A CCTV site visit should leave you with enough information to understand what is being proposed and why. At minimum, that means a purpose for every camera, proposed positions, likely cable routes, the recorder and storage assumptions, and a written record of anything the design will leave uncovered. Larger, shared or more complex sites may also need a formal coverage drawing.
If the only result is a camera count and a total price, too many decisions are still hidden.
Start with the event you need to see
We begin by asking what happened, or what the property owner wants to be able to prove later.
“Cover the driveway” could mean several different things:
- identify a face at the pedestrian entrance;
- read a number plate at the gate;
- see whether a vehicle entered or left;
- record activity around parked cars; or
- provide a wide view of the approach.
Those jobs require different fields of view. A wide camera may show the whole driveway while giving too little detail at the gate. A tighter view can identify a person or vehicle and deliberately gives up much of the surrounding scene.
The site visit should attach one clear purpose to each proposed position. That purpose becomes the test used to judge the live picture at handover.
Stand where the camera will be mounted
Plans and photographs are useful preparation. The proposed position still needs to be checked from the building.
Height changes the angle onto a face or number plate. Eaves, pillars and boundary walls can block the important part of a view. Trees that appear harmless during the day may reflect infrared light at night, while parked vehicles can hide a low entrance from a camera mounted further back.
Around Durban and the North Coast, the same visit should also look at rain paths, salt exposure, cable entry and whether the position can be reached safely for maintenance. The camera model is only one part of whether that position will keep working.
Use a drawing when the site needs one
On a smaller property, the camera names, purposes and positions can usually be recorded clearly in an itemised proposal. Adding a formal drawing may contribute little when every proposed view can be understood during one short walk.
For a larger, shared or more complex site, a coverage drawing becomes useful. It needs a plan or clear site sketch, each camera position, its estimated viewing cone and the proposed cable or conduit route.
We have used this method on shared residential work where the drawing was circulated before installation. A resident reviewing it raised a coverage concern that the site plan alone could not explain. That was exactly what the review was meant to uncover: the people who use a property know which approaches and corners carry the real concern.
The drawing should also show accepted gaps. Writing those down gives the owner a chance to question them while changing a position is still straightforward.
For more detail, see why we show the coverage drawing before installation.
Trace the cable route properly
The distance between a recorder and a camera on a flat plan is only the beginning of the cable calculation. The actual run climbs into roof or ceiling space, follows the available structure, passes around obstructions and drops back to the device. It also needs enough spare cable for termination and future service work.
That route affects labour, materials and sometimes the camera position itself. It can also reveal inexpensive provision worth making while access is open, such as a spare conduit across a driveway or to an outbuilding.
On larger properties, the proposed recorder location should be checked against every run before it is accepted. A central position can shorten cable, while the easiest cupboard on the day may create long routes across the whole site.
Our cable-estimating article explains why plan measurements regularly miss the vertical travel and real route.
Check the recorder, storage and future capacity
The recorder decides how many cameras the system can accept and how footage is stored. During the visit, an existing recorder should be identified by exact model and its used channels, supported camera formats and storage should be checked.
For a new system, the proposal should state:
- how many recorder channels are supplied and how many remain available;
- the storage capacity and the assumptions used to estimate retention;
- whether existing cameras, cable, power supplies or network equipment will be reused;
- what provides backup power to the cameras, recorder and any network equipment; and
- where the recorder will live, including ventilation and service access.
This is where two quotations that appear to cover the same property can separate. One may include every agreed view and room for a later camera; another may reach a smaller recorder’s limit immediately. Our guide to comparing CCTV quotations shows the practical effect.
Retention deserves its own written assumption. The number of cameras, resolution, frame rate, recording behaviour and drive capacity all affect how far back footage remains available. A duration promised during design should be tested again at handover and during maintenance because the recorded result can change as the system changes.
Decide who receives access
The site visit is also the right time to identify who will own the administrator account and who needs viewing or playback rights.
For a home this may be one owner and selected family members. For a business or shared property, the answer can involve a manager, trustees, a managing agent or security staff with different responsibilities. Recording that structure before setup prevents the main account being attached casually to whoever happens to be present during commissioning.
The handover should then show an authorised person how to find, play and export footage. A camera system has not completed its job when live pictures appear on a screen; somebody must be able to retrieve the relevant recording when it is needed.
What you should receive after the visit
Before accepting a CCTV proposal, you should be able to see:
- The purpose assigned to every proposed camera.
- Clear position descriptions, plus a coverage drawing where the site needs one.
- Any area deliberately excluded from coverage.
- The recorder capacity, storage assumptions and allowance for expansion.
- What existing equipment will be reused and what has still to be tested.
- Power, network, mounting and access work included in the quotation.
- Who will own the system account and what the handover will cover.
Some details may remain provisional until equipment is opened or cable routes are exposed. Those uncertainties should be written into the proposal so everyone knows what could change.
What to prepare before we arrive
A floor plan helps, even when it is an estate-agent plan rather than a construction drawing. Also send photographs of an existing recorder’s label and rear connections, and any camera view that has failed or become obstructed.
Think about the incidents or movements the system must record. If an estate or body corporate controls external fixtures, have its rules available. For an existing system, note roughly how far back footage is currently available and who holds the administrator login.
That information makes the visit faster and keeps the discussion focused on the result each camera must deliver.
If you are planning a system in Durban, see our CCTV system design and coverage planning service or request a site visit.
Based on anonymised CCTV planning, quotation, cabling and retention records from 2013 to 2022. No client, property, drawing, address, price or operational camera detail is published. The guidance describes our working method and should be applied to the actual property.