Cameras That Catch the Problem While It's Happening, Not After
HD and 4K surveillance from Axis, Hanwha, Ajax, Verkada and Turing, designed around your site and your lighting, and watched by people who can actually respond.
A camera system engineered to identify, not just record
Specified for your site
Lens, mounting height, and low-light performance chosen for your doors, corners, and blind spots.
Smart analytics
Tell a person from a passing vehicle, and flag line-crossing or after-hours loitering in real time.
Built for the dark
Tuned for how your property actually looks at night, because that's when break-ins happen.
Ends in a response
Because we also run live monitoring and provide the guards and K9, an alert can bring a real response.
The technology
Cameras and smart analytics, designed, installed, and monitored by us.
CamerasAxis · Hanwha (Wisenet) · Ajax · Verkada · Turing
AnalyticsPerson vs. vehicle · line-cross · after-hours loitering
FootageOn-site recorder, cloud, or both — retention you choose
| Spec | What to look for | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Resolution | 4MP for most doors and interiors; 4K where you'll need to crop in — parking lots, yards, wide storefronts. | Placement and lens choice beat the number on the box. Resolution only pays off when the camera is positioned to use it. |
| Retention | Decide the days first — how long before you'd notice a problem, and what your insurer expects — then size the storage to it. | Resolution, camera count, and days kept all draw on the same storage. Pick retention by default and you'll find out it was too short on the day you need the footage. |
| NDAA compliance | If your work touches government or critical-infrastructure sites, ask. We'll spec from brands cleared for use on government-adjacent sites. | Some sites and contracts restrict which camera manufacturers are allowed. Finding out after the install is an expensive way to learn. |
| PoE | Cameras powered over the same network cable that carries their footage, from a PoE switch. | One cable per camera means a cleaner install, no electrician at every position, and cameras that stay up on a single UPS at the switch. |
| ONVIF | Cameras and recorders that speak the open ONVIF standard. | No vendor lock-in. You can change recorders, add analytics, or bring in cameras from a takeover without starting over. |
| Analytics | Person and vehicle classification, not raw motion detection. | Raw motion fires on rain, headlights, and animals. Classification is what makes an alert worth waking someone up for — and what makes live monitoring workable. |
How we build it
Site walk
We look at your building the way someone with bad intentions would, day and night.
A design for your site
The right cameras, lenses, and positions for your layout — not a standard kit.
Clean local install
Our own crew, running the conduit ourselves, on a schedule that works around your operation.
Watched and supported
Feeds our operators can monitor, plus a local team that services what it installed.
CCTV & Video Surveillance, in depth.
A camera on the wall makes people feel safer than it should. The truth most installers won't tell you is that a badly placed 4K camera is worse than a well-placed 1080p one. So we start with your site, not a product sheet: we walk the property, find the doors and corners and blind spots that matter, and check what the lighting does at night, because that's when you'll need the cameras most. Then we spec cameras from Axis, Hanwha (Wisenet), Ajax, Verkada and Turing to match. Lens choice, mounting height, and low-light performance do more for you than the resolution number on the box, and we'll tell you straight when a site needs four good cameras instead of the twelve someone else quoted.
Almost nothing we install is technically CCTV
Here's a trade secret: almost nothing we install is technically CCTV. Closed-circuit television emerged in the 1940s — the name meant exactly what it said, a camera on a literal closed loop of cable to monitors in one room — and for decades that's what the industry built: analog cameras, coax cable, a bank of screens. Then cameras learned to speak network. An IP camera isn't a closed circuit at all; it's a device on your network that can be viewed, recorded, and analyzed from anywhere you allow. That's why the international standard governing this equipment, IEC 62676, doesn't say CCTV — it says video surveillance systems, or VSS. We still say CCTV because it's the word everyone searches for. But what we design for you is a VSS, and the difference is the whole point: your cameras can now end in a live response instead of a room full of screens nobody watches.
A lot more than record
Modern cameras also do a lot more than record. With smart analytics, the system can tell a person from a passing vehicle, flag someone crossing a line you've drawn or loitering near a door after hours, and send that alert to our monitoring team in real time. Done right, that means a camera that calls for help while an intruder is still deciding what to do, instead of a hard drive you scroll through the next morning. Done wrong, analytics cry wolf every time a cat walks by or a shadow moves, so tuning them for your site matters as much as turning them on.
