What makes a good CCTV installation

By Brendan Byrne · Published 15 September 2026 · 8 min read

A good CCTV installation is judged by what you can actually see and prove after something happens, not by how many cameras are on the wall. That means the right camera in the right spot, cabled properly, recording at a resolution that can identify a face or a number plate, and set up so you can get to the footage when you need it. Get any one of those wrong and the rest doesn't matter much.

Camera placement and coverage

The single biggest factor in whether CCTV footage is useful is where the cameras point, not what brand they are. A camera aimed too high only captures the top of someone's head. A camera aimed straight down a driveway with nothing crossing it side-on misses faces entirely. The starting point for any installer worth paying should be walking the property with you and identifying entry points - front door, side gates, garage, back fence line - then working out camera positions that capture people at head height as they approach, not just as they walk away.

Overlap matters too. A single camera covering the whole front of a house at a wide angle looks impressive on paper but often can't zoom in enough digitally to identify anyone in the footage. Two cameras with a bit of overlap, one wide for context and one narrower on the actual doorway, usually beats one camera trying to do everything.

Resolution and sensor size

More megapixels only help if the sensor behind the lens is good enough to use them. A 4 megapixel camera with a decent sensor from Hikvision or Dahua will often produce a clearer, less noisy night-time image than an 8 megapixel camera with a small, cheap sensor crammed with pixels. For most homes, 4MP to 5MP cameras on the doors and driveway, with an 8MP camera on any wide-area shot like a whole back yard, is a sensible balance between clarity and file size.

The practical test is simple: can you read a number plate at the point a car would realistically be in frame, and can you identify a face at the front door from a couple of metres away? If not, the resolution or the lens is wrong for that position, regardless of what the spec sheet says.

Lens choice: 2.8mm vs 4mm vs varifocal

A 2.8mm lens gives a wide field of view and suits doorways, garages and small yards where you want to see everything close up. A 4mm lens is narrower and reaches further, better suited to driveways, side passages or a camera watching a gate from 10 to 15 metres away. Varifocal lenses let the installer adjust the zoom on site to dial in the exact field of view for that spot, which is useful on a property with awkward angles but usually costs more per camera than a fixed lens.

The mistake to avoid is using the same lens on every camera because it's what's in the van. A driveway camera and a front door camera are solving different problems and often need different lenses.

Night vision: IR vs full-colour

Standard infrared night vision gives you a black and white image at night, which is enough to identify movement and rough shapes but not always great for faces or clothing colour. Full-colour night vision, such as Hikvision's ColorVu range, uses a larger aperture and sometimes a built-in warm light to keep the image in colour even in low light, which makes it much easier to describe someone accurately - "red jacket, dark pants" is more useful to police than a grey silhouette.

The trade-off is that ColorVu-style cameras generally need at least some ambient light or their own illuminator to work well, and they can look more obviously like a security camera because of the visible light. For a driveway or front door where a bit of light is normal anyway, colour night vision is usually worth the extra cost. For a dark side alley you'd rather stayed dark, standard IR might be the better fit.

PoE cabling: why Cat6 and not WiFi

Power over Ethernet (PoE) cameras run on a single Cat6 cable that carries both power and data, which is why most installers avoid WiFi cameras for permanent, whole-property systems. A wired camera doesn't drop out because a neighbour's WiFi is congested, doesn't need a battery changed or recharged, and doesn't quietly stop recording during a blackout unless the recorder itself is on backup power. Cat6 cable is also cheap and future-proof enough to handle higher resolution cameras down the track without rewiring.

The cost of doing it properly is the cable run itself - getting cable into roof spaces, down inside walls where possible, and terminated cleanly at both ends. This is where installation quality shows up years later: a cable stapled along a fascia board and left exposed to Sydney summer UV will fail well before one run through conduit or roof space.

