The important considerations when surveying a property stem from understanding how best to leverage the installations of the camera to improve the security of the property. Answering the following questions will help. Setting a budget will also be important. And planning for additional phases of a CCTV installation is prudent.

Key questions to answer:

• Will the cameras be used to ID vistiors before letting them onto the property and/or be monitored regularly by on-site personnel?
• What are the key areas where problems have occurred in the past?
• Where are the entrances and exits to the property (or area)? Often, capturing the incoming and leaving traffic is enough and avoids the cost of covering the entire area.
• What do you hope to do with the data that you collect on the DVR (digital video recorder)? Will it be used by the police or for internal investigations?
• Do you expect the cameras will be vandalized? If so, their mounting and the protection of the wire is very important.
• Is it important to be able to view the data from the DVR remotely? If so, networking the DVR to a high-speed internet connection will be required.

Setting a budget:

As with most capital investments, there will be a range of costs depending upon the scope and quality of work performed. Roughly, the cost per camera installed will be $1000 and the cost for the head end (DVR, power supply, UPS-uninterruptible battery back up) will be $3000 - 10,000 or more depending on the number of cameras and complexity of the system being installed.

Planning to expand the system in the future?:

Our experience is that most customers start small (because of budget, perceived needs or both) and later decide to upgrade the system with more and/or better cameras. For this reason we recommend that you purchase a DVR with a few extra channels so that in the event you want to add a camera or two in the future this will not force you to buy a new, larger DVR.

Call us at (650) 595-4283 and we will help you to consider the alternatives and get a quote that will best meet your long term needs.

In and around vehicle gate systems, we recommend three video "shots" be considered.

• First and most important, is an overview of vehicles traveling through the gate area to capture the ID of the vehicle and show how it opened the gate (transmitter, phone entry, tailgating another vehicle).
• Second is a view of the driver. This requires a camera with excellent resolution mounted at a specific angle toward the driver's window.
• Third is a license plate capture camera. Since all California cars do not have front license plates, this shot needs to capture the rear of the car both day and night and at varying rates of speed. This camera must be proven and excellent quality and must be protected so it is not compromised by vandalism. We recommend the Bosch/Extreme CCTV camera line. We provide special encased mounting to help protect the camera.