CCTV and access control designed around what you need to see

Installation labour typically runs around PKR 2,500 to 5,000 per camera in the major cities, with complete entry-level analogue systems starting near PKR 68,000 and mainstream branded packages from roughly PKR 35,000 upward depending on channel count. Those figures are a starting point rather than a quote, because the variables that actually move the number are cable run lengths, whether containment already exists, mounting height and access equipment, and above all storage — a thirty-day retention requirement at high resolution can cost more than the cameras. We publish a fuller breakdown of the cost drivers in our guide to CCTV pricing.

Fewer than most quotations propose, if they are the right cameras in the right places. The useful method is to list the things that genuinely need to be seen — every entry and exit, the cash handling point, the stock room door, the server room, the perimeter approach — and put a camera on each with a defined objective. That usually produces a smaller, more expensive per-unit system that actually delivers evidence, rather than a large number of cheap wide-angle cameras that collectively identify nobody. For a typical single-floor commercial premises, six to twelve well-placed cameras is a common outcome.

IP is the right default for most new installations now, because the resolution, the ability to run everything over one cabling standard, and the flexibility of PoE all favour it, and the price gap has narrowed considerably. Analogue over coax still has a genuine place in two situations: extending or partially replacing an existing analogue system where re-cabling the whole building is not affordable, and very long single runs where the coax is already in place. What we would not recommend is mixing technologies without a clear reason, because it doubles the parts you have to keep and the skills needed to maintain it.

It depends on how long it typically takes for an incident to come to light in your environment. Retail and cash-handling operations usually discover problems within days, so fifteen to thirty days is generally sufficient. Institutions dealing with complaints, insurance claims or regulatory matters — hospitals, schools, banks — often need sixty to ninety days because the issue surfaces weeks later. Longer retention is mostly a storage cost rather than a system redesign, so it is worth deciding deliberately at the specification stage rather than accepting whatever the recorder happens to hold.

Usually yes, and we start by surveying what is actually there rather than assuming it all needs replacing. Existing coax runs, camera positions and containment often have real remaining value even where the recorder and cameras are past their useful life. We will give you an honest assessment of what is worth keeping and what is not — including telling you when a system is old enough that piecemeal extension will cost more over two years than replacing it properly, which is a conversation we have fairly often with systems installed before around 2018.