CCTV in a strata building isn't just a camera question — it's a governance one. Before any cabling goes in, the owners corporation needs agreement on what's being watched, who can see it, and how long footage is kept. Get those three right and the rest is installation detail.
Start with coverage, not cameras
Map the common-property risk points first: vehicle and pedestrian entries, the lobby and mailroom, lift lobbies, basement carparks, bin rooms and any rear access. Each point implies a camera type — a turret for a lobby, a varifocal bullet for a long driveway, a multi-sensor for an open carpark level.
- Entries and exits (vehicle and pedestrian) — the highest-value views
- Lift lobbies and stairwells on ground and basement levels
- Mail and parcel areas, bin rooms and storage cages
- Any blind spots flagged in recent incident reports
Privacy and the by-laws
Cameras must cover common property, not private lots. You can't point a camera into a unit, a balcony or a window. Most schemes adopt a CCTV by-law that records the purpose of the system, who is authorised to access footage, and the retention period — and that by-law should exist before recording starts.
A clear CCTV by-law protects the owners corporation as much as it protects residents. It defines lawful access and removes ambiguity when footage is requested.
Retention and storage
Thirty days is a common retention window, but it's a balance: longer retention needs more storage and has privacy implications, while shorter windows can miss late-reported incidents. We size the recorder and drives to your agreed retention, with RAID redundancy where the scheme wants resilience.
Who holds the keys?
Decide up front whether the building manager, the committee, or a monitoring arrangement controls access. Role-based logins and an access log mean every view of footage is accountable — which is exactly what you want if footage is ever subpoenaed.
Integrate, don't isolate
CCTV is more useful tied to the building's intercom and access control. An entry event can bookmark the footage; an intercom call can pull up the door camera. Planning these together avoids a second cabling run later.
If your scheme is weighing up a new system or an upgrade, we can walk the site, mark the coverage and quote it against your by-law and retention requirements.