A straight answer on what a camera system costs, what moves that number up or down, and how to get one fixed price for your property.
The first question most owners ask is what a system will cost. The honest answer is that it depends on your building, your layout, and what you need the cameras to do. A system is planned for a specific property, so two businesses on the same street can land on very different prices.
That is not a brush-off. It is how a quote stays honest. At North Georgia Security and Surveillance, we walk the property free, plan the coverage with you, and then give you a fixed price for the whole job. The sections below show the five things that set that price, the starting prices we publish, and what every quote from us includes.
Start with what you need to see, not with a number of cameras. Entrances and exits, registers, stock and storage areas, parking lots, and the blind spots nobody watches today all belong on the list first. The right camera count falls out of that walk. A small office may be covered well by a handful of cameras, while a larger building with several doors and a lot to watch will need more.
Cameras are not all built for the same job. Higher resolution gives you clearer detail when you zoom in on a face or a tag after something happens. A 180 degree camera covers a wide area from one mount, and a pan-tilt camera can move to follow a large open space. Low light performance matters anywhere the cameras work after dark, and tough, vandal proof housings matter anywhere a camera sits within reach. The more a camera has to do, the more it costs, so the technology should match the actual job at each spot.
The building itself decides a lot of the labor. Cable paths are simple in some buildings and a project in others. Mounting on drywall is different work than mounting on brick, concrete, or steel. Ceiling height matters too, and so does power. A wired PoE camera gets its power over the same cable that carries the video, which keeps things clean, while some spots need a separate power source planned in. All of that gets priced after we see the building, which is the point of the walkthrough.
How many days of footage do you want to keep? That answer, plus the number of cameras and their resolution, sets the size of the recorder and its hard drive. More cameras recording at higher detail for more days simply takes more storage. We size the recorder to the retention you actually need, and your footage records locally at your property, on a drive you own.
The last choice is what happens when a camera sees something. Many owners self-monitor: motion alerts go to an app on their phone, and they check the live view and pull footage themselves, with no monthly fee on the camera system. Others want a 24/7 monitored service plan, where an alarm gets a professional response around the clock. Both are reasonable. They are just different levels of service, and the monitored option adds a plan cost on top of the system.
We keep the pricing we can standardize out in the open. Anything that depends on the building gets its price the same way: one fixed number after a free on-site assessment, before any work begins.
Professionally installed and set up on your phone.
One 4K 180 degree wired floodlight camera, professionally installed.
Starting with a complete 4-camera WiFi system with local recording and no monthly fees.
A complete 8-camera wireless system, professionally installed, with local recording and no monthly fees.
Quoted as one fixed price after the free on-site assessment, based on your coverage goals, your building, and your storage needs. No sight-unseen numbers, and no surprises after the fact.
A low number can just mean half the job was left out. Here is what a North Georgia Security quote covers, so you can line it up against any other quote you get.
The least expensive cameras on the shelf can look like a deal on day one. The problems tend to show up later, usually at the worst time.
The reliable way to price a system is a short walk through your building. The assessment is free, the quote is a fixed price, and there is no pressure either way.
North Georgia Security and Surveillance serves Dalton, Calhoun, Chatsworth, Ringgold, Fort Oglethorpe, Chattanooga, and surrounding North Georgia. Smart Protection. Connected Homes.