The most common thing we hear on a camera call is “we have cameras, but the footage was useless.” Almost always the cause is placement, not the equipment. Here is how to think about where cameras belong before anyone quotes you hardware.
Start with the question, not the coverage
Bad camera design starts with “cover the building.” Good camera design starts with “what will I need to prove?” Those produce very different plans. Covering a building evenly gives you wide shots where everyone is an anonymous shape. Designing around evidence gives you a few cameras positioned where identification actually happens.
Write down the three incidents most likely to matter to you. Theft at the register. A disputed delivery. Someone in the building after hours. Each of those has a specific place where the useful frame exists — and that is where a camera goes.
The four positions that earn their keep
- Entry points, at face height. The single highest-value camera in most buildings. Mounted about 7 to 8 feet, angled so faces are captured as people come in — not a ceiling dome looking at the tops of heads.
- Transaction points. Registers, pharmacy counters, cash handling. Close enough to resolve hands and detail.
- Docks and loading. Positioned to capture both the trailer and the activity, not a wide yard shot where a truck is a rectangle.
- Choke points. Hallways and stairwells everyone must pass through. Two cameras at choke points often beat six in open areas.
Mounting height: the mistake almost everyone makes
Cameras mounted too high see the tops of heads and hats. That is the classic unusable-footage problem, and it comes from mounting for vandalism resistance rather than identification. At entries, 7 to 8 feet is the identification range. Where vandalism is a genuine concern, use a higher camera for the wide view and a lower one for faces, rather than compromising one camera into doing neither job.
Angles that destroy footage
Backlighting is the biggest one. A camera pointed at a glass entrance during daylight sees a silhouette — the sensor exposes for the bright background and the person becomes a black shape. Point cameras away from windows and doors where possible, or use models with wide dynamic range and verify the result at the worst time of day.
Too wide is the second. A 180-degree view sounds efficient and resolves nothing at distance. Pixels spread across a wide field mean nothing is identifiable. Narrower fields on the views that matter beat one camera trying to cover a room.
The spots people always miss
- The back door and the loading personnel door. Everyone covers the front.
- The IT or server room. Increasingly asked about by insurers.
- Where the recorder itself lives. The first thing a knowledgeable intruder takes is the recorder. If it is not secured or backed up offsite, the evidence leaves with them.
- Parking lot approach, not just the lot. Plates read at the entrance, not in the middle of a field of cars.
Verify at night, in your actual lighting
Any camera looks fine at noon. The test that matters is walking every view after dark, in the lighting you actually have. We do not sign off a system until every exterior view is checked at night — datasheets describe laboratory conditions, not your parking lot.
Privacy lines to respect
Cameras must not cover areas carrying a reasonable expectation of privacy — restrooms, changing areas, and in most cases break rooms deserve care. Audio is a separate legal question and we disable it by default, because cameras capture conversations nobody consented to. Settle your employee notification practice before go-live rather than after someone raises it.
Planning a system or fixing one that disappointed you? See CCTV camera installation, or pair it with access control so door events and footage line up — call (833) 306-3168.