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How to Install CCTV

Summary of Article
In this detailed article, we look at how to install CCTV with input and experience from
Techcube’s CCTV installers and owner Vimal Mahes. The guide takes you through the
complete CCTV installation process as used by a CCTV installer. Although we use an
example of home CCTV installation, the principles can easily be applied to business CCTV
installation, such as CCTV for retail shops. In this article we use the term DVR (Digital Video
Recorder) but this could also be an NVR (Network Video Recorder).

As well as installing CCTV systems, Techcube also supply equipment, including CCTV
cameras, DVRs, NVRs and also tools to carry out CCTV installation. Please contact us here.

We will cover the following topics – click on a topic to jump to that point in the article.
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CCTV Camera System Installation and Setup Steps
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 CCTV System Planning
Where to position CCTV cameras?
Drawing a Diagram of House and Garden
Buy a CCTV Kit or Individual Components?
Deciding on the Recorder’s Storage Space
Tools You Need for CCTV Installation
How the CCTV System is Connected Together
How to Prepare a Property for CCTV Installation?
How to Run CCTV Cables
Connecting the Network Cable from DVR to Internet Router
How to Install CCTV Cameras
Installing the DVR
Connecting the CCTV Monitor to DVR
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Testing and Troubleshooting Your CCTV System

Setting up DVR/NVR and Configuration
Network Setup to Connect to the Internet
Conclusion

CCTV System Planning

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” – Benjamin Franklin
Planning and preparation is central to installing your CCTV system successfully.

In this section we cover:

Where to position CCTV cameras?
Drawing a diagram of house and garden

Where to Position CCTV Cameras?

Firstly, you need to assess where to position your CCTV cameras.

CCTV Installation Type Where to Position CCTV Cameras

House External front entrance, side entrance, back

Techcube Limited entrance, all windows and doors. Driveway
4.8 for car. Storage areas, back and front
Based on 173 reviews garden, summerhouse, shed. Some houses
 have an alleyway at the rear with a
detached garage so cover this too.

Aisles, shelves, fridges, freezers, checkout

Retail Store
area, entrance, exit.

For health and safety, stairways, outside

lift area, entrance and exit, communal
Office
areas like canteen and server room/
comms room.

Islands (pumps), entrance and exit, retail

Petrol Station
sections inside shop, checkout.
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Loading bay, entrance and exit, fire exits,

machinery operation areas covered for
health and safety, external compressor/ oil
Warehouse
storage areas. Communal areas, working
areas for health and safety, e.g. production
and packing areas.

Other Areas For example, storage locker areas.

Drawing a Diagram of House and Garden

It is very useful when working out where to position CCTV cameras to draw a diagram of
your property like the one below. This makes it clear before you start where the cameras
need to be placed to maximise security and the effectiveness of the CCTV system.

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Buy a CCTV Kit or Individual Components?

A CCTV kit comes with everything you need for CCTV installation and is ready to use
straight away, however, there are several disadvantages of CCTV kits. They usually use a
maximum length of 18 metre ready-made cables. There is the limitation that the DVR
(Digital Video Recorder) or NVR (Network Video Recorder) can only be a maximum of 18
metres from the cameras and that is often not ideal. With premade cables there is a
disadvantage in that you will need to make a larger hole in the wall as the cables already
have connecters on them. We need 75 Ohm cable and premade cables are usually not
capable of this. At night, when night vision activates, a higher current (ampage) is required
to power the LEDs on the camera, and ready-made cables cannot supply the required
current for these,
Techcube resulting in dimmed LEDs and darker CCTV footage.
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Professional CCTV systems are never supplied as a kit, so Techcube recommends buying
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individual components. Kits are for entry level systems and generally have poor quality
 components. Kits come supplied with unbranded products that are not widely recognised
and therefore support is difficult. Techcube has often seen unbranded products and
another issue with them is that it is difficult to identify the product and therefore support
and maintain it. So, rather than saving money, the customer will usually end up changing
to a branded camera and DVR and so on.

