There is a meaningful difference between a CCTV system that was installed and a CCTV system that works. The market is saturated with budget wireless cameras that produce adequate footage in good daylight, drop Wi-Fi connections at inconvenient moments, store footage in a vendor cloud that charges a monthly subscription, and fail within three years of UV exposure. SynthWire installs hardwired IP camera systems on a local network video recorder — no subscription, no vendor cloud dependency, no footage disappearing when your router drops out at 2am. Every camera is run back to the NVR on dedicated Cat6 or coax, powered correctly, aimed with deliberate thought given to coverage angle, overlap, and the specific threats applicable to your property. This is security infrastructure, not a consumer gadget.
4K IP cameras and NVR architecture
Resolution matters in security footage, but only up to a point — and the point that matters is whether you can identify a face or a number plate in the footage you actually have. Modern 4K IP cameras (8 megapixel) provide the resolution to crop and enlarge a frame without the pixelation that makes 1080p footage frustrating for identification purposes. SynthWire specifies cameras from established commercial brands — Hikvision, Dahua, Uniview, and similar — rather than consumer-grade devices that look the same in the product photo but use cheaper image sensors, narrower dynamic range, and firmware that stops receiving security updates after eighteen months. The NVR is configured for local storage on a correctly sized hard drive — typically 30 days of continuous footage at the camera count installed — with optional remote backup to a local NAS or encrypted off-site storage.
Cable runs, PoE, and the importance of hardwired infrastructure
Power over Ethernet (PoE) is the standard for modern IP cameras: a single Cat6 cable carries both data and power to the camera head, eliminating the need for separate power supplies at each camera position. This is cleaner, more reliable, and easier to fault-find than multi-cable installations. SynthWire runs Cat6 concealed through roof spaces, wall cavities, and conduit where exposed — not surface-mounted through cable clips along the eaves like a temporary installation. Concealed cabling serves two purposes: it is aesthetically far superior, and it is significantly harder to interfere with. A thief who can see your camera cable knows where it runs; a thief who cannot see your cable has a much harder time disabling the system before acting.
Camera placement: coverage, deterrence, and privacy
Camera placement is an exercise in threat modelling, not just coverage. SynthWire walks the property perimeter with you to identify the most likely ingress routes — driveway gates, side gates, garage doors, rear access lanes — and the key areas where identification-quality footage is needed versus where general motion detection is sufficient. Cameras are positioned to avoid back-lit conditions where possible (a camera facing west at 4pm is looking into the sun), to provide overlapping coverage at key points so that a single camera failure does not create a blind spot, and to respect your neighbours' reasonable expectation of privacy. We are not here to install a system that surveils the street; we are here to protect your property.
Alarm systems, access control, and remote monitoring
SynthWire installs hardwired PIR and door/window sensor alarm systems alongside CCTV — the combination of detection and recording is significantly more effective than either alone. When a PIR triggers, the NVR can be configured to flag the corresponding camera's footage for immediate review. Access control — keypad, proximity card, or video intercom systems at gates and doors — adds a further layer that controls who can enter rather than just recording who has. All of these systems can be integrated with remote monitoring via a phone app: live view, playback, and push alerts when motion is detected. We configure remote access correctly, using encrypted connections rather than insecure port forwarding, and we walk you through the app setup before we leave site.
- 4K IP camera installation on hardwired Cat6 PoE infrastructure
- Local NVR with correctly sized storage — no cloud subscription required
- Concealed cable routing through roof space and wall cavities
- Perimeter assessment and strategic camera placement for coverage and deterrence
- Hardwired PIR and door/window alarm sensor integration
- Remote phone app access with encrypted connections and push alerts
- Video intercom and access control systems for gates and entry points
Frequently asked
Reliability and tamper resistance. Wi-Fi cameras depend on your router staying online, the camera staying within range, and no one running a cheap Wi-Fi jammer near your property during an incident. Hardwired PoE cameras have none of those vulnerabilities — the only way to kill the feed is to cut the cable or pull power from the NVR itself, both of which require physical access to concealed infrastructure. For a security system, that's a meaningful difference. We also find that hardwired systems are easier to troubleshoot and maintain over their service life.
It depends on the camera count, resolution, frame rate, and hard drive size — and SynthWire sizes the drive at installation to give you a minimum of 30 days of continuous recording at the camera resolution and frame rate specified. For most residential systems with four to eight cameras at 4K resolution and standard frame rates, a 4–8TB drive achieves this comfortably. We configure motion-triggered recording where clients prefer to maximise storage life, but we always recommend continuous recording for high-risk zones such as driveways and rear access points.
This is a legitimate concern and one SynthWire takes seriously. The Privacy Act and state-based surveillance laws generally permit you to record your own property and land; recording into a neighbouring dwelling or capturing neighbours' private spaces without reasonable cause is where problems arise. SynthWire positions cameras to cover your property perimeter, not your neighbour's backyard. Where a camera's field of view unavoidably includes a public footpath or a neighbour's driveway, that is generally permissible. We'll discuss placement with you and document our rationale — and if a neighbour raises a concern, a well-placed camera with a clear field-of-view diagram is straightforward to defend.