Frequently asked questions about CCTV, solar and service

A set of cameras wired to a recorder (a DVR or NVR) that saves footage continuously to a hard disk, plus an app that lets you watch live from your phone. Most people buy it expecting to catch an incident, but the day-to-day value is different — it deters opportunists, it settles disputes, and it lets you check on the shop, the gate or an elderly parent without driving over.

For a typical home, four is the usual starting point: main gate, front door, car porch and the rear approach. A shop normally needs the counter, the entrance and the stock area. We work it out on the site visit by walking the property and finding the blind spots — never from a package list, because two houses with the same floor area rarely need the same layout.

Analog cameras run over coaxial cable to a DVR. They're cheaper, extremely reliable, and perfectly good for most homes. IP cameras run over network cable to an NVR, giving higher resolution, better digital zoom and smarter features like line-crossing alerts — at a higher cost. The right choice usually comes down to cable runs and how much detail you need to be able to zoom into.

It depends on four things: hard disk size, number of cameras, recording resolution, and whether you record continuously or only on motion. As a rough guide, four 2MP cameras recording all day to a 1 TB disk keep about 21 days on an H.265 recorder, or about 10 on an older H.264 one. Tell us the days you want and we'll size the disk to hold them, or try the CCTV storage calculator.

Yes. Recording happens locally on the DVR or NVR and doesn't touch the internet at all. You only need a connection if you want to view footage on your phone from outside the property.

Yes, through the manufacturer's app once the recorder is connected to your router. We configure it and set it up on your phone at handover, and show you how to play back recorded footage too — not just the live view.

Recording stops unless the system is on backup. We can connect the recorder and the router to a small UPS or to your existing inverter, so the cameras keep recording through a cut. It's an inexpensive addition and it's the difference between having footage and not.

Standard infrared gives you clear black-and-white footage at night, which is enough to see what happened. "Night colour" cameras add a warm LED and a more sensitive sensor to record in colour after dark — worth the extra where identifying the colour of a vehicle or clothing matters, such as a shopfront or a road-facing gate.

Some models can. Be aware that audio recording is legally more sensitive than video — recording private conversations without the knowledge of those involved can land you in trouble. We'll advise where it's appropriate and where it isn't.

Branded cameras typically run five to seven years in Kerala's climate; recorders are similar. The hard disk is the wear part — it's spinning 24/7 and normally needs replacing before anything else does.

Yes, and it's the part most people skip. Lenses and housings need cleaning, connections need checking, and the hard disk needs a health check. An annual visit catches a failing disk before it takes your footage with it — that's the main thing an AMC buys you.

Nine times out of ten it's the lens: dust, spider webs, or condensation and hazing on the IR glass. Cleaning restores it. Occasionally it's a degraded cable or a failing power supply, which we can test for on site.

The recorder is password protected, and we always set a proper password at handover rather than leaving the factory default — which is how most systems actually get compromised. Footage overwrites oldest-first once the disk fills, so anything you want to keep should be exported.

Recording stops and the stored footage is usually gone. Recorders can raise an alert on disk errors — we enable that at installation, and we check disk health on every AMC visit.

Yes, up to the channel capacity of your recorder. This is exactly why we usually suggest buying a recorder with a couple of spare channels — adding a camera later then costs the camera and the cable, not a whole new recorder.

Not quite — they still need a power cable. Only the video signal is wireless. The one exception is battery-and-solar models, which are genuinely wire-free but come with their own trade-offs.

Almost always signal strength. Concrete walls cut Wi-Fi range badly, and a router that's fine for a phone in the next room may not reach a camera on an outside wall. Router congestion from too many connected devices is the other common cause.

Realistically 10 to 15 metres through one or two walls. Beyond that you need a mesh node near the camera, or you're better off with a wired camera.

To their own SD card, yes — if one is fitted. Cloud storage and remote viewing stop until the connection returns.

Generally no. For anything beyond a small home or a single-room shop, wired is significantly more reliable. Wi-Fi cameras are a good answer to "I can't run a cable there", not a good answer to "I don't want to run cables at all".

A camera with its own SIM card and mobile data connection, for sites with no broadband — plots of land, farms, construction sites, remote godowns and shops where you don't want to pay for a separate connection.

A great deal if you leave it streaming. Configured properly — recording on motion, viewing in short bursts — a few GB a month is typical. Continuous live viewing can burn through that in days.

Remote viewing stops. Local recording to the SD card carries on, so you don't lose footage — you just can't see it until the SIM is recharged.

A 4G camera with its own solar panel and battery, so it needs neither mains power nor a broadband connection. It's the answer for locations where running either would cost more than the camera.

