identify entry points and blind spots.
Camera plan & quote
Positions, counts, resolution and retention agreed before ordering.
Cable & mount
Runs pulled, cameras mounted and aimed, PoE switching installed.
Configure
Recording schedules, retention, motion zones and alerts set up.
Remote access
Secure viewing configured on your devices and tested.
Walkthrough & sign-off
We show you how to find and export footage. Camera map handed over.
Want this scoped for your site?
Tell us the building and what you're trying to achieve. We'll tell you what it takes — and whether you actually need it.
Common questions
Before you call
How many cameras do we need?
Fewer than most people expect, if they're placed well. A handful of correctly positioned identification cameras beats a dozen wide-angle ones that all show the same unusable overview.
How long is footage kept?
Whatever you need it to be — we size storage to the retention, not the other way round. Thirty days is common for commercial sites. Tell us your requirement and we'll spec to it.
Can I watch the cameras from my phone?
Yes, on phone and desktop, and we set it up and demonstrate it before we leave rather than emailing you an app link.
NVR on site or cloud recording?
For a single building, a local NVR is usually the better buy — no monthly fee, no upload bandwidth, and it keeps recording when the internet drops. Cloud makes sense for multiple sites, off-site copies of footage, or when you want video analytics. We'll tell you which one your site actually needs.
Do you monitor the cameras too?
We offer 24/7 camera monitoring as a separate service. An unmonitored camera records an incident; a monitored one gets a person involved while it's still happening.
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