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Most CCTV disappoints for the same handful of reasons, and none of them are the camera. Here's how we avoid them.
The thing nobody tells you
People spend on resolution and end up with a very sharp picture of the top of somebody's head. What decides whether footage is any use is where the camera is, what height it's at, what's behind the subject, and what the light is doing at two in the morning. All four are decided on your property, on the day — not from a catalogue.
What we fit
Typically two to six cameras covering the doors, the drive and the back of the house. The recorder lives in a loft or a cupboard, and you watch it on your phone from anywhere.
Shops, workshops, yards and units. Coverage planned around what you actually need to be able to prove — the till, the loading door, the gate — rather than blanket coverage that records nothing useful.
Existing systems
A good share of our work. Systems installed years ago by firms that no longer exist, or that were fitted with the house and nobody ever explained.
Extremely common, and usually silent — the drive failed months ago and nothing said so. Often a cheap fix, and worth checking on any system more than three years old.
Nearly always siting or infrared reflecting off a wall, soffit or window rather than the camera being at fault. Frequently solved by moving it a foot.
The existing cable can very often be reused, which is where most of the cost and all of the mess sits. Worth asking before anyone quotes you for a full rewire.
Send a photo of the recorder and one of a camera on WhatsApp. From those two pictures you'll usually get an honest view on repair versus replace before anyone comes out — and sometimes a fix you can do yourself in five minutes.
Your obligations
If your camera only sees your own property, data protection law doesn't apply to you at all. The moment it captures a neighbour's garden, a shared drive or the pavement, it does — and you become responsible for it, not us.
That sounds worse than it is. It's five reasonable things: don't capture more than you need, put a sign up, keep the footage secure, delete it regularly, and answer within a month if somebody asks for a copy of themselves. We set most of that up as part of the job — privacy masking, the default password changed, sensible retention, and a sign. And you do not have to register with the ICO for home CCTV, which is the bit that worries people most.
Two minutes and you'll have a range on screen. We don't ask who you are until after you've seen it.
