Coverage designed around how a building is entered.
Intruder detection, access control and camera coverage, set out against the actual approaches to the building rather than the corners of it.
Most camera systems are pointed at the wrong thing.
Cameras get mounted where there is a convenient cable route and a clear corner. That produces wide shots of car parks and nothing usable of a face at a door — which is the only image anybody ever actually needs.
So we start from how the building is approached and where somebody would have to pass: entry points, pinch points, and the one or two places a recognisable image is possible. Then we work out the mounting and the cable.
A camera that cannot identify anyone is a cost, not a deterrent.
What we design and install.
- IP CCTV — cameras, recorders and storage sized to the retention you need
- Intruder detection, wired and wireless
- Door entry and video entry systems
- Access control — fobs, codes and readers, with a leaving process that works
- Gate automation and vehicle access
- External detection and perimeter lighting, coordinated with the lighting scheme
- Remote viewing, configured without leaving the recorder exposed to the internet
- Data protection support — signage, retention periods and a documented policy
- Monitoring — [monitoring partner and contract terms to be confirmed]
- [NSI / SSAIB approval to be confirmed] — required for insurance-grade intruder alarms and police response
Bracketed items are awaiting confirmation from Systems360. Scheme approval determines whether an alarm qualifies for police response or satisfies an insurer, and is not something to claim on a client's behalf.
The same equipment, a different brief each time.
What changes from one commercial site to the next is what is being protected, who has to operate it, and who will ask for the recording afterwards.
On a commercial site
The brief is evidence, access control and an audit trail. Who came in, when, and a recording that still exists when somebody asks for it three weeks later.
- Retention sized to the period you actually need to look back over
- Access control with a documented process for revoking a fob
- Coverage of stock, cash handling and service entrances
- Signage and a retention policy, because CCTV is regulated data
[Second commercial application to be supplied]
[A second kind of commercial site Systems360 has secured — the sector, what that client was protecting, and what made it different from the row above. To be written by Systems360 rather than invented here.]
How a security package actually runs.
Three stages. The survey is the one that decides whether the system is worth having.
Survey and coverage plan
We walk the approaches, agree what is being protected, mark up camera and detector positions, and set the retention period before any equipment is chosen.
Install and cable
Cabling run with the electrical package where the project allows, so the routes exist and nothing is surface-run afterwards.
Commission and hand over
Cameras focused and masked, detection walk-tested, users and fobs set up, remote access configured, and the retention policy and signage documented.
Questions we get before we start.
Do we have legal obligations with CCTV?
Yes. If it covers anywhere beyond your own boundary you are processing personal data — that means signage, a retention period, a policy, and the ability to respond if somebody asks for footage of themselves. We set that up with the system.
Will this satisfy our insurer?
It depends on what they specified. Insurance-grade intruder alarms usually require a scheme-approved installer and a specific grade of system — [scheme approval to be confirmed], and we will tell you plainly before you order.
Can the alarm be monitored?
[Monitoring partner to be confirmed.] Monitoring is an ongoing contracted service rather than part of the installation, and the response available depends on the certification of the system.
How long will recordings be kept?
Whatever you decide, and it drives the storage we size. The common answer is 30 days. Keeping footage indefinitely is both expensive and hard to justify under data protection law.
What happens when somebody leaves?
Their fob is revoked and the change is recorded. A system nobody can audit is the usual reason a former employee still has access two years later, so the leaving process is part of what we set up rather than something bolted on.
[Replace with a real review from a commercial client — ideally one that names the security or CCTV work specifically.]
Security for a home instead?
This page is written for specifiers, contractors and whoever is responsible for a commercial building. There is a separate one for homeowners, covering the same equipment from the other side — what is covered, what reaches your phone, and what happens when it goes off.