Yes, running on stored battery. Several heavily overcast days in a row will reduce how much recording you get, which is why panel and battery sizing does more for you than the camera specification.

Usually not, and they aren't designed to. They record on motion to conserve battery. If you need continuous recording at a remote site, you need mains power or a larger dedicated solar setup.

Not to a conventional DVR. They're standalone units viewed through their own app. If you want everything in one place, the practical answer is a wired system on a solar-powered supply.

A two-camera HD system starts from ₹16,500 fully installed, GST included — recorder, hard disk, power supply, cable in conduit and phone setup. Four 5MP cameras with a 1 TB disk start from ₹33,000, and six 4MP IP cameras from ₹60,000. These are indicative prices based on average item costs, and the exact price depends on your site. Solar starts from ₹2,10,000 for a 3kW on-grid plant before subsidy. Gate automation from ₹60,000, home automation from ₹29,999, biometric attendance from ₹29,999, inverter backup from ₹19,999, LED boards from ₹4,500 a board and solar compound lights from ₹2,999 a unit — both scaling with size.

2MP is genuinely fine for general coverage — knowing that someone was at the gate at 2am. 4MP is worth the extra where you need to identify a face or read a number plate, because you can zoom into the recording and still have something usable. Going higher again mainly costs you storage and needs better cabling, so it earns its place at specific spots, not across the whole property.

Dome cameras suit indoors and under eaves — discreet, harder to tamper with, and less obvious. Bullet cameras suit outdoor runs where you want visible deterrence and a longer range. Most properties end up with a mix.

At a shopfront, a gate or anywhere road-facing, usually yes — colour makes identification far easier. For an internal corridor or a back yard, standard infrared is enough and the money is better spent on resolution.

We only install branded hardware, and it's the most common thing we disagree with customers about. Unbranded units are typically 30-40% cheaper and frequently fail within two years, with no parts, no firmware support and no service path. The saving disappears the first time one dies.

Buying by camera count instead of by coverage. Eight badly-placed cameras will miss what four well-placed ones catch. The second biggest is buying a recorder with no spare channels, which makes expanding later far more expensive than it should be.

Because camera positions, cable routes, mounting points and power availability can't be guessed over the phone. A twenty-minute walk around the property is the difference between a quote that holds and a quote that changes on installation day.

Roughly 80 to 100 square feet per kW with standard panels — so about 250 to 300 sq ft for a 3kW plant — and it needs to stay reasonably unshaded through the middle of the day. We measure and run a shading check on the site visit.

It depends entirely on your consumption and the system size, so we size from your last twelve months of bills. As a guide, 1kW generates roughly 120 units a month here, and solar displaces your most expensive units first — the top KSEB slab. KSEB still charges the fixed charge for your total use and the meter rent, so the bill rarely reaches zero. With a plant sized to your use, it usually falls to a few hundred rupees a month or less. The solar savings calculator works it out from your own bill.

Yes. Net metering application, utility liaison and subsidy documentation are all part of what we do — it's one of the main reasons people use an installer at all.

A residential rooftop plant is typically two to four days of work on site. Utility approval and meter changeover run on their own timeline on top of that — we'll be straight with you about it upfront. We won't promise a date that sits with the utility.

Panel cleaning a few times a year — more if you're near dust or trees — and an annual check of connections, mounting and inverter performance. Kerala's monsoon does a lot of the cleaning for you.

Typically four to five years after subsidy at our pricing. A 3kW plant at ₹2,10,000 comes to about ₹1,32,000 after the ₹78,000 PM Surya Ghar subsidy and generates roughly 4,300 units a year — around ₹32,000 of electricity at current KSEB rates. Without subsidy it's closer to six or seven years.

Yes, for CCTV, solar, gate automation, inverters, access control and the other systems we install. An AMC covers scheduled visits, cleaning, health checks and faster response, at a fixed yearly price quoted for your system. What each one covers is on the AMC page.

Same day for priority AMC customers, within 24 hours on standard AMC, and 24 to 36 hours for everyone else. Enquiries get a reply within 2 hours during working hours.

Yes, after an inspection. We'll tell you honestly whether it's worth servicing or whether you'd be spending good money on hardware that's near the end of its life.

Two separate warranties. Our workmanship warranty covers the installation itself: 1 year on CCTV and home automation, 2 years on automatic gates, 5 years on solar, and 1 month on computer and laptop repairs. Inverters and batteries, solar street lights, LED boards and access control carry the manufacturer's warranty only. All hardware carries its manufacturer's own warranty, which varies by brand and product. Premium AMC extends our workmanship cover up to 5 years.