When utilizing CCTV cameras to protect your home, ensuring you know where to position the CCTV cameras is essential. What does that mean? Simply put, placing security cameras in the right place means that every part, corner and angle of your home is in the field of view of a security camera, ensuring there are no blind spots and areas that cannot be seen and observed by the security system. Whether it’s the front driveway or the back door, it’s important that it’s covered and protected.
Want to learn some more about where to place your security cameras at home? Keep reading to find out.
1. Start With The Front Door
Sounds straightforward, but the most important places you could place security cameras starts with the front door. Most break-ins and burglaries occur simply via the front door, and if you’re protecting your home, ensuring the front door is under around-the-clock surveillance is the first place to go. In the case of a business or other facility, unauthorized persons are most likely to enter just by waltzing in the front door.
With remote monitoring and viewing, a security camera positioned at the front door will also allow you to see who’s knocking or ringing the door bell when you’re not home.
2. Point Security Cameras At The Back Door Of Your Home
Next, you can move on to positioning a CCTV camera to point at the back door of your home. This is one of the most likely locations for break-ins (as well as less violent security breaches) to occur, after the front door and it’s just as vital to cover as the front door.
To make the most of the placement of your security cameras, and to prevent them from being damaged or vandalized in case of a burglary, be sure to place them out of reach. A second-floor height is often ideal, provided the camera lens and picture are capable of seeing up close from such a height.
3. Secure First Floor Windows
After the front and back doors, windows on the first floor of your home are some of the most likely spots for break-ins and intrusions to occur and should be high on your priorities for CCTV camera placement. Smaller cameras could be placed above the window frame, but larger, professional-grade security cameras will likely need to be placed on the side or corner of the building and pointed towards the window at an angle. In some situations, they could also be placed inside and pointed out, towards the window.
4. Place CCTV Cameras On The Corners Of Your Home
Positioning CCTV cameras in the right places requires complete perimeter security. To achieve this, surveillance cameras should be placed on all corners of the property, as well as corners of your home, to achieve 360-degree coverage while eliminating blind spots. This requires either an extensive array of security cameras facing in all directions and at all angles, place strategically to overlap and eliminate blind spots, or makes use of security cameras with wide, expansive field-of-view – sometimes up to 180 degrees.
In some cases, it may be more feasible to opt for PTZ cameras, which can simply be controlled and moved to point in different directions and see exactly what you want it to see.
If you have a fence or barrier protecting the property, you will also want to place CCTV cameras covering the front gate and the perimeter of the fence. These cameras can be placed on the fence itself or can be placed inside the perimeter (on trees or posts, for example) pointed outwards, at the proper angles.
5. Don’t Forget Interior Security Cameras
Finally, don’t forget the interior of your home; it’s just as important as the perimeter when it comes to CCTV camera position, in case of a break-in or security breach. Locations inside your home most vital for surveillance include stairwells, the front entrance and foyer, and of course the back door. You will also most likely want to monitor garages and loading docks. You may also want to position CCTV cameras in the basement, especially if the basement has an entrance from the outside; a night vision or IR camera will likely be necessary in such locations.
Further Tips For Positioning CCTV Cameras In Your Home
It can be more difficult to hide CCTV cameras placed outdoors, as there is often less to cover them up, especially when placed on the side of a building or home. Be sure to place them high enough to avoid being tampered with, as well as at the right angles to avoid blind spots.
It’s also a good idea to make sure your outdoor cameras are waterproof and weatherproof – and avoid placing them where direct sunlight can blind them and wash out or disrupt the video. This is not only bad for surveillance, but bad for the camera over time, too.
If you’re unsure of how to properly place security cameras to ensure the correct position, or need help scoping out your property and finding the best locations and angles to properly cover every angle, you may want to consult with a security systems integrator. They’ll be able to help you identify exactly where to position CCTV cameras around your home.
