Four cameras installed on a standard Brisbane house lands between $1,690 and about $2,600 depending on the gear and the cabling. Here is what sits behind those numbers and where the cheap quotes make their margin back.
Price is the first question almost everybody asks, and most websites dodge it. We would rather put the numbers up front, explain what changes them, and let you work out whether the quote in your inbox is reasonable.
Installing cameras you already bought starts at $490. That covers a basic wired camera, heavy duty Cat6 cabling and crimps, connecting it to your recorder and setting up the app on the household phones. It assumes a single storey home with an accessible roof space. It does not include hardware, and anything you bought yourself carries whatever warranty the seller gave you.
A four camera 4K wired system starts at $1,690 installed. That is four weatherproof turret cameras, a four channel 4K network video recorder with a surveillance grade hard drive, concealed in-roof Cat6 to each camera, app viewing on every phone in the house, and a three year hardware warranty with five years on the workmanship.
The active deterrence package starts at $1,890. Same install standard, but the cameras have a siren and strobe, full colour night vision rather than black and white infrared, two way audio so you can speak through the camera from your phone, and human and vehicle filtering so you are not getting an alert every time a possum crosses the yard. It runs on an eight channel recorder, so there is room for four more cameras later without replacing anything.
The gear is the predictable part. The install is where jobs differ, and it is nearly always about how hard the cable is to run.
A quote that comes in well under everyone else is usually cutting one of five things, and it is worth knowing which before you sign.
Surface run cable. Cable clipped along the outside of the fascia and down the brickwork takes a fraction of the time to install. It also looks like it, it degrades in the sun, and it is the first thing somebody cuts if they want your cameras off.
Resolution that sounds good. Plenty of kits advertise 4K on the box and record at a much lower bitrate by default, which throws away the detail you paid for. A 4K camera recording at a low bitrate is a 1080p camera with extra marketing.
A small drive. The system works perfectly on day one and quietly overwrites itself after five days. You find out when you go looking for footage from last fortnight.
No licence. Installing security cameras in Queensland requires a security equipment installer licence, and running the cable requires ACMA cabler registration. An unlicensed installer is cheaper because they are not carrying the cost of either. Our numbers are QLD Security Provider Licence 4930731 and ACMA Registered Cabler A058225.
No aiming. Cameras get bolted up at the same height and angle on every job and nobody checks the picture. This is the one that produces a system full of footage where nobody can be identified. Read how many cameras you actually need for what good positioning looks like.
A wired system has almost none. The cameras draw power over the same cable that carries the video, and the whole system typically uses less electricity than a couple of light bulbs. There is no monthly fee, no cloud subscription and no per camera charge, because the footage is recorded to the drive in your own house.
The only real ongoing cost is the hard drive. Surveillance drives are built to be written to constantly and they still wear out, generally somewhere between three and six years. Replacing one is inexpensive and takes about twenty minutes.
That depends on what you are protecting and what your insurance excess is. For most households the system costs less than the excess on a single car claim. What we hear more often, though, is that the cameras get used for everything except break-ins: checking a delivery arrived, seeing who knocked, keeping an eye on elderly parents in a granny flat, settling an argument about a scraped car in the driveway.
If you are pricing a job now, get two or three quotes and ask each one for the cable type, the cable path, the drive size and the licence numbers. The quotes will sort themselves out quickly.
Yes. We quote in writing with the camera count, positions, gear and cabling itemised, and there is no site fee for coming out to look.
Almost always the cable. The cheaper quote is usually surface run cable, a smaller drive, lower resolution cameras or an installer who is not registered to do the cabling. Ask both quotes to specify cable type, cable path, drive size and licence numbers and the difference usually explains itself.
Usually a little. Upper level mounting takes longer and needs a second person for safety, and the cable runs are longer. It is an hourly difference rather than a different price list.
Yes, if the recorder has spare channels. That is why we suggest an 8 channel recorder even on a four camera job. Adding a fifth camera later is then a cable run and a mount rather than replacing the whole system.
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Local pages covering what we typically install in each suburb.
What we install on Strathpine properties.
4500What we install on Bray Park properties.
4500What we install on Warner properties.
4035What we install on Albany Creek properties.
4501What we install on Lawnton properties.
4037What we install on Eatons Hill properties.
A written quote with the camera positions, cable paths, recorder and drive size listed separately. You can compare it line by line against anything else you have been quoted.