A camera system is a set of decisions before it is a set of cameras: what you need to be able to see, how long you need to keep it, who may look at it and how you will prove you are using it fairly. Get those right and the equipment follows. We design, install and maintain CCTV for offices, shops, clinics, hotels and restaurants, industrial units, car parks and blocks of flats across Birmingham and the West Midlands, and we install it with the Information Commissioner's guidance in mind as well as the picture quality.
What we do
- IP camera systems: fixed, varifocal and PTZ cameras chosen for each scene (an entrance, a till, a yard, a corridor, a car park) with the resolution and the lens that scene needs, not the biggest number in the catalogue.
- Recording: network video recorders sized for the retention period you set, with redundancy where the footage matters, and the recorder locked away rather than left under a desk.
- Remote viewing: secure access from a phone, a tablet or an office PC, set up without opening ports on your router to the internet.
- ANPR: number plate recognition on gates, barriers and car parks, usually tied into the barrier so that known vehicles are let in without a fob.
- Low light and external: cameras that see in the dark, housings for the weather, and the mounting, cabling and power to put them where they need to be.
- Upgrades: replacing analogue systems with IP, often reusing the cable routes, and extending existing systems.
- Maintenance: an annual visit to clean lenses, check views, test recording and remote access and update firmware, with a report.
What you need to see
BS EN 62676-4 describes what a camera has to deliver for an operator to monitor a scene, detect a person, recognise someone they know, or identify a stranger well enough for a court. Each needs more pixels on the person than the one before. We ask what each camera is for, work out the pixel density that purpose needs at the distance involved, and choose the camera and lens from that. It is why two cameras that look the same on paper may be very different in practice, and why we put cameras on a drawing with their fields of view before we quote.
Staying on the right side of the ICO
Footage of people is personal data. The UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 require a lawful basis, clear signage saying that recording is taking place and why, a retention period that you set and keep to, controls on who can view and export footage, and the ability to respond to a subject access request within a month. We install the system to make those things easy: a retention period set on the recorder, named user accounts with the right permissions, export that leaves an audit trail, and the signs. The Information Commissioner publishes the guidance on operating CCTV, and we point every client to it at handover.
Standards and equipment
Systems are designed to BS EN 62676, installed with the cabling to BS EN 50173 and the power to BS 7671, and handed over with the data protection notes above. We are a Hikvision Authorised Partner: trained and authorised by Hikvision to design, install and support its cameras and recorders, which is what we fit on most of our systems because the range is wide, the picture is good for the money and the support in the UK is reliable. Where a client's policy or an existing system calls for another manufacturer, we install that instead.
Often done with
Access control, where a door event can bookmark the recording, and structured cabling, which the cameras run over and which we install ourselves.