Buying individual components has many advantages, including that you can buy exactly
what you need for your CCTV installation and circumstances and you can buy individual
components in line with your budget. Also, for example, cameras have different lenses for
different purposes, close range and longer range. If mounting a camera in a low position,
an anti-vandal body camera can be used so the camera cannot be vandalised, and your
system retains integrity. You can mix and match the quality of cameras; sometimes using a
4K camera and for other areas using 2K cameras and for yet other areas using 1080p HD.
So, you can reduce costs for lower spec cameras where the highest quality isn’t strictly
necessary. You can also buy different shaped cameras for different purposes, for example
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bullet and dome shapes. Furthermore, you can choose different coloured cameras like
white, black or grey to match the surrounding colour, for example, under oak windows or
near black guttering you might choose a black camera. To find out more about how CCTV
cameras work, please read our post about CCTV explained.

With a CCTV kit, the system for connecting the video and power cables is one camera one
junction box. These need to be weatherproof. Junction boxes can look unsightly as seen in
the image below. With a customised CCTV system, you can use a base ring on cameras that
keeps cables neat and tidy as seen in the image below.

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CCTV camera and junction box

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CCTV camera with base ring

You can buy a CCTV monitor of any size or use a TV. For a 4K system you will need a 4K
DVR/NVR, 4K cameras and a 4K TV. For 1080p cameras use a standard HD TV.

With a CCTV kit the power supply for the cameras depends on the number of cameras. A
kit has a laptop style power supply, so anyone can tamper with it and turn it off. When
buying individual components, a decent choice for powering cameras is a ‘box’ power
supply with locking key, and this can be directly connected to a fuse spur.

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GET YOUR FREE QUOTE Box CCTV power supply

Laptop style CCTV power supply

Usually if you are using IP cameras, use Cat 5 or Cat 6 (for more than 300 metres run
length) cable which comes in boxes of 305 metres.

For analogue HD cameras use shotgun cable (RG59 twin, for power and video together).
This is supplied in rolls of 100 metres.

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Cat 5 and Cat 6 cable
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Shotgun cable

Deciding on the Recorder’s Storage Space

When buying a CCTV system you need to plan and calculate how many days of recording
you require. Ask your CCTV company for help on this.

A CCTV kit will come with predefined hard drive capacities, whereas if you visit a CCTV shop
and choose a hard drive as part of your individual CCTV components, you can choose the
hard drive size more precisely to fit your needs. Once selected, the CCTV shop will connect
the hard drive to the DVR rather than provide as separate units. Most kits come without a
hard drive and you need to buy this separately and install into the DVR, which can be
problematic.

Tools You Need for CCTV Installation

Ladder
Power drill
Drill bits – including masonry bits
Electric heavy-duty screwdriver
Small screwdrivers
Pencil and Limited
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Hammer
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BNC crimp tool
Cable stripper
 Cutter and Stanley knife
Pliers
Safety goggles, helmet, boots
Cable Rod Set & Fish Taps to feed cables in awkward places
Electrical tape to stick cables to rod
Labels to mark cable
Raw plugs
Electrical meter to check electricity
Video test monitor to plugin directly to camera, to adjust angle of camera
Network test tool

How the CCTV System is Connected Together

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How to Prepare a Property for CCTV Installation?

First, you need
Techcube to decide where to keep the DVR/NVR. For example, it could be in the loft,
Limited
office
4.8or near the TV. Cables need to run from the cameras to the DVR/NVR and an internet
cable needs
Based to run
on 173 from DVR/NVR to the internet router. You need to think about how to
reviews

do this to minimise visibility of cables. Vimal, Techcube’s owner, says “I recommend

 keeping the video recorder in the loft or on the first floor where there are rooms so that
the cables cannot be tampered with easily – if stored upwards, a criminal cannot easily
reach into the loft”.

Unlike a CCTV kit, where cables are pre-terminated with connectors, making up the cables
allows a small hole to be drilled into walls for cables, as there are no connectors on the
cable at this stage.

Do a survey to identify the location of cameras for the best view to protect your property.
In line with that, choose the location of each camera. A minimum requirement is to
position the cameras at least 10 feet high to prevent them easily being tampered with.
Then, go inside the building and decide on an option where there is less visibility of cable
from the camera to the DVR. The more hidden the cable is, the better for security.

Then you need to check for any pipes or cables inside the wall with a cable/pipe multi
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detector. Then drill holes in the wall from the inside to the outside. Once you have drilled
holes and placed cables then at the end of the process, use silicone sealant to seal the hole
to prevent water ingress into the property. Sealant comes in a variety of colours and is
available at DIY stores.

