Camera mounting
Where a camera actually belongs and what stops the footage being usable. Covers mounting height against identification, the infrared reflection problem that makes an otherwise good install worthless after dark, weatherproofing and drip loops, cable entry and tamper resistance, and why the sun matters more than the lens.
Doing it
Placement, weatherproofing, and the checks that separate footage which identifies somebody from footage which merely records.
- Hammer drill
- Cable tester
- Phone with the camera's app for live view
- Junction box or back box
- Weatherproof gland or sealant
- Anchors matched to the substrate
- 01
Pick the height against what the footage has to prove
Roughly two and a half to three metres is the usual compromise: high enough to be out of reach, low enough that a face is still a face. Mount at five metres and you get an excellent record of the tops of heads, which identifies nobody. Decide first whether this camera is for detection, recognition, or identification, and mount for that.
- 02
Keep surfaces out of the infrared cone
This is what ruins otherwise good night installs. A wall, soffit, gutter or the camera's own housing edge inside the infrared field bounces light straight back into the sensor, the exposure closes down, and everything beyond it goes black. Mount clear of adjacent surfaces, or use external illuminators and turn the built-in ones off.
CautionCheck the picture at night before signing off. An install that looks perfect at two in the afternoon can be useless at ten at night, and nobody finds out until it is needed.
- 03
Think about where the sun will be
A camera pointed at a bright sky or into low sun spends the day stopping down and the subject becomes a silhouette. Point away from the sun's arc where you can, or specify a sensor with the dynamic range for it. A doorway shot facing east is a different camera from the same doorway facing north.
- 04
Mount to structure, and make it tamper-resistant
Same rules as any other fixing: identify the substrate, use the right anchor, hit structure. Then consider access — a camera reachable from the ground or from a flat roof needs tamper-resistant screws and, ideally, a position where the cable is not exposed at all.
- 05
Terminate in a box, not in the open
Use the camera's back box or a junction box so the connector sits inside the mount rather than dangling behind it. Terminating in free air is the most common cause of water in a connector and the reason a camera fails months later during rain rather than on the day.
- 06
Form a drip loop and seal the entry properly
Bring the cable below the entry point and back up so water runs off at the low point instead of tracking along the sheath into the housing. Seal the penetration with a proper gland or an appropriate sealant. Water does not need a gap, only a path.
CautionSilicone smeared over an unsealed hole is not a seal. It fails behind the surface where nobody can see it.
- 07
Test the view live, adjust, then lock everything down
Bring the camera up and look at the actual image on a phone before you tighten the final adjustment. Check the frame, the focus at the distance that matters, and any part of the scene that will over-expose. Then lock the adjustment screws — a camera that drifts a few degrees over a year is pointing somewhere else by the time it is needed.
- How high should a camera be mounted?
- About two and a half to three metres for most applications — high enough to be out of casual reach, low enough that faces are recognisable. Higher gets you a wider view and progressively less identification, because you are increasingly looking at the tops of heads. Decide what the footage needs to prove before choosing the height.
- Why is my night footage completely washed out?
- Almost always infrared reflecting off a nearby surface — a wall, a soffit, a gutter, or the camera's own dome edge — back into the sensor. The camera meters on that bright return, closes the exposure, and everything past it goes black. Move the camera clear of the surface, or disable the built-in illuminators and light the scene separately.
- Do I need a junction box?
- For anything outdoors, effectively yes. Terminating inside a proper back box keeps the connector out of the weather and out of reach, and it makes servicing possible without disturbing the seal. A connector taped up behind a camera is the most common cause of water ingress and the reason failures happen months after installation.
- What is a drip loop and why does it matter?
- A deliberate dip in the cable below the point it enters the housing, so water running down the sheath reaches the bottom of the loop and falls off there rather than tracking upward into the connector. It costs nothing, it is invisible once installed, and its absence is a recurring cause of failures that look electrical.
- Can I mount a camera to a gutter or soffit?
- Avoid it. Gutters move, flex and are not structural, and a soffit is usually a thin board with nothing behind it. Both give a camera that shakes in wind — which destroys detail and triggers motion events all night. Fix to structure and accept a slightly less convenient position.
- How much PoE budget should I allow per camera?
- Plan against the class the camera negotiates, not what it draws. A camera pulling six watts on a Class 4 port still reserves thirty from the switch budget unless the switch is doing LLDP-based allocation, and a heated or PTZ unit reserves considerably more. Budget on allocation or you run out with ports still free.
The rest of the section
- 01RJ45 Wiring: T568A and T568BBoth colour codes, pin by pin, side by side.
- 02RJ11 Wiring and Phone PinoutsSix positions, three lines, two colour systems.
- 03Keystone Jack TerminationStrip, seat, punch, snap — without failing the certification.
- 0466 Block WiringFifty rows, four columns, and where the bridging clips go.
- 05110 Block WiringLay the pairs in, press the connecting block on.
- 06Cat5e vs Cat6 vs Cat6a vs Cat8Speed, distance, and power decide it — not the bigger number.
- 07Fibre Types, Connectors and PolishRead the jacket, read the connector, don't mate blue to green.
- 08Subnetting, ExplainedWhere the numbers come from, and the meaning behind them.
- 09PoE Standards and Why It Won't PowerThe switch reserves the class, not the draw.
- 10Camera Lens, Field of View and Pixel DensityCovering the room is not the same as identifying a face in it.
- 11Patch Panels and Labelling to TIA-606A label that survives is worth more than a tidy rack.
- 12Rack Planning: Units, Depth, Weight and HeatIt fits vertically. That was never the hard part.
- 13Writing a Switch ConfigurationFrom factory default to a switch you would hand over.
- 14Networking and Cabling GlossaryThe terms, and what they mean on a job.
- 15POTS to VoIP: What BreaksThe lines nobody remembers until they stop working.
- 16Testing an Analogue Phone LineTip, ring, and the four numbers that tell you whose fault it is.
- 17Toning and Tracing a CableFinding one pair in a bundle of two hundred.
- 18Reading a Cable Certifier ReportWhat PASS* actually means, and which number to look at first.
- 19Which Cable Tester Do You Need?Three tiers, and the one most people actually need.
- 20Running an Office Floor RestackEveryone sits down Monday and their machine works.
- 21Cable Management for Desks and RacksTidy is a by-product. Serviceable is the point.
- 22Asset Tagging and CMDB AuditsThe scan is easy. Scanning it into the right record is the job.
- 23Cabling an Office Fit-OutHow many drops, run where, and what it takes to add one later.
- 24Parcel Locker Site SurveysWhether the unit fits, powers, connects — and gets in the door.
- 25VLANs and TrunkingAccess, trunk, tagged, native — and which one is the security hole.
- 26Spanning Tree and Switching LoopsWhy one patch cord can take a whole floor down in seconds.
- 27Reading a TracerouteWhich loss is real, and whose network it is in.
- 28DHCP, DNS and Helper AddressesWhy the new VLAN gets no addresses, and why it is always DNS.
- 29Wi-Fi Channel Planning and AP PlacementMore access points at lower power, not fewer at maximum.
- 30SMART Attributes That Predict FailureA drive can report PASSED while it is visibly dying.
- 31BitLocker: Keys, Recovery and EscrowThe key exists somewhere, or the data does not.
- 32Grounding and Bonding a Telecom RoomOne ground, one path, and no loops between rooms.
- 33UPS Sizing: VA, Watts and RuntimeThe number on the box is not the number you need.
- 34Mounting Displays on Any WallFind the structure. Everything else is a repair bill.
We do this work
as well as document it
Anyone installing cameras and wanting footage that identifies somebody rather than footage that proves somebody was there.