"How many cameras do I need?" is the most common question we are asked, and the packaged answer — 4, 8 or 16 — is almost always wrong. Kits are sold in those numbers because boxes are; your building was not designed around them.
Here is how to work it out yourself before you talk to anyone.
Start with the question, not the count
Every camera should answer a specific question. Write the questions down first:
- Who came in and out of the main door?
- Who was at the cash counter when the shortage happened?
- Did the delivery actually arrive, and was it complete?
- Who was near the stock room after hours?
- Which vehicle entered the compound at 2 a.m.?
A camera that does not answer a written-down question is usually a camera someone sold you.
Homes and flats
A typical 1 or 2 BHK is well covered by two to four cameras: the main door, the balcony or passage, and the parking or building entrance if it is yours to cover. A bungalow or row house needs more, because it has more ways in — usually one per exterior face plus the gate.
Cameras inside private living areas are rarely worth the intrusion. Cover the ways in, not the rooms.
Shops and showrooms
Retail is about three zones: the entrance, the counter, and the stock. The counter camera matters most and is the one most often placed badly — it should see hands and the till, not the top of a head.
- Small shop (one counter, one entrance): 3-4 cameras
- Medium showroom with aisles: 6-10, depending on sight lines
- Jewellery or high-value retail: more, plus an intrusion alarm — footage is evidence, a siren is prevention
Offices
Offices need less coverage than people expect and more thought about where not to point a camera. Reception, entry and exit points, the server or records room, and the parking are the usual set. Open work areas rarely justify cameras and often damage the atmosphere more than they protect anything.
If your real concern is who came in and when, access control and attendance answer that better and more cheaply than pointing more cameras at desks.
Warehouses and industrial sites
Here the count is driven by the perimeter and the loading bays, not the floor area. Long walls need cameras at intervals; every dock needs its own view; the gate needs one that reads vehicles.
Aisle coverage inside a large shed is where budgets get eaten. Decide honestly whether you need to see every rack or only the ways in and out of the storage area.
Placement mistakes that waste cameras
- Pointing at a door with bright daylight behind it — you get a silhouette, not a face
- Mounting too high — good for area coverage, useless for identification
- One camera trying to cover two directions at once
- Ignoring the night: if there is no light and no IR reach, that camera is decorative after dark
A simple rule
Two cameras placed properly beat six placed carelessly. Walk your own building with your written questions, stand where you think a camera should go, and check what you can actually see from there. You will arrive at your own number — and you will be much harder to oversell.