Security camera upgrade planning, camera by camera

Security camera upgrade planning is deciding, camera by camera, what stays, what gets replaced and with what, and what gets added, then checking that the result covers what the site needs before anything is ordered. The plan starts from what is installed rather than a blank floor plan, because the question that matters for every replacement is whether the site ends up better covered than it is today.

Why upgrades go wrong

Most camera refreshes, CCTV upgrades included, are planned in one of two ways. The first is a parts list: every old camera gets the current model in the same family, one for one, and nobody draws anything. The second is a new design from scratch, which throws away what the site already knows: where the cameras are and what each one is for.

Both lose the comparison with today. A newer camera at the same mount with the same lens angle reaches further, because it has more pixels across. A newer camera with a different lens may see wider and shorter, or narrower and longer, and corners the old camera covered can drop out. An upgrade that reads as more megapixels on the quote can leave an entrance worse covered than before.

Start from the cameras on the wall

The inventory for an upgrade is more than a model list. For each camera, record:

• Model and lens setting. The field of view it is set to now, not the datasheet range.
• What it is for. The detail level its area needs: identify at doors, recognize at cash points, observe in general areas, detect across lots.
• Its condition. Repeated offline events, a failing SD card, a scratched or cracked dome.
• Its support status. Whether the vendor still publishes firmware for the model. Camera fleet visibility covers how to read that across a fleet.
• Any rule that applies. Organizations that contract with the federal government may need to remove equipment from manufacturers restricted under Section 889 of the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act.

Keep, replace, or add

Each camera gets one of three answers.

Keep a camera that is supported, healthy, and meets its level. Replacing it adds cost without adding coverage.

Replace a camera that is out of support, failing, restricted, or short of its level. Replace it with the job in mind: a door camera that only reaches recognize today needs a replacement that reaches identify at that door, not just a newer model.

Add where no camera covers an area that needs one: a new entrance, a blind spot found on the walk, the dead zone under a high mount. Security camera blind spots covers where those hide.

Then compare each replacement with the camera it replaces, on the numbers that decide coverage. Here is a 1080p camera with a 90 degree view replaced by a 4K camera at the same mount and the same view:

	Existing	Replacement	Change
Sensor width	1,920 px	3,840 px
Field of view	90°	90°
Identify	13 ft	25 ft	+12 ft
Observe	50 ft	100 ft	+50 ft
Area at identify	125 sq ft	499 sq ft	+300%

Twice the pixels across doubles every distance and makes the area at a given level four times larger. The same replacement could instead keep the old reach and widen the view to pick up the corners. Both are reasonable, and the comparison is what shows which one the order is buying.

Planning on the coverage map

The MentatNOC camera coverage map has a Planning view built for this. A Live | Planning switch sits at the start of the toolbar. In Planning, every installed camera turns faded and locked. It still shows where it is and what its cone covers, but it cannot be moved, re-aimed, or deleted while the design is open, and the map says so if someone tries. Planned cameras draw solid on top as the proposal.

Two buttons do most of the work. Add camera drops a new camera on the plan, with its model chosen from a search box that matches any part of a model number. Replace camera plans a replacement for a camera that exists: click a faded camera and a planned one appears in its place, at the same position, aim, mount height, and tilt, on the same model until another is picked. Pick the new model and its cone redraws from that model’s datasheet optics.

Select a replacement and the inspector compares it with the camera it replaces, row by row: model, sensor, lens, estimated focal length, field of view, the four DORI distances, reach, and area covered, with the change shown on the distances and the area. When a mount height is set, the distances are marked as slant distances and a mount row shows height and tilt for both cameras.

A sentence above the plan sums up the whole design against today in plain words, such as “Covers 2,720 sq ft, 11% more than today. 16 cameras (today 9).” When the plan has zones, it adds how many the proposal meets against how many are met now. Change a model, widen a view, or add a camera, and the sentence updates.

The proposal travels the same way as any plan. The plan sheet PDF and the camera schedule CSV carry a replaces column, so the install crew knows which camera comes down for each new one. A revision saved before the work starts keeps the design, including which camera each replacement replaces. Back in Live, planned replacements are not drawn or counted, so the live map stays the map of what is on the wall, and the map always opens in Live.

Designing is for integrator and operator users. A client user can open Planning and see the proposal on their own floor plan, and cannot change it.

Doing this across 500 cameras

At 500 cameras an upgrade is a program that runs for years, a building or a floor at a time. Every phase needs the same three things: an inventory that matches the wall, a comparison that shows each replacement does its job, and a sheet the crew can install from. On the coverage map the inventory is already there, because every faded camera in Planning is a camera the platform watches, with its model and its view. Each floor’s summary sentence says what the phase adds in coverage before anything is ordered. For an integrator, the same plan becomes the proposal and the install sheet, and every camera you install is already under monitoring when the phase is done. See it running against a 500-camera fleet on the interactive demo.