What a secure area actually needs
Most sites already have a lock. The gap is knowing who went through the door, and whether something left with them. A cash office, a pharmacy dispensary door, a liquor