Why You Need a CCTV System for Your Business

CCTV System Installation Challenges

If you think about it carefully, one of the things that strikes you when you walk into even the most high-security office is that there aren’t really that many cameras around. That’s not because the cameras are concealed, James Bond-style; truly, they are just carefully chosen.

A “put cameras everywhere” approach is not just too expensive – it actually leads to worse results than a more discrete system: the complexity of the additional equipment (cables, power outlets, mounting gear), its maintenance, and the bandwidth requirements become unmanageable.

A proper design, then, needs to use the least amount of equipment that can still provide uninterrupted, reliable, fail-safe surveillance and access control. Not only is this cheaper, but it actually provides the highest level of security for your business. But the efficiency and reliability of a single CCTV camera depends on a great deal of factors, such as:

• Lighting conditions, both natural (sunlight – or lack of sunlight!) and artificial (for example, bright lights saturate sensors or produce glare)
• Installation site (outdoors or indoors, on the ceiling, on a wall, above a door etc.)
• Length of data and power cables, and their exposure to weather or physical tampering

As one would expect, equipment choice is critical as well. Not all cameras are created equal, and they differ in terms of:

• Image quality and frame rate
• Integration with image processing software and/or equipment, implementing features like facial recognition or license plate identification
• Integration with other security equipment, such as access control systems (magnetic door locks, intercoms etc.)
• Physical integrity and tampering protection

It is tempting to start with the latter (what equipment to deploy) and then worry about the former (where to deploy it), because that is where most of the visible expenses are, but the correct approach is actually the other way around.

The initial survey is perhaps the most critical step of a successful surveillance system deployment. The objective of this process is to identify the areas that need to be surveyed (and, if needed, restricted). Typical candidates are access points and areas of special interest, such as work areas or server rooms.

Your input is, of course, invaluable to the security engineer performing the survey. A trained eye can easily recognise “hot spots” on your premises, but no one knows them better than you.

For most small and medium-sized companies, identifying critical areas is a fairly straightforward process, as the offices are fairly small and have only a couple of access points. It is, nonetheless, important to perform it carefully, as there are legal requirements which need to be taken into account when planning CCTV deployment. For example, public areas can only be surveyed under specific conditions and have strenuous data protection requirements.

Identifying installation site is also critical to equipment choice because it results in certain installation requirements. Ideally, CCTV cameras should be deployed so that both the camera and any additional equipment, such as power cables, are out of reach for any potential intruder. When that is not possible, cables and power sources should be at least made tamper-proof, by installing them inside protected conduits, for example.

These requirements are not one-off recommendations – they are actually industry-accepted practices. In the UK, many such requirements are formalised by bodies such as the National Security Inspectorate (NSI). These recommendations span a wide range of topics, from electrical safety to integration with access control systems and from employee data protection to data retention policies, and augment the already rich set of legal requirements of British law.

Equipment selection is the other critical component of successful CCTV camera deployment. Unfortunately, whereas site selection is governed by a set of industry-accepted rules, the path to correct equipment selection is far less clear. As with site selection, though, you requirements and budget should drive the selection process.

CCTV camera prices span a disarmingly large interval. You should not let the low end of that interval fool you, though. Up to a point, CCTV manufacturers and resellers set prices based on advanced features and performance characteristics. Past that point, driving prices further down can only be done by compromising on quality.

Poor build quality leading to short lifetimes and unexpected failures is the most obvious risk, but threats are more diverse than that. For example, a recent Cloudview study found many cases of cameras with faulty firmware which allowed attackers to disable the cameras remotely or to gain access to their video feeds.

Nowadays, even the tightest budget constraints can be met by high-quality CCTV cameras. The right compromise is based on selecting the equipment that meets the right requirements – your requirements; CCTV manufacturers have portfolios of tens, hundreds, sometimes thousands of models precisely because the needs of their customers are so diverse.

Many companies need only basic surveillance and minimal integration with access control systems. Or, they may have an older surveillance system in place, which they want to modernize over a longer period of time, starting with the most critical components. Such requirements can be met within the limits of a relatively modest budget, without compromising on security.

