CCTV, fire, access control and BMS, designed the way we design a data centre
Most security system projects are sized on a rough camera count and a single vendor's quote. We work out what has to be seen, how long footage must be kept, and what the network and storage need to carry that load, then size the project to match, the same discipline we use for data centre and cloud design. One team, one point of contact, from the coverage plan through to the annual maintenance contract.
Two engagements, under one roof
Supply, Installation, Testing & Commissioning (SITC)
CCTV (NVR/VMS-based or cloud-based), fire detection and suppression, access control, and the network infrastructure that carries all of it, specified, procured through a vendor-neutral process, installed, tested and commissioned against a written acceptance checklist.
Annual Maintenance Contracts (AMC)
Ongoing AMC for CCTV, fire systems, access control and the entire BMS, and for the network infrastructure underneath them, covering preventive visits, break-fix response times, firmware and software updates, and spares.
Four problems we see again and again
Camera count comes before the coverage plan
A number gets fixed early, and the layout is forced to fit it. Parking ramps, stair cores and blind corners end up uncovered while open areas get duplicate coverage.
Storage is sized on guesswork
Retention (30, 60 or 90 days) gets agreed after the NVRs are already bought. Either the site runs out of storage in month two, or it has paid for capacity it never needed.
The network was not built for this load
Two hundred-plus IP cameras streaming continuously is a serious amount of sustained traffic. On a network designed for office data, playback stutters and recordings drop frames exactly when they are needed most, after an incident.
Nobody owns it after handover
The installer leaves once cameras are up. Firmware, failed drives, expired warranties and access control user lists then have no clear owner, and the system quietly degrades, which is exactly what an AMC exists to prevent.
The two numbers that decide everything else
Coverage is which areas must be seen, at what level of detail. A car park entry lane needs enough resolution to read a number plate; a lift lobby needs enough to recognise a face; a boundary wall mainly needs to show that someone is there. These are different camera and lens choices, not the same camera repeated everywhere.
Retention is how many days of footage must stay available, usually set by a management or compliance requirement (commonly 30 to 90 days). Retention, resolution and frame rate together decide how much storage every camera needs, NVR-based or cloud-based, and that number, multiplied across the site, decides the network and server design.
Get these two right first and the rest, cameras, switches, recording platform, storage, cabling, follows as a calculation rather than a guess.
Sizing a large residential or campus rollout
For a multi-tower residential complex or a corporate campus with parking across stilt and basement levels, the arithmetic looks roughly like this. These are planning figures to sanity-check a quote against, not a final design.
| Item | Basis | Planning figure |
|---|---|---|
| Cameras | Entry/exit lanes, ramps, lobbies, stair cores, common areas across towers and parking levels | 200 to 260 for a large multi-tower site |
| Storage per camera | 4MP, H.265, continuous recording, 60-day retention | ≈ 220–260 GB per camera |
| Total raw storage | 250 cameras × ≈ 240 GB | ≈ 58–62 TB, before RAID overhead |
| Network | Managed PoE+ switches per block, fibre backbone to a central server room | Sized to sustained load, not burst, with headroom for growth |
| Recording platform | NVR/VMS, split by tower or zone for resilience, or a cloud-based platform where bandwidth allows | Clustered or distributed, not one single point of failure |
| Access control | Main gates, tower entries, amenity areas | Card, biometric or app-based, integrated with the same platform |
Actual figures depend on resolution, compression, frame rate, and how many cameras genuinely need continuous recording versus motion-triggered. We work these out against your specific site before any number goes into a proposal.
Choosing where footage lives
| Option | What it means | Good for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| NVR/VMS on site | Recording and storage kept on local servers at the site | Large camera counts, limited internet bandwidth, full control over data | Local power, cooling and physical security for the server room; a local backup plan |
| Cloud-based recording | Footage uploaded and stored with a cloud video platform | Smaller sites, multi-site visibility from one dashboard, less on-site hardware | Sustained upload bandwidth per camera, and ongoing subscription cost at scale |
| Hybrid | Local NVR for full-resolution continuous recording, cloud for remote viewing and alerts | Sites that want local reliability and remote visibility together | Two systems to keep in sync and maintain |
We size both options against your actual bandwidth and camera count and recommend one, rather than defaulting to whichever a vendor sells.
How an SITC engagement runs
- Site survey and coverage plan. A walk-through of the actual site, towers, parking levels, gates and common areas, marking every camera position, lens type and blind spot on a drawing, not a spreadsheet guess.
- Agree retention and detail level per zone. Entry lanes, lift lobbies and boundaries each get the resolution and retention that zone actually needs, signed off with whoever owns security for the site.
- Size the network, storage and platform. PoE switch count, fibre backbone, NVR/VMS or cloud capacity and total storage, calculated from the coverage plan, with the assumptions shown so the number can be checked.
- Prepare a vendor-neutral bill of quantities. Camera, recording platform, fire panel, access control, switch and cabling specifications written so multiple vendors can quote against the same requirement, rather than a single brand's catalogue.
- Install, integrate and commission. Camera placement, cable testing, fire detection and access control enrolment, integration with a security operations desk or guard room where one exists, and sign-off against a written commissioning checklist.
- Test, hand over and move to AMC. Every camera checked against its intended coverage, recording and playback verified at the agreed retention, and the AMC starts the same day, so there is no gap between installation ending and maintenance beginning.
What the AMC covers
| Scope | What is included |
|---|---|
| CCTV | Scheduled preventive checks, camera and NVR/VMS health, storage health and capacity alerts, firmware updates |
| Fire detection and suppression | Panel and detector checks, battery backup verification, scheduled testing against the agreed schedule |
| Access control | Reader and controller health, user and credential list upkeep, software updates |
| Network infrastructure | Switch, PoE and cabling health checks underneath all the above systems |
| BMS | Sensor, controller and integration checks across the building systems connected to it |
| Response | Agreed break-fix response times, with spares held for common failure points |
OEMs we have hands-on depth with
Vendor-neutral means we recommend on fit, not on a reseller margin. It does not mean we are unfamiliar with the hardware. Across CCTV, video management, fire detection and access control, we have real deployment experience with the brands below, and we use that depth to write a bill of quantities that any of them, or a comparable brand, can be quoted against fairly.
| Category | OEMs we specialise in |
|---|---|
| CCTV cameras | Bosch, Axis Communications, Pelco, Hanwha Techwin, Honeywell, Hikvision, CP Plus, Matrix |
| Video management software (VMS) | Milestone, Genetec, Videonetics, Matrix |
| Network infrastructure | Cisco, Dell, HPE switches and PoE infrastructure |
| Servers and storage | Dell, HPE |
| Fire detection, addressable & conventional | Bosch (FPA 5000, FPA 8000), Hochiki, EST, Notifier, Apollo, GST |
| Access control | Genetec, Honeywell WIN-PAK, Bosch AMS, Lenel, CEM Systems by Tyco |
We size and specify against the brand, or mix of brands, that fits your site and budget, not a single preferred supplier. A different brand your procurement team prefers is rarely a problem; the design principles above stay the same either way.
What you get at the end
- Camera coverage drawing, zone by zone
- Retention and resolution plan, signed off by the site owner
- Network, storage and platform sizing, with assumptions shown
- Vendor-neutral bill of quantities for open quoting
- Access control and fire system design and enrolment plan
- Commissioning checklist and handover report, with an AMC in place from day one
Sites we design for
- Residential societies and gated communities, including multi-tower, multi-basement parking
- Corporate campuses and office parks
- Retail chains and warehouses
- Educational campuses
- Fire detection, access control and BMS alongside CCTV, on the same network design
The rest of what we do
Physical security runs on the same network, servers and storage as everything else we design. If your site also needs the data centre, cloud or network infrastructure behind these systems sized and built, that is the same team.
Planning a large CCTV, fire, access control or BMS rollout?
Send us the site layout and the number of towers, levels or entry points. We will come back with a plain coverage and sizing view, cameras, storage, network, before you commit to a vendor quote.