Surveillance Cameras Shopping Tips

Are you looking for video surveillance cameras? 

With multiple varieties of cameras to choose from, it can be overwhelming to decide for your business. 

If the chosen cameras are not a good fit, you may find yourself with an unreliable, ineffective system to address your business’s surveillance needs.

Do not navigate this decision on your own, look to the experts at M3T Corporation to help guide you through this decision.

What To Consider When Selecting
Your Security Camera System:

• What problems are you trying to solve – what do you view with your cameras?

Crime and theft are a common concern, and you may want to get a clear face shot of someone entering and exiting a building, or potentially even read license plates of vehicles entering your parking lot. 

For employee monitoring, you may want more widespread coverage without the need for close-ups.  If you expect most of your incidents to occur in the dark or night, powerful infrared or super low lux cameras may be more appropriate. 

For businesses with no-site security actively monitoring the cameras, a pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) camera may be more ideal.

• How many cameras do you need, and do you expect to expand? 

Many brands of cameras are suitable only for a small number of cameras and can be a hassle to view multiple locations at the same time. 

If you anticipate needing a large number of cameras or would like to grow your facility/expand your business, this is something that should be considered from the start of the planning.

• Do you currently have an existing system? 

While IP systems are the next step up in technology, some brands offer hybrid systems that accept both IP and coax inputs. 

This would allow you to reuse the cabling from your existing system, saving the installation team time which translates to a much lower installation price.

• How much storage space do you need?

Many businesses need to be able to come in on Monday and review footage from the weekend if there was an incident. 

Other businesses may not need to review footage for weeks, months, or even years.  Long-term storage can be the biggest portion of the cost of some systems.  It is important to understand the need for storage.

Aimee Mathin

Account Manager