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CCTV Installation for Warehouses & Industrial Sites

CCTV Installation for Warehouses & Industrial Sites

Warehouses, distribution centres and factories are demanding environments for CCTV. High bays, reflective racking, harsh lighting and busy loading yards make it easy to miss faces, plates and incidents when it matters. Add shift working, contractor access and multiple buildings and you need a system that delivers clear, actionable footage, holds its retention, and is simple for Ops, H&S and Security teams to use—without disrupting production.

ACCL designs and installs industrial-grade CCTV across London, Surrey and Kent. We specify lenses and mounting that work in high aisles and open yards, right-size storage to your retention policy, and commission a Video Management Storage with role-based access and fast exports. Everything is built on tidy, labelled infrastructure so incidents are rare and response is quick. For an overview of options and costs, see our CCTV Installations guide.

Why warehouse CCTV fails (and how we fix it)

  • Too wide, too high = unusable faces. Cameras mounted above high-bay racking or framed too wide cannot deliver identification at choke points. We set target distances and choose optics to meet them.
  • Glare, IR bloom and motion blur. Sodium/LED lighting, bright dock doors and vehicle headlights wreck image quality. We specify Wide Dynamic Range sensors, correct IR, and exposure tuned for moving plant.
  • Coverage gaps at the real risks. Aisle ends, mezz stairs, cage doors and dock faces are often blind spots. We design to people and vehicle flows, not just a neat grid.
  • Storage that shrinks in peak season. Bitrates rise with motion; your “30 days” becomes 11. We model bitrate with margin and apply sensible rules (continuous at docks/entrances; motion elsewhere).
  • Mixed kit & weak naming = slow exports. Investigations stall when devices are inconsistent. We standardise the VMS and naming scheme so exports take minutes, not hours.
  • Cabinet chaos. Hot, messy racks cause intermittent camera drops. A cabinet reset stabilises everything (quick win: Data Cabinet Tidy).

Planning fundamentals and trade-offs are covered in our guide: CCTV Planning & Design.

Coverage that matches how sites actually work

Loading bays & yards
Tight fields of view on dock faces for face/plate capture; low-light turrets/bullets with tuned IR and anti-glare for night operations. ANPR at gates can automate logs and black/whitelists.

Aisle ends & cross-aisles
Closer framing at aisle mouths rather than high, wide views. Where height demands it, we use varifocal lenses and angles that avoid racking occlusion and keep faces in the identification zone.

Mezzanines, stairs & catwalks
Corridor-mode streams preserve pixels along long runs; overlapping views at landings remove hiding spots.

Cages, high-value stores & tool rooms
Higher detail on entry points and benches; audio where policy allows; simple bookmarks and tags make investigations quick.

Perimeters & car parks
Low-light models and IR tuned to the scene; thermal imaging for intruder detection or H&S hot-spot monitoring where appropriate (see Thermal Imaging CCTV Installation).

Network, power & storage engineered for uptime

  • Clean, labelled PoE to every camera with correct budgeting; segregation from power and compliant containment.
  • Resilient backhaul via fibre or copper uplinks sized for motion peaks and weather events, with diverse routing where practical (see Fibre-Optic Installation Services).
  • Right-sized storage modelled on codec, resolution, frame rate and motion profiles so your retention really holds (compare variables in our CCTV Installation Cost Guide).
  • Health monitoring & alerts to flag failures and blocked views before they become gaps.
  • Documented infrastructure—outlet schedules, patching matrices and as-builts—so MTTR is minutes, not days. If the baseline is unknown, start with a quick Cabling & Network Audit.

If long runs, interference or building separations are the constraint, we design the wired layer first; where buildings are split, engineered inter-building links keep remote cameras stable (background: Point-to-Point Wireless Links).

VMS & evidence handling that simplify your day

  • Role-based access for Operations, H&S and Security with audit logs for who viewed/exported what and when.
  • Maps, bookmarks & time-sync speed export for incidents at docks, cages and aisle ends.
  • One-click, watermarked exports acceptable to HR, insurers and police.
  • Multi-site federation if you manage several depots from a central control room.
  • Hybrid/cloud options aligned to your data policy for resilience and remote review (see considerations in our knowledge base on cloud vs on-prem storage).

Safety, compliance & working at height

  • RAMS and permits covering MEWP use, segregation, dust/noise controls and hot-works where needed.
  • Fire-stopping & LSZH: penetrations sealed to maintain compartmentation; low-smoke, zero-halogen materials where required.
  • Change windows aligned to shifts; noisy works evenings/weekends; clear daily reinstatement.
  • Contractor controls: inductions, sign-in/out and tool inventories as standard.

Where access control, turnstiles or intercoms are part of your security, we design cabling and policies so events link to video cleanly (see Commercial Access Control Installation). For single-pane security operations, cameras can sit under a unified IP Security System Installation.

Benefits for Ops, H&S and Security

  • Usable evidence, first time, faces at docks and aisle ends, plates at gates, clear views in low light.
  • Faster investigations thanks to consistent naming, maps and bookmarks.
  • Lower shrink & safer sites, visible coverage at the right points deters theft and improves incident response.
  • Predictable costs, storage sized once; tidy cabinets and certified links prevent emergency firefights.
  • Future-ready, headroom for analytics, additional cameras and multi-site federation as you grow.

FAQs

Do we need 4K cameras in high bays?
Not everywhere. Identification comes from framing and lensing at the right distance. We reserve higher resolution for choke points and docks, and use corridor-mode where it preserves pixels.

Can we reuse existing cameras and cabling?
Often. We test what’s sound and target upgrades where they deliver identification, reliability or retention compliance.

How long should we keep footage?
We’ll align retention to your policy and risk profile (e.g., 30/60/90 days) and enforce it in the VMS so it doesn’t silently drift.

Will installation disrupt operations?
Noisy works are out-of-hours. Daytime tasks are low-impact and zoned. Each area is validated and handed back before shifts resume.

Can you cover remote yards and ancillary buildings?
Yes. We use weather-rated cameras and engineered inter-building links or fibre, with lightning protection and enclosure specs appropriate to the site.

Can we integrate access control events with video?
Yes—door/turnstile events and alarms can trigger video bookmarks and alerts for faster triage.

Next steps

If dock footage is blurred, aisle ends are blind spots or storage keeps running short, it’s time to fix the foundations.

Book a no-obligation industrial CCTV survey and we’ll map risks, model coverage and deliver a phased, GDPR-ready upgrade plan that fits your shift patterns.