Security camera installation in Toronto

Most “security camera” purchases in this city are a $40 wifi camera from a big-box shelf, stuck under the soffit with the tape it shipped in, streaming to an app that stops working the moment the internet does. That is a doorbell with delusions of grandeur, not a security system.

We install wired PoE (Power over Ethernet) cameras instead. One cable per camera carries power and video back to a recorder in your house — nothing to charge, nothing fighting your router for bandwidth alongside three phones and a smart TV, no picture that drops the moment somebody's microwave kicks on. It is the same category of hardware warehouses and banks run, sized for a house.

The install matters as much as the hardware. Your technician is a certified AV field engineer and control-system programmer, ex-Bell — cable is routed through the attic, wall cavities and soffit, not zip-tied along the eavestrough for the next windstorm to take down. Cables get labelled. Racks get documented. Every camera and every run gets recorded, so if you add a camera in two years or bring in a different installer, the system still makes sense to somebody who is not us.

Cloud cameras have an obvious weak point: cut the internet or unplug the camera and the footage goes with it. An NVR sits inside the house, out of sight, recording independent of your internet connection — if someone unplugs your router on the way in, the recorder keeps writing to its own drive the entire time.

Everything records locally to an NVR — a small recorder that sits in a closet or equipment rack in your house and writes footage straight to its own hard drive. It works with or without your internet connection, because the cameras talk to the recorder over your local network, not the cloud. If you want to check the cameras from your phone while you are at work, that is part of the standard setup, not an add-on, and it does not carry a subscription.

Cloud-storage systems flip that arrangement: your footage lives on somebody else's server, and you pay a recurring fee that climbs with every camera you add and every extra day of history you want kept. We will set one up if that is genuinely what you want, but for most houses local recording does the same job for a one-time cost, with no monthly fee required.

Where the cameras point matters as much as how they record. We plan camera angles at the walkthrough to cover your entrances, driveway and yard — your property, not the neighbour's kitchen window or the gap between your houses. It is not just good manners; it keeps the footage useful, because a camera aimed half at your porch and half at someone else's window does a worse job at both.

A camera system runs entirely on its own, or it plugs into a wider setup — locks, lighting, an alarm panel, motion-triggered scenes — controlled from one app instead of four. That side of the job is handled by an actual control-system programmer, not a box that syncs eventually. See the smart home installation page for what is involved.

Payment is due on completion — Interac e-Transfer or cash, nothing upfront. Camera hardware, cable and the NVR are billed at cost with the receipt shown where we supply them, and every mount and cable run carries our lifetime workmanship warranty. Full terms are at /terms.html.