What we know, written down
Practical articles on getting electronic security right: the obligations most schemes miss, the standards behind camera choice, and where projects go wrong. Written for the people who have to live with the system afterwards.
Operational Requirements: Why Design Comes Before Quoting
An Operational Requirement sets out what your security system must achieve before anyone chooses equipment. Every item in the final quote then traces back to a reason you gave.
Compliance & Legal
3 articlesThe obligations that come with operating a camera system.
If your organisation uses CCTV to protect property or prevent crime, you almost certainly need to pay an annual data protection fee to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
ReadComing soonCCTV signs are how you meet your legal duty to tell people they’re being recorded.
Read →Topic 13Exporting CCTV Footage: Doing It Right, and Knowing When Not ToRetrieve footage quickly, export it carefully, and check who’s entitled to it before you hand it over.
Read →Getting It Right
11 articlesHow a scheme is decided long before anyone selects a camera, and the site conditions that decide whether it works.
A camera meant to deter is specified differently from one meant to identify someone.
Read →Topic 04Operational Requirements: Why Design Comes Before QuotingAn Operational Requirement sets out what your security system must achieve before anyone chooses equipment.
Read →Topic 06Existing Cabling: What’s Already There MattersNew cabling is often the biggest cost in a CCTV upgrade.
Read →Topic 07Cyber Security: Your CCTV System Is a Network DeviceModern CCTV connects to your network and often to the internet.
Read →Topic 08Working With Your IT TeamModern CCTV runs on your network, so your IT team needs to be involved from the first planning conversation, not on installation day.
Read →DORI (Detect, Observe, Recognise, Identify) measures how much detail a camera captures at a given distance.
ReadComing soonStandards set out what a well-designed system looks like.
Read →Topic 11Lighting: Why Resolution Alone Doesn’t Create DetailA camera can only record the light available to it.
Read →Topic 12Camera-Smart Hybrid LightingSmart hybrid lighting cameras use discreet infrared by default and switch to white light and full colour only when they detect a person or vehicle.
Read →For apartment blocks and managed buildings, door entry is the system residents use every day, and the one most likely to generate complaints when it fails.
ReadComing soonA well-designed hybrid system uses different camera technologies for different jobs on one recorder.
Read →Working With Us
2 articlesWhat the process asks of both sides, and where projects go wrong after the specification is agreed.
None of this is a substitute for a survey
Reading is a start. The scheme you end up with depends on a requirements conversation and a site survey, in that order, before anyone quotes.