Hello all,

Thank you so much for this forum. Im a noob and I've aquired a CCTV dvr system and was hoping to self install it into my furniture store.

I have an 8 camera DVR. 6 cameras are small Domes, 2 cameras are small bullets that have IR.

I have tile ceilings.

i have drawn a rough blue print of my office layout and was hoping to get some advise on where to position the cameras.

thanks so much

Just in general, here's how I'd do it (keep in mind, I'm a CCTV hobbiest, not a professional in the field).

Two cameras at each of the front and back doors. IR bullets outside, domes inside, focused in on the door (total of four cameras).

Camera covering the general showroom.

Camera in the office.

Camera in the garage area, focused in on the garage door.

+/- a camera outside, focused on the garage door.

You could shift around the location of the cameras based on your major goals with the system: eg, trying to reduce employee shrink, versus catching a view of everyone coming in/out of the business. I can't think that armed robbery would be a major concern for a furniture store (I could be wrong), as you folks aren't really known for keeping large amounts of cash on hand.

Anyway, that's my $.02

thanks thats really good advise.

my IR camera looks like the one in this picture, its very small , the packaging says it is weather proof. Where should i mount it outside? I mean should this be directly above the door, to side of the door? or off to the side of it on the building?

Also, yes we do have alot of cash customers who furnish their whole house.

I agree that monitoring the show room is not a priority an need one or 2 there.


Should I keep the DVR in the office or put it in the garage? I'd really like to have a dedicated monitor in my office to be able to watch the doors because of blind spots when im in my office doing work.

thanks thats really good advise.

my 2 IR cameras look like the one in this picture, its very small and basic, the packaging says it is weather proof. Where should i mount it outside? I mean should this be directly above the door, to side of the door? or off to the side of it on the building?

Also, yes we do have alot of cash customers who furnish their whole house.

I agree that monitoring the show room is not a priority an need one or 2 there.


Should I keep the DVR in the office or put it in the garage? I'd really like to have a dedicated monitor in my office to be able to watch the doors because of blind spots when im in my office doing work.

Unless it's simply not feasible, you're better off adding better lighting to the exterior of the structure, and keeping your bullet cameras in day-mode. IR may be sexy/cloak-and-dagger, but it's notoriously short-range (generally about half of what they advertise), and the picture quality is worse. IR is also not much of a visual deterrent (unless your burglar has night-vision goggles, in which case you're dealing with an entirely different class of burglar).

That camera looks very short-range... I wouldn't expect more than 10-15 feet of IR out of it.

I'd put your DVR in the office in a locked rack-mount cabinet. Also make sure you protect the camera cables and power cables (or add a rack-mount UPS inside the cabinet), else somebody can simply cut them and disable your entire system (an employee, for instance).

As for camera mounting, you want them high enough that they can't be reached from the ground without a ladder. That will help prevent somebody from simply reaching up, redirecting the camera, cutting the cable, or smearing something on the lens.

As for having a monitor, that's easy to do... most DVRs have video-out, and you could simply put the monitor on your desk. If you want to know when somebody comes in, I'd put in a door-chime. That will save you from having to watch the monitor, and allow you to do other work without dividing your attention between monitor-watching and the spreadsheet you're working on.

You have a drop-ceiling, so installation should be trivial. Just get some screw-together fiberglass "fishing rods" to help you run the cables through the space above the ceiling.

Post the dimensions of your space as well as the specs on the domes, Lens size etc...