More complex requirements are becoming increasingly common, though. Many companies, especially in data-sensitive fields such as financial and legal consulting, need to implement complex access control and logging schemes (such as allowing access to restricted areas only to selected individuals and archiving video footage of every access attempt). In this case, the challenge of choosing the right equipment is augmented by the challenge of integrating CCTV cameras with these systems. Oftentimes, these systems will be selected and deployed at the same time.

Regardless of your specific requirements, the choice of equipment to be installed should take into account both your current needs and your short- and medium-term growth expectations. These will help you make a proper acquisition and maintenance plan, and will make your investment future-proof.

Equipment installation is the final piece of the puzzle. Most of the challenges of CCTV systems installation will have been isolated and understood in the initial survey, and what remains is a proper implementation.

“Proper implementation” makes it sound easy, but most technicians and engineers will tell you that security systems are some of the most challenging electrical systems to install. Not only do security systems need to be installed so that they are electrically safe and efficient, they also need to be:

• Safe and reliable in the long run, as CCTV equipment often needs to run unattended and must not fail unexpectedly
• Tamper-proof, as disabling surveillance systems is often the first concern of a determined intruder
• Easy to maintain, which involves consistent cable management and labeling, good quality cable routing etc.

Meeting these requirements requires high-quality tools but, more importantly, a wide set of skills that are developed over many years of professional development and training.

The security industry itself recognises the importance of these aspects, to the point where some high-end manufacturers of surveillance and access control equipment offer their own training and certification procedures, independent of country-specific government bodies. ACCL, for example, is a registered access control installer for Paxton, a UK-based leading manufacturer of security solutions.

Choosing the best CCTV installers

As we have seen, choosing and installing the right CCTV equipment requires a great deal of special expertise. This is why so many companies in London, and throughout the UK, choose to work with a CCTV installation service provider, rather than handle CCTV selection and deployment in-house. The highly specific know-how is difficult and expensive to acquire in-house, and realistically, few companies need to have it on their payroll permanently.

We cannot make the choice for you, but we can recommend a few criteria based on which you can make the best selection for your security systems partner:

• Customer-specific designs and installation services are the most important. The choice of equipment and installation site should be tailored to your own needs, and based on a careful survey of your premises. These are difficult to verify in advance, but you can at least discuss a provider’s portfolio and build an understanding of how they chose what to install and where for their previous clients.

• Familiarity with legal requirements specific to surveillance equipment is also something you should look for. Once you sign off, you are responsible for your equipment – and bear the legal responsibilities! This type of expertise is difficult to verify extensively, but your potential partner should at least be able to explain what the primary legal concerns are, whether there are any specific demands that you need to meet in this regard, and why.

• Technical expertise is the indispensable trait of any CCTV installer you choose. This is the most difficult to evaluate directly, but you can get an idea about its depth based on a company’s portfolio and case studies. Technical skills may be hard to verify without being an expert in the field, but the result of their application often speak for themselves.

Conclusions

The economic and social climate of our days makes security systems vital for almost every UK company. CCTV cameras are an essential component of these systems. Choosing and installing CCTV cameras is a fairly complicated process, though, and many companies choose to work with a service provider rather than growing and maintaining this highly-specialized expertise in-house.

Choosing the right partner is therefore essential for your company’s security strategy – and no easy task, either. CCTV installers need to be able to devise project plans tailored to your needs and the specifics of your premises, must be familiar with the legal requirements of deploying a surveillance system, and possess the technical expertise required to properly install it.

At ACCL we make it our mission to ensure that your business is safe. We can help you choose the best cameras for your London headquarters and make sure the CCTV system installation is flawless. With more than two decades in the business, we know all the ins and outs of the industry!

Get in touch with us for a FREE, no-obligations survey. Our engineers and technicians will visit your office in London, take measurements and discuss your security needs with you. Afterwards, you will receive a full report and recommendations on enhancing your security.

Services mentioned in this post: CCTV, Access Control Installation IP Security

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