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Leading the Way in Security Camera Installation in South Florida

Jan 2, 2024
3 min read

Updated: Jul 25

South Florida is a difficult place to install a camera system and an easy place to install one badly. Salt air, heat, lightning, hurricane wind, and concrete block construction all work against equipment that was designed and tested somewhere milder. A system that looks identical on paper to one installed in Ohio will not age the same way here.

Here is how we approach it, and what separates an install that still works in year six from one that starts dropping cameras in year two.


Every job starts with a walk, not a phone quote

We do not quote camera systems over the phone. The number depends almost entirely on things you cannot describe by phone: whether there is attic access, whether the exterior is stucco over block or wood frame, where the recorder can live so it is not cooking in a garage, and whether there is existing conduit or old coax we can reuse.

The walk is free and there is no obligation. If we look at the property and think you need fewer cameras than you called about, we will say so.


Placement beats camera count

The most common thing we find on properties with an existing system is too many cameras in the wrong places. Cameras pointed at empty lawn. Cameras aimed directly into the afternoon sun, so the one time of day you most want to see something is the one time you cannot. Cameras mounted so high they capture the top of everyone's head and nothing identifiable.

We plan around how a person would actually approach the property, where the sun sits at the worst hour, and which views will still be useful at night. Six well-placed cameras outperform twelve placed from a floor plan. Before anything gets permanently mounted, we hold the camera up and show you the real field of view so you can approve it.


What South Florida does to equipment

Heat is the biggest killer of recorders here. An NVR in an unconditioned garage or a closet with no airflow will fail years earlier than the same unit in a cooled space, and heat-related drive failures usually surface at the worst possible moment, when you go looking for footage.

Salt air degrades cheap mounts and housings, particularly on coastal and Intracoastal properties. Lightning takes out equipment through the power line, the network cable, or both, which is why surge protection is not an upsell here. And anything mounted outside has to survive hurricane wind load, so mounts and cable securing get done properly the first time.


The cable matters more than the camera

Cameras get replaced every several years. The cable in your walls stays. We run solid copper, not copper-clad aluminum, because the cheaper stuff fails at exactly the thing security cameras depend on, which is carrying power reliably over distance. Cat5e is our standard for typical runs, and we move to Cat6 on longer runs and higher-bandwidth cameras.

If you are building or renovating, the walls are open right now and this is the cheapest moment you will ever have to run more than you need.


You own your system

You own the equipment, you get the admin passwords, and another company could service the system later if you ever wanted them to. That sounds obvious. It is not. Some installers keep the admin credentials so every change has to go through them, which is a business model rather than a security feature.

No contracts and no hidden fees applies to monitoring too. Month to month, and you keep your equipment.


Homes, businesses, and communities need different things

A home usually needs coverage at entry points and a clear view of the driveway, with motion recording and two weeks of retention. A business needs longer retention, because inventory discrepancies and employee incidents surface weeks later, and it needs views that hold up as evidence. A community needs perimeter and amenity coverage, a plan for pulling footage after an incident, and enough retention that a board meeting a month later still has something to review.

Those are three different designs, not one design in three sizes.


Licensed, and worth checking

Low voltage and alarm work in Florida requires a state license, and plenty of people quoting camera jobs do not hold one. An unlicensed installer cannot pull a permit, which matters on commercial and HOA work, and it can complicate an insurance claim. Our license number is EG13000794 and you can look it up on the DBPR site in about a minute. Ask anyone else you are considering for theirs.


Where we work

We serve Broward, Miami-Dade, and Palm Beach counties, from Fort Lauderdale and Sunrise through Miami, Coral Gables, and the Brickell corridor up to West Palm Beach and Jupiter. Call (954) 573-9193 to set up a free onsite walkthrough.


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