Recorder and storage: NVR, H.265 and retention

A network video recorder (NVR) is the box that stores footage from all your cameras and lets you play it back or view it remotely, and it's just as important as the cameras themselves. Recording in H.265 compression rather than the older H.264 roughly halves the file size for the same image quality, which means significantly more days of footage on the same size hard drive. Most Sydney homes run 14 to 30 days of continuous or motion-triggered retention on an 4 to 8 terabyte drive, while businesses with more cameras or a compliance reason to keep footage longer often go with 60 to 90 days and a bigger drive or a second one for redundancy.

Ubiquiti's UniFi Protect system runs on a dedicated recorder like the UNVR or through their Dream Machine range, and is popular with installers because the setup and remote access is simpler for the homeowner to manage themselves afterwards. Hikvision and Dahua NVRs are widely used too and tend to be more affordable for larger camera counts.

Remote viewing without port forwarding

Modern systems let you view cameras from your phone anywhere in the world through the manufacturer's cloud relay, without opening ports on your home router - something older systems used to require and which created a genuine security risk if done badly. Ubiquiti, Hikvision and Dahua all offer this through their own apps now, and it should be part of any current-generation installation without you having to ask for it or touch your router settings. If an installer suggests forwarding ports to make remote viewing work, that's worth questioning; our guide to remote viewing over NBN and Starlink goes into this in more detail.

UPS and power backup

A cheap uninterruptible power supply (UPS) on the recorder keeps it running through a short blackout and, more importantly, shuts it down cleanly rather than losing the drive to a sudden power cut. It's a small line item, often under $150, and one that gets skipped by installers racing through a job. If a break-in or incident happens to coincide with a power outage, a UPS is the difference between having footage and not.

Cable termination and weatherproofing

Every outdoor cable joint and camera housing is a potential entry point for water, and Sydney's storms and humidity are not kind to a poorly sealed connection. Good installers use weatherproof connectors or heat-shrink joins outdoors, mount cameras with the cable entry point protected from direct rain, and avoid running cable through areas where it will pool water. This is the least visible part of an installation and the part most likely to cause a camera to fail eighteen months in if it's rushed.

Handover, training and documentation

The installation isn't finished when the cameras are mounted. A proper handover includes showing you how to use the phone app, view live and recorded footage, export a clip for police or insurance, and change your password. You should also be left with basic documentation: which camera is which, where the recorder is, what the warranty covers and who to call if something stops working. AVsion in Maroubra is one example of an installer that treats this as standard - the same person who quotes the job does the install and the handover, so there's one point of contact who already knows your system rather than a call centre reading from a ticket.

If you're comparing installers on more than just price, our guide on how to choose a CCTV installer in Sydney covers licensing, insurance and what to ask before you sign anything, and the Top 5 CCTV installers in Sydney page and installer directory are a good place to start shortlisting.

Frequently asked questions

How many cameras does a good CCTV system need?

There's no fixed number - it depends on entry points and blind spots, not floor area. Most Sydney homes end up with four to eight cameras covering the driveway, front door, back yard and any side access. See our guide on how many cameras a house needs for a room-by-room approach.

Is wireless CCTV as good as wired?

For a handful of cameras watching a specific spot, WiFi cameras like Arlo or Eufy are fine. For whole-property coverage, wired PoE cameras are more reliable because they don't depend on batteries or WiFi signal strength at every camera location.

How long should CCTV footage be kept?

Most homes keep 14 to 30 days of footage, and businesses often keep 30 to 90 days depending on insurance or workplace policy requirements. This is set by how much storage the recorder has and how many cameras are recording continuously.

Do I need a monitor to view my cameras?

No. A properly set up system lets you view live and recorded footage from a phone app anywhere with an internet connection, without needing a dedicated screen or opening any ports on your router.

What's the difference between a good and a bad CCTV installation?

A bad installation has cameras pointed at the wrong things, footage too grainy to identify a face, cables run loosely with no weatherproofing, and no handover of logins or documentation. A good one is planned around what you actually need to see, cabled properly, and explained to you before the installer leaves.

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