We handle the whole thing: the site survey, the system design, the install, and the support after. You choose where the footage lives, whether that's a recorder on-site, in the cloud, or both, and how long it's kept, which is worth thinking about because some insurers and some incidents need weeks of history, not days. And because we also run live video monitoring and provide the guards and K9, your cameras can end in a real response instead of a notification you'll see too late.
Who it's for
Retail & commercial
You have the incident on camera and no usable face — a ceiling corner records hat brims and shoulders. One camera at head height at the door is worth more than four more overviews.
Warehouses & logistics
Dock shrink, a forklift injury that becomes a WorkSafeBC claim, a driver disputing damage at handover. Every one of them needs footage weeks later — which is a retention decision made on install day, not after.
Multi-site property managers
Three buildings, three installers, and nobody can say which cameras are still recording. One standard across the portfolio, one login, and a local team that answers when a tenant incident lands on your desk.
What actually matters when choosing cameras
Placement beats resolution. A face-height camera at the entry point is worth more than a high-corner 4K that only ever sees the tops of heads.
Night is the real test. Ask how a camera performs in your actual lighting, not in a showroom. Break-ins don't happen at noon.
Analytics need tuning. Person-and-vehicle detection is genuinely useful. It's also useless if nobody sets it up for your site and it buries you in false alerts.
Decide retention on purpose. How many days of footage you keep is a real decision, not a default. Match it to how long it takes you to notice a problem.
A camera that nobody watches is a record, not a defence. If it isn't monitored, it can only tell you what already went wrong.
Frequently asked questions
Why isn't my security camera recording?
Usually one of five things. The hard drive in the recorder is full or has quietly failed. The system is set to record on motion only, and the detection is tuned so badly it misses what matters. The camera has dropped off the network, often a PoE switch port or a corroded connection. The recorder's clock has drifted, so footage exists but not where you're looking. Or a cloud plan lapsed and nobody noticed. All of them share one cause: nobody is servicing the system. If your installer has gone quiet, book a takeover assessment and we'll tell you what's actually salvageable.
Cloud vs on-site recording — which should we choose?
An on-site recorder gives you full-resolution footage with no per-camera monthly fee, and it keeps recording if your internet goes down. Its weakness is that it lives on the property: if the recorder is stolen or damaged in the same incident, the evidence goes with it. Cloud recording puts a copy off-site and makes remote access simple, but it costs monthly and leans on your upload bandwidth. For most commercial sites we design a hybrid: record everything locally, push the cameras that matter most to the cloud. You choose where the footage lives and for how long, and we'll tell you straight which side your site actually needs.
What does a commercial camera install cost in BC?
It's a range, and anyone who quotes you a number before walking the site is guessing. The honest answer is what drives it: how many cameras the site genuinely needs (often fewer than you were quoted elsewhere), the grade of camera each position calls for, how far the cable has to run and whether it needs conduit, the recorder and storage sized to your retention, and whether mounting heights need a lift. Network readiness matters too — a site with good cabling and a PoE switch costs less to build on. We survey first, then quote a fixed design, so the number reflects your building rather than a standard kit.
What's the difference between CCTV and a video surveillance system?
Strictly, CCTV is the old technology and video surveillance is the current one. Closed-circuit television meant exactly that: a camera wired on a closed loop to monitors in one room. Modern systems are IP cameras on a network — nothing about them is a closed circuit, which is why the international standard for this equipment, IEC 62676, calls them video surveillance systems, or VSS. The history section on this page tells the fuller story. In practice everyone still says CCTV, including us, because it's the word people search for. What you're buying from us is a VSS; what you call it is up to you.
Can you take over cameras another company installed?
Yes, and it's a common way clients come to us. Most commercial IP cameras speak ONVIF, an open standard, so decent existing cameras can usually connect to a new recorder and better analytics without being replaced. We start with a takeover assessment: we test every camera, check the cabling and switch, look at what the recorder is actually keeping, and tell you what's worth reusing and what isn't. You get a straight answer before you spend anything, and our own local team supports it afterward. Our System Takeovers & Upgrades service covers the full process.
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Why Guard Nation
- One local company designs, installs, monitors and services it.
- Every activation is verified by an operator before anyone is sent.
- We publish the brands we install.