Signs you need this
- Cameras showing a black screen or dropping out at random
- The installer has gone quiet, changed number or gone out of business
- Nobody has the admin password for your own recorder
- Footage stops several days short of where you need it
- A system the previous tenant or owner left behind
- Water in a dome, a fogged bubble or a camera hanging off its mount
What we find on a takeover audit
The same handful of problems come up again and again in Triangle buildings.
Drives that were never sized for the promised retention. A recorder sold as a thirty day system with a 1TB drive and eight cameras on continuous recording holds about five days, and nobody checks until footage is needed.
Water in the connector. Outdoor runs terminated without a drip loop, plugged in and taped rather than sealed. It works for two winters then starts dropping out in the first humid week of June.
Cameras aimed at nothing useful. A wide shot of a parking lot from 25 feet up looks impressive on a monitor and cannot identify anybody. Re-aiming existing cameras costs almost nothing and often improves a system more than new hardware would.
Factory passwords still in place, firmware years out of date and remote access through an open port. That combination is what puts business cameras on public streaming sites.
How we decide keep or replace
Cameras younger than about six years with a working sensor and a clean housing are usually worth keeping. Anything with a fogged bubble, a corroded gland or an image that has gone soft gets replaced.
Recorders are judged on channel count, codec support and whether the manufacturer still issues firmware. An old recorder that cannot handle H.265 is forcing you to buy storage you do not need.
Cable gets tested rather than guessed at. That test is the single most useful thing in the audit, because a building where the runs are sound can be brought up to current standards for a fraction of a full install.
Systems left behind by a previous tenant
Downtown and in Durham we regularly walk into a unit where cameras are on the wall, the recorder is gone, and nobody knows what the cable does. Those jobs start with tracing runs back to a point of origin, which usually finds existing infrastructure worth several thousand dollars in labor.
What handover means here
Every takeover ends the same way. You get the admin credentials in writing, a labeled list of every camera and zone, the current retention figure, and a walkthrough of the app. There is no installer account left behind and nothing that stops you using another company later.
How the work runs
- 1
Audit visit
We test every camera and zone, read the recorder logs, check drive health, trace the cabling and write down what is actually there.
- 2
Honest verdict in writing
Keep, repair or replace, item by item, with reasons. Plenty of five year old systems only need a drive, a firmware update and three camera swaps.
- 3
Reuse what works
Sound coax often carries HD over coax cameras, and existing Cat6 usually takes modern PoE. Cable is the expensive part, so reusing it is where the savings are.
- 4
Repair or upgrade
Faulty cameras swapped, connections remade properly, recorder reconfigured and storage sized to the retention you want.
- 5
Full handover
Admin credentials, a labeled camera and zone list, and training for whoever pulls footage. No lock-in and no hidden accounts.
What it typically costs
| Job | Typical range |
|---|---|
| Audit and written report Credited against work booked from the report | $150 to $300 |
| Camera replacement, like for like Existing cable and mount reused where sound | $220 to $600 |
| Recorder replacement Cameras and cabling kept, storage resized | $700 to $2,200 |
| Fault find and repair, per hour Cable faults, connector repairs, power supply issues | $95 to $150 |
| Alarm panel takeover Reprogram, recode, move reporting, retest every zone | $250 to $600 |
Typical ranges for Raleigh and the surrounding area , reviewed September 2026. Every quote is written and fixed before work starts.