Cable/pipe multi detector

How to Run CCTV Cables

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Once holes have been drilled in the walls, you are ready to run the cable throughout the
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CCTV system. Hide cable where you can and if the cable is external to the property, use
 conduit for better security and longevity of the cable.

For cable inside the building, for carpeted areas, lay the cable underneath the carpet, or if
floor boards, wooden or concrete floors, use trunking to lay the cable near skirting board,
higher up the wall or near ceiling/coving.
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If you are using IP cameras, then a Cat 5 or Cat 6 cable is required. If using analogue HD
cameras, you need to connect with BNC cable and a DC pin connector for power. There are
a few types of BNC connector: 3 piece BNC is most commonly used and there are others
called BNC 2 piece, BNC twist on and BNC screw on. Professionals use the BNC 3 piece,
because it’s more solid and robust, but you need a BNC crimp tool to attach connectors to
the cable. BNC twist on and screw type can be used by a novice as they are easy to use,
and you don’t need a crimp tool.

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BNC 3 piece connector

BNC 2 piece connector

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BNC twist on connector

BNC screw on connector

Once the camera end is completed then go to the other end of the cable next to the DVR.
The same connector will be used at both ends. For an analogue HD camera, run the power
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supply cable to the camera.
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For IP cameras up to 16 channels (16 cameras) are possible on an NVR with the built-in
network POE port (Power Over Ethernet). If more than 16 channels are required then POE
 switches can be added, as the NVR only has capacity to power 16 cameras.

Connecting the Network Cable from DVR to Internet

Router
Run a network ethernet cable (Cat 5 or Cat 6) from the DVR to the internet router. If you
need a short run of cable then a normal computer ethernet cable will suffice, but for
longer runs you will need to buy the cable and RJ45 connectors and crimp both ends of
cable and add connecters. Please see the connection diagram below.
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Colour coordination for connecting router to DVR

How to Install CCTV Cameras

Identify your objectives and be clear about what you are trying to achieve. For example,
do you want the CCTV camera to cover the entrance of your property, a larger space or a
particular area.
Based on your objectives, choose a location and height for the camera.
Then mark with a pencil where the three screws go for the bracket that comes with the
camera.
Then drill three holes for the screws and insert a raw plug, mount the bracket and then
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attach the camera.
4.8 camera connection: the cable we ran in the previous section is near the camera
CCTV
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you just mounted. For IP cameras, connect the Cat 5 or Cat 6 to the camera and for
 analogue HD connect the video and power cables to the camera. Then connect the other
end of the camera cable to the DVR/NVR. Once the camera is connected to the DVR,
repeat the same procedure for the other cameras.

Installing the DVR

Once the cameras have been installed and connected then:
Unpack the DVR or NVR from the box.
Remove the cover of the DVR by removing screws.
Connect the power and data cable from DVR/NVR to hard disk.
Close and secure the DVR case.
Connect the DVR to a power socket and then turn on the DVR.
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Connecting the CCTV Monitor to DVR

Then connect the CCTV monitor to the DVR and turn on the monitor. It’s recommended to
connect the monitor by HDMI for higher resolution and better quality. Alternatively, use a
VGA connection.

Testing and Troubleshooting Your CCTV System

Once everything is connected and powered on, you should see the camera images on the
monitor. It will be a split screen, so if you have four cameras you will see four images, one
for each camera.

If you don’t see any camera images, then the first thing to check is that the box power
supply is switched on and connected properly.

If you see images for some of the cameras but not for others then check the connections
and network clips, RJ45 connectors for IP cameras and BNC connectors for analogue HD
cameras.

If there is still no image for a camera then check the power cables are connected correctly,
are positive and negative connected the right way around?

If it’s still not working, then check if the cable is damaged – test with a video test monitor
with the continuity function. The camera can be powered up with the video test monitor
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itself and then the video cable of the camera can be connected directly to the video test
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monitor,
Based so
on if
173a camera
reviewsis powered up and you can see image on the video test monitor
 that means that the camera is working fine. If the camera doesn’t power up and there is no
image, then the camera is faulty, so you need to replace it.

