The Busy Company Owner’s Guide to CCTV Maintenance

The Basics of CCTV Maintenance Operations

So how do you go about implementing CCTV maintenance in your organization? Where do you start?

As with other operational elements of an organisation, the capital thing about CCTV maintenance is to have a plan. Think about what you want in a CCTV system: you want it to be reliable, predictable, and to provide continuous protection.

Your CCTV maintenance plan should mirror that. It should leave nothing to chance and it should be implemented continuously

The straightforward way to achieve that is to outline and implement a periodic CCTV maintenance procedure. CCTV systems, though extremely diverse, perform a well-understood core set of functions, which makes it easy to compile a comprehensive list of tests and maintenance actions that you can carry out on a regular basis.

These tests and maintenance actions are usually compiled in a CCTV maintenance checklist. The checklist is what keeps your CCTV maintenance procedure reliable and comprehensive. It lists every item that you have to check as part of the maintenance procedure.

Of course, a to-do list is only as good as the way it’s carried out. CCTV maintenance procedures also need a reliable schedule and a clear responsibility chain. In other words, you need to know who does what, and when.

In short, a solid CCTV maintenance procedure should have:

• An adequate and comprehensive CCTV maintenance checklist
• A clear schedule that everyone can adhere to.
• A well-understood responsibility chain — in short, a clear list of who does what.
• Standard operating procedures for common problems

Let’s look at all these things in detail.

The CCTV Maintenance Checklist

The CCTV maintenance checklist is the most important part of your CCTV maintenance procedure, and it’s one of those things where there just isn’t much room for compromise. If you rely on a camera’s feature or capability, then it has to be on the checklist.

Since CCTV cameras have a wide range of features and configuration options, there is no single checklist to rule them all. There is a core set of items that you need to check on all cameras, such as ensuring that the camera lens is clean, but you’ll need to compile one specific to your installation.

The good news? The most important instrument in compiling this checklist is common sense. Engineering expertise, the saying goes, is just common sense and a bit of mathematics.

So what should be on your CCTV maintenance checklist? You want to verify every functional aspect of you CCTV system, including:

• Physical integrity, installation, and environment: is your camera undamaged, and is the ambient environment still adequate?
• Optics: can the camera “see” everything you need it to see?
• Electrical power and data transmission: is the camera adequately powered, and can it transmit data safely and efficiently?
• Mechanical operation: if your camera has any moving parts, do they still move the way they should?
• Control equipment: not just the cameras need to be in working conditions. The computers and networking equipment in your security system need to be in perfect shape, too.
• Software, backup, and storage: is your software working and configured properly? Is everything backed up and stored as it should be?

Let’s take a more detailed look at a CCTV security checklist.

Physical Verification

A visual inspection is the first, and often the most effective CCTV maintenance tool at your disposal. This is where you should start.

• Check that every camera’s casing and mount are damage-free. Outdoors cameras (and some indoors cameras) are often exposed to dust, wind and rain, so the occasional scratch is to be expected, but any cracks or missing pieces should raise the alarm.
• Check that the camera is securely mounted. All screws and bolts should be in place. The mount should be firm — not necessarily rigid, but secure.

• Check any brackets, towers, poles, masts and fixings for signs of physical damage or corrosion.
• Check all connectors, cable fixings and any immediately-accessible cable section. Make sure it’s damage-free. Any cracks or missing pieces should be noted.
• Check all camera seals and glands.
• Clean the casing and mounting components of every camera
• Clean all connectors and cable fixings.
• Clean wash/wipe units and wiper blades. If your cameras have washer reservoirs, fill them up.
• Check that every warning sign is still in place and still visible. Remember — it’s your responsibility to keep people informed about surveillance!

Remember that physical tampering usually leaves physical proof. Screws and connectors don’t come off by themselves — if any of them are missing or show obvious signs of damage, you should check the recordings as well!

Installation Environment

Ambient conditions are an important thing that CCTV system designers and installers consider before picking a type of camera and its location. However, ambient conditions can change, and you need to re-evaluate them periodically.

• Confirm that any cameras mounted under gutters, shields or any other kind of ambient protection are still adequately protected. Ideally, you should document any kind of shielding when the camera is installed. CCTV cameras are surreptitious enough that it’s easy to forget a camera was mounted under a shield!
• Check that all cameras still have an unobstructed view path over the area that they are meant to cover. If any of your cameras are outdoors, ensure its view isn’t covered by shrubs or low-hanging tree branches.
• Check that all cameras cover the right areas. Don’t check just the cameras — look at the images, too. Make sure that all the hotspots you wanted to monitor are still being monitored. Realign the cameras if needed.

• Ensure that all warnings and information signs are visible. Clean the signs that need cleaning, replace the ones that aren’t readable anymore.
• Evaluate any new developments in the ambient environment. Have any new structures been erected, or have any old ones been demolished? Have new entryways been open? You may need to install new cameras — or you may need to realign existing ones if, with a building gone out of their way, they are now pointing towards public areas.

Optics

The optical components of a CCTV camera are critical to its functioning. Optical components tend to be more sensitive to damage than other parts, so you need to be extra careful with them.

• Carefully check all lenses, domes and transparent plastic enclosures for scratches or cracks. If they obscure the view of the camera, replace them.
• Clean all dust or marks off camera lenses. You can use a can of compressed air, then gently wipe all lenses and transparent enclosures. Be firm but careful: a hard grain of sand can scratch a lens, even if it’s being dragged over it by a soft piece of cloth.
• Ensure that images are clear and focused. For zoom-capable cameras, zoom in and out a couple of times and ensure that you get an adequate picture all the time.
• If your cameras have infrared LEDs, ensure that they still provide adequate illumination when it’s dark

• If your cameras have motion detectors, ensure that they still work

Software, Backup and Storage

If you use any additional software to log, archive or process video footage, you need to verify it as well. Your CCTV maintenance procedure should cover not just advanced features, such as automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) and vehicle access logging.

