Buying guide
How Many CCTV Cameras Do I Need?
A counting method you can run yourself in fifteen minutes, typical starting scope by property type, how much recorder headroom to leave, and how to work out whether your hard disk will hold the days you expect.
Count entry points first, features second
The wrong way to size a system is to pick a package with a round number of cameras and then decide where they go. The right way is to count what has to be watched, then choose the recorder that covers it with room to spare.
Every property has a fixed number of ways in. Front gate, back gate, servant quarter door, shop shutter, roof stairs, loading bay, fire exit. Each one is a camera decision before anything else is discussed, because these are the points where an incident begins and where identification is realistic.
After entry points come the places where value sits: the cash counter, the store room, the server room, the parking, the racking aisles. After those come blind spots, which are usually the side alleys and the rear wall nobody thinks about until something happens there.
A five-step count you can do yourself
Walk the boundary and list every way in
Include the ones you never use. A locked back gate is still an entry point, and it is usually the least observed part of a property.
Mark where you must identify a person
Typically the main gate and the front door. These positions need a tighter view and better resolution, and they should not be shared with an overview shot.
Mark where an overview is enough
Lawns, corridors, open floors and yards need coverage, not identification. Wider lenses are appropriate here and one camera can do more work.
Add the forgotten positions
Roof stairs, the rear wall, the servant quarter door, the store room, the DB and the recorder cabinet itself. A camera that watches the recorder is not paranoia, since the recorder is often the first thing an intruder looks for.
Add channel headroom, then choose the recorder
Take your total and choose the next recorder size up. Going from eight cameras to a sixteen channel recorder is usually far cheaper than buying a second recorder in a year.
Typical starting scope by property
Use these as a starting scope confirmed on site survey, never as a fixed quotation. Corner plots, rear gates and unusual layouts all move the number.
| Property | Typical camera count | Typical recorder | Positions usually included |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 to 5 marla house | 4 to 6 | 4 or 8 channel | Street or gate, main door, stairs and roof access, rear wall or backyard |
| 8 to 10 marla house | 6 to 8 | 8 channel | Gate, driveway, main door, both side approaches, stairs, roof, store |
| 1 kanal house | 8 to 12 | 8 or 16 channel | Front gate and driveway, both side walls, back gate or servant quarter, entrance, roof stairs, store |
| 2 kanal and above | 12 to 24 | 16 or 32 channel | Full perimeter, often a small rack, a PoE switch and a second distribution point where runs exceed 100 metres |
| Small shop | 2 to 4 | 4 channel | Counter or till, entrance, aisle, store room |
| Showroom or plaza floor | 4 to 8 per floor | 16 channel and up | Entrance, floor coverage, lift lobby, staircase, basement or parking |
| Office floor | 6 to 12 | 8 or 16 channel | Reception, corridor, server room, back exit, open floor |
| School or clinic | 16 to 32 | 32 channel | Gates, corridors, reception, playground, pharmacy or lab, van bay |
| Factory or warehouse | 32 and above | 32 channel and up | Gate with plate capture, weighbridge, loading bays, aisles, boundary and stores |
Coverage is not the same as identification
This is the distinction that decides whether a system is useful after an incident. Coverage tells you that a person crossed the driveway at 3.12am. Identification tells you who it was.
You cannot reliably get both from one wide camera at distance. The pattern that works, and the one we design around at gates, is two cameras: one wide for context and one tighter, aimed at the exact line everyone must cross, at a height where faces are visible rather than the tops of heads.
The same applies to vehicles. Reading a number plate reliably needs a camera dedicated to that job, at a controlled point where vehicles slow down, with the angle and lighting to suit. A general overview camera pointed at a busy road will not deliver plates at night, whatever its resolution, and nobody should promise you otherwise.
Storage: how many days will you actually keep?
Camera count and recording days are linked, and the second one is the question buyers forget until it matters. Footage is normally requested after somebody notices a loss, and that is rarely the same day.
A rough working method: one camera recording continuously at 1 Mbps consumes about 10.8 GB in a day. So a camera running at around 4 Mbps uses roughly 43 GB a day, and eight such cameras use roughly 345 GB a day. Thirty days of continuous recording for those eight cameras therefore needs on the order of 10 TB before any allowance for headroom.
Two things change that figure considerably. Recording on motion or on smart events rather than continuously cuts consumption a great deal, especially overnight in quiet areas. And bitrate depends on the model, resolution and how busy the scene is, so a camera watching a main road uses far more than one watching a store room.
We run this calculation on the actual model list before quoting, so the disk you buy matches the retention you asked for rather than a number that sounded generous. Tell us your target on WhatsApp and we will size it.
Channel headroom and expansion, decided once
- Leave spare channels from day one — It is common for clients to add cameras within the first year, usually at a position nobody thought mattered until something happened there.
- Check the recorder disk bays, not just the disk — A recorder with a second bay lets you increase retention later without replacing the recorder or losing existing footage.
- Confirm the PoE budget on an IP system — Ports are not the same as power. A switch or NVR has a total PoE budget, and cameras with strong infrared or heaters draw more.
- Plan a second distribution point on large plots — Where the gate is far from the recorder, a switch near the gate is the correct design rather than one very long cable run.
- Decide phases before the first camera goes up — If the plan is eight now and eight later, conduit and containment for all sixteen should go in during the first visit.
- Confirm who will have viewing access — Multiple viewers is a configuration decision, and separate accounts are far easier to set up at handover than to retrofit later.
Send your plot size and we will send back a camera count
Send your requirement on WhatsApp for a same-day quotation.
Frequently asked questions
How many cameras does a 5 marla house need?
Typically four to six, on a four or eight channel recorder, covering the street or gate, the main door, the stairs and roof access and the rear wall. Corner plots and houses with a back gate usually sit at the upper end of that range.
How many cameras for a 1 kanal house in Lahore?
Usually eight to twelve on an eight or sixteen channel recorder. The gate to porch distance on a kanal plot is what pushes the count up, because one camera cannot both cover the driveway and identify a face at the gate.
Is it better to buy fewer good cameras or more cheap ones?
Fewer, well placed, of decent quality. An unwatched blind spot is a real gap, but a system of weak cameras that cannot identify anyone at night gives you the feeling of coverage without the evidence.
How many days of footage should I keep?
Homes commonly target somewhere in the range of a week to a month. Businesses often want longer because disputes and stock discrepancies surface later. Decide the target first, then size the disk, rather than the other way round.
Does recording on motion save much space?
Usually a great deal, particularly overnight and in low traffic areas. The trade-off is that a poorly tuned motion setting can miss the start of an event, so we normally use smart detection with a pre-record buffer rather than basic motion alone.
What happens when the hard disk is full?
The recorder overwrites the oldest footage and keeps going. That is why retention is a design decision: once the window has passed, the footage is gone, and no amount of urgency brings it back.
Can I add cameras to my system later?
Yes, up to the free channels on your recorder and the available power and cable capacity. That is exactly why we recommend choosing the next recorder size up and laying containment for the full plan at the first visit.