If you do see an image on the video test monitor for the camera in question where you
cannot see the image on the DVR monitor, that means the fault is in the video or power
cable to the DVR. If it’s an IP camera you can use a network test tool or sometimes a
network test tool is built into the video test monitor itself. If the cable doesn’t work, then
re-crimp both ends. If it still doesn’t work, then replace the cable. If using an analogue HD
camera shotgun cable, then you can test with a coax cable tester and if faulty then re-
crimp both ends and if still not working then replace the cable.

Then all CCTV camera images should be visible.

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CCTV video test monitor

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Network test tool

Setting up DVR/NVR and Configuration

When all the camera images are showing, you are then ready to set up the DVR/NVR.

The DVR setup wizard will automatically show when you switch on the recorder and you
will see the wizard on the monitor and use a mouse connected to the DVR to navigate the
system. Then:
Choose country
Set date and time and daylight-saving settings
Choose a user name and password
Set recording features, e.g. frames per second (FPS) and motion recording etc
Format the hard disk
Once done set brightness and masking etc to prevent recording a neighbour’s property
or a public road.

Network Setup to Connect to the Internet

You need to connect the DVR to the internet if you want to watch the CCTV camera footage
on a computer, tablet or smart phone. Also, this allows the footage to be uploaded to the
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cloud where it can be stored and streamed to you anywhere in the world where you have
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 For Advanced Users Who Know About Networking
Static IP address settings, assign a local IP address, gateway and DNS.

Once IP addresses have been assigned to devices, login to router and open ports on router
firewall.

If using an external static IP address from service provider or a dynamic DNS from a third-
party company, register DNS.

Once DNS registered, download app for DVR from Google Play or App Store

On app add static or dynamic IP address details.

Enter port number, username and password into app.

Once connected the app will display the CCTV camera images.
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Vimal from Techcube, says that “if possible it’s better to use advanced settings, as
streaming will be faster and picture quality better on devices. The reason is that the basic
setting P2P (peer to peer) connects to the manufacturer’s cloud server, which in turn
streams to your devices. So, for example the cloud server may be in China and therefore
streams slowly, whereas with advanced settings footage streams directly from the DVR
rather than the cloud to your device, so it’s much faster.”

However, if you have a very poor internet connection, the upload speed and download
streaming speed will be slow on both the basic peer to peer settings and advanced
settings.

For Basic Users

Use DHCP and the router will assign an IP address for the device.

P2P Network can be used – when this is used, the DVR will show you 2 QR codes on the
monitor – the first QR code is for apps to be downloaded and connects to the App Store or
Google Play.

Once the app is downloaded it will ask you to add a device which is easy to do.

The 2nd QR code has a serial number or s/n and once scanned and input username and
password, then all CCTV camera images will appear on the app.

Summary
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As you can see from this article on how to install CCTV, there is a lot to it, and you will need
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some experience of DIY to be able to complete the installation effectively. Techcube use
 this process to install CCTV and it results in a high quality and long-lasting installations. We
also install to SSAIB’s strict standards and use high quality components.

Techcube CCTV Installation

An alternative to completing the CCTV installation yourself is to engage experts like
Techcube – for more information on our installation services, see our main CCTV
installation page.

We are SSAIB Accredited CCTV Installers and have been installing CCTV for residential and
business customers since 2007. We know about everything CCTV and can fit all sizes of
CCTV installations to keep your home, premises or business safe.

As CCTV experts, Techcube supply and install CCTV security systems for commercial and
residential customers in London, Greater London, Essex and the M25 area. We have
worked with many clients, including public organisations such as churches and temples,
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music venues and parks. There isn’t anything we cannot do when it comes to CCTV!

Techcube is SSAIB registered and accredited for CCTV which means that we meet the strict
SSAIB standards. Our accredited status means that we only use high quality CCTV
equipment, have the technical expertise and knowledge and install CCTV to highest SSAIB
standards.

We offer a free site visit to discuss CCTV requirements and advise on the best CCTV system
and installation that is tailored to you and your premises. Read more about our CCTV
installation and contact us to find out more. Our friendly team are here to help.

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 Analogue HD Versus IP CCTV
CCTV Cameras Explained
Cameras
Current CCTV camera technology is
In the CCTV industry there is an
advanced and sophisticated, requiring
ongoing debate about whether
specialist knowledge to install and set
analogue HD cameras or IP cameras
up correctly. There is a Read more
are better. Here, Read more
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