Also, check the basic capabilities as well — video archival and backup, for example. It’s also useful to schedule surveillance logging, archival and supervision operations along with CCTV maintenance operations as well.

• Check your video backups. Make sure that it extends as far back as your retention policy allows it and that archived video can still be accessed.
• Check the access log of your video archive. Ensure it hasn’t been tampered with and make sure no unauthorized access has occurred.
• Erase any footage that is no longer required.
• If you use access control software, check that it’s still working correctly and erase any access logs that are no longer needed
• If you use any advanced video processing software, such as ANPR or facial recognition software, check that it’s still working
• If the firmware of any component of your CCTV system – including the cameras — can be upgraded, apply any pending upgrades. Sometimes upgrades offer only convenient (or not so convenient…) new features, but some upgrades solve critical security problems.
• Check and adjust the date and time on every camera stream.

How Often Should I Schedule CCTV Maintenance?

There are no legal or engineering constraints about how frequently you should schedule CCTV maintenance. Any frequency that allows you to keep equipment in working order is adequate

Your scheduling should be based on the requirements of your organisation, the level of threat you expect, and on the capabilities and requirements of your CCTV system.

As a rule of thumb, any CCTV system should be comprehensively verified at least once a year. Simple CCTV systems, consisting of no more than a few cameras and no advanced software, don’t need that much attention.

You should consider doing a full check-up more frequently if:

• You operate a large or complex CCTV system — one that uses a lot of cameras, advanced software, or both

• The premises you operate in are in a high-risk area

In addition to that, you should do a full checkup any time you observe or suspect that the system has been tampered with, or if you have any reason to suspect that you may be under threat.

You can also schedule some basic inspection and preventative operations more frequently than others. A basic physical inspection of all cameras can catch problems or tampering attempts, and it can be done frequently without much of an impact.

Outlining Responsibilities, Tools, and Standard Operating Procedures

In addition to the maintenance operations themselves, a solid CCTV maintenance procedure involves some administrative effort on the side. A thorough inspection can detect problems, but simply logging them somewhere doesn’t solve anything.

Preventative actions can prolong the life of equipment, but some of it will inevitably break.

It’s important to be ready to deal with problems when they occur.

This usually involves several things:

1. Establishing responsibilit

It’s important to know who performs operations and when. Many organisations, including large ones, supplement basic, frequently-scheduled in-house maintenance operations with more infrequent, but more thorough check-ups by external auditors or experts.

Whatever you choose, it’s important for the checklist not to fall through the cracks of your responsibility chain.

2. Knowing what’s available

It’s also important for everyone to know what equipment and tools they can use. Many problems require only general mechanical tools, like screwdrivers and pliers.

But other problems are more difficult to diagnose and solve, and require more advanced equipment.

For example, cables that can’t be easily accessed over their full length can be difficult to test and diagnose. Specialized equipment, such as time-domain reflectometers (TDRs) may be required in this case.

It’s important to know what CCTV maintenance equipment is available, and to know when more advanced procedures than what’s available need to be performed.

3. Establishing authority and standard operating procedures

Many preventative operations can be performed on the spot. A loose screw can be tightened, a dirty lens can be cleaned.

But what about items that need to be replaced?

Verification is only meaningful insofar as the people performing it know how to take corrective action. That involves guidelines about what purchases can be made with or without approval, what CCTV maintenance tools are available, how to contact suppliers, or which operations require outside expertise and which operations can be performed in-house.

4. Establishing a Documentation Chain

CCTV and security equipment is long-lived, so the history of maintenance operations performed on it can span over many, many years. Furthermore, not all of it is fully performed with in-house personnel.

Consequently, it’s usually a good idea to establish a documentation trail. At a minimum, you should document the following details for each CCTV maintenance procedure:

• What equipment was inspected and when
• What the inspection revealed. If equipment was found to be in working order, document that as well. If information on a piece of equipment is missing, it should mean that the equipment was not inspected, not that it was working fine.
• Any preventative or corrective action, any item repair or replacement
• Who performed each operation? Many mysteries about a piece of equipment have been solved by just asking the right person as opposed to guessing.

5. Improving your Maintenance Procedure

Maintenance sessions are not just a way to keep your system secure. They’re also a good opportunity to improve you maintenance procedure, and you should take advantage of it whenever you can.

If you find that any additional verification, preventative actions or CCTV maintenance tools and equipment are needed, you should document that as well.

Recommendations and Conclusions

CCTV maintenance is an essential component of any organisation’s security strategy. Timely, thorough maintenance is the only way to ensure that a CCTV system can keep you safe 24/7.

Most organisations choose to perform CCTV maintenance procedures based on a checklist. This checklist enables you to verify all relevant functionality in a reliable and traceable manner.

Most items on the checklist apply to any equipment and organisation, but we encourage you to adapt and improve your CCTV maintenance checklist and procedure based on your organisation’s requirements and on your own experience with your own installation.

At the end of the day, a CCTV installation is only a means to an end. No one is a better arbiter of its efficiency and shortcomings than yourself.

But this doesn’t mean you have to do it all yourself. CCTV maintenance is a time-consuming task, especially without the right personnel and the right tools. Luckily, we have both! Let us take CCTV maintenance off your plate so you can focus on what you do best – run your business.

Recommended articles: Guidance on the use of domestic CCTV