Choosing a Video Surveillance System for Your Business
Business cameras do more than deter break-ins. They settle disputes, support insurance claims, protect staff and show what happened when something goes wrong. Picking the right system starts with what your business needs to see and keep, not with a brand.
Start With the Requirements
- Coverage. Entrances, registers, stock areas, parking and loading. Where are the blind spots today?
- Image quality. Can you identify a face or a license plate, not just see that someone was there?
- Retention. How many days of footage do you need to keep? That decides recorder size.
- Access. Who can view live video, who can export clips, and is that logged?
- Locations. One site or several? Can you see all of them from one place?
Local, Cloud or Hybrid
- Local recording keeps footage on a recorder at your site. No per-camera monthly fee, but the recorder has to be protected and maintained.
- Cloud-managed systems, such as Verkada, store and manage footage through a subscription. Easy multi-site management, ongoing cost.
- Hybrid systems record locally and manage centrally. UniFi Protect works this way, and it's a common fit for small and mid-size businesses.
Compliance Matters
Brand choice now has a regulatory side. Hikvision and Dahua are on the FCC Covered List, and the FCC has restricted new equipment authorizations for those brands. If you're buying new cameras, or already run them, factor that into your plan and check current rules before you buy.
Network Design Is Half the Job
Cameras are network devices. They should sit on their own network segment, get firmware updates and never be reachable from the internet without protection. A camera system installed on a flat network is a security risk to everything else in the building.
How We Help
As a Ubiquiti UniFi Professional Integrator, we often design UniFi Protect systems, but we start with your requirements and recommend what fits. You get a design, an install, documentation and admin access in your name.
Ready to plan or replace your camera system? Book an IT assessment.