Two quotes for the same site can look alike and leave you in very different positions three years later. The difference is rarely the cameras. It is who holds the passwords, who owns the recorder, what happens when something fails, and whether you can change supplier without replacing the hardware. Ask every installer the same questions in writing, including us.
Licences and insurance
In several Australian states and territories, installing security equipment is a licensed activity, and requirements differ between jurisdictions. Electrical work is licensed separately again. What to ask for:
- Evidence of the licences the business and its technicians hold, with numbers you can check against the state register.
- A current certificate of currency for public liability insurance.
- Who will actually be on site, especially if the work is subcontracted.
- Whether electrical work is involved, and who is licensed to do it.
Ask us for the same before you engage us, and keep copies with your quote. Our overview of CCTV rules explains why it matters — general information, not legal advice.
Who owns the hardware and the footage
This catches people, and it should be settled before anything is installed.
- Who owns the cameras, recorder and switch once installed and paid for?
- If it is a rental or "as a service" deal, what happens at the end of the term, and what do you keep?
- Who owns the footage? It should be you. Get it in writing.
- Where is it stored — a recorder at your site, a cloud service, or both? If cloud, in which country, and who can access it?
- If the relationship ends, does the system keep working, and can you export what you already have?
Some arrangements look cheap because the hardware stays with the supplier and the monthly fee continues indefinitely. That can be a fair deal, but only if you have priced it over five years and know what you keep at the end.
Passwords and administrator access
You should hold full administrator credentials to your own system — not a viewing account, and not a login the installer can revoke. Ask directly:
- Will I receive administrator passwords for the cameras, recorder and management software?
- Are default passwords changed, and will the new ones be documented for me?
- Does the installer keep a remote access account, how is it secured, and can I disable it?
- Is remote access by VPN or cloud relay, or is anything port-forwarded to the internet?
That last point matters more than it sounds. Publishing a recorder to the internet is a serious and avoidable risk, as our network guide explains, and an installer who proposes it because it is simpler is telling you something.
Refusing to hand over admin credentials creates a dependency rather than protecting you. Receiving them is a reasonable condition of handover.
Documentation and handover
Documentation is the cheapest insurance in the project, and the first thing cut. Ask for:
- A camera plan showing each position, field of view, lens and purpose.
- A network diagram: switch, ports, IP addresses, VLANs, recorder.
- Cable runs labelled at both ends and marked on the plan.
- An equipment list with models and serial numbers, for insurance and warranty.
- Recording settings: resolution, frame rate, codec, retention target and expected days of footage. The storage guide explains those numbers.
- Written credentials, held by you.
- Training for the people who will use it, including how to export footage for police or an insurer, on one page.
A system nobody can export footage from will fail you on the day it matters.
Warranty, support and response
Two things get conflated here.
Equipment warranty comes from the manufacturer and typically runs a few years depending on brand. Ask who handles a claim, whether the labour to swap a faulty camera is included, and what the turnaround looks like.
Service and support is the installer's own commitment:
- How do I log a fault, and during what hours?
- What is charged — callouts, after-hours, travel, labour on warranty swaps?
- Who attends if the usual technician is away?
- Is there a scheduled health check, and does it include cleaning lenses and checking drives?
Be sceptical of any guaranteed attendance time unless it is in a written agreement with a remedy attached. We do not promise same-day attendance, because travel and conditions vary; we do commit to being clear about what support costs and covers.
Ongoing fees
Get every recurring cost on the page before you sign:
- Cloud storage or video management software subscriptions, per camera or per site.
- Analytics or AI subscriptions, and whether the price moves with camera count.
- App or remote viewing fees.
- Mobile data SIM costs for sites without fixed internet.
- Monitoring or alarm response contracts, which are separate from cameras.
- Maintenance plans, and what they include.
- Firmware updates: included or chargeable?
Then ask: if I stop paying, what stops working? For some systems it is remote viewing and alerts. For others it is everything, including local recording and playback. That is a material difference.
Avoiding lock-in
Lock-in is rarely stated outright. It shows up as:
- Cameras that only work with one brand's recorder, so a replacement means replacing everything.
- A recorder that will not accept standard ONVIF or RTSP cameras.
- Exports in a proprietary format needing the vendor's viewer, rather than a file an insurer or police officer can play.
- Administrator credentials held only by the installer.
- Cloud accounts registered in the installer's name rather than yours.
- Analytics that work only through one vendor's subscription.
Three reasonable questions: can another company take over support, can I add a camera from a different brand, and can I export footage as a standard video file with a visible timestamp? Three yeses mean you have options.
Our own position: footage stays on your recorder, the platform works with standard IP cameras and NVRs, and you hold the credentials. It is worth asking any supplier to state theirs.
A short comparison checklist
For each quote, you should be able to answer: who is licensed and insured, who owns the hardware and footage, who holds the admin passwords, what documentation you receive, what warranty and support cover, what the recurring fees are, and what happens if you change supplier. If a quote cannot answer those, the price is not comparable.
When you are ready to compare, ask for a quote and hold us to the same list. We install on the Gold Coast, in Brisbane and across South East Queensland, and work with sites in other locations through remote setup and partner installers. More is on our FAQ page and in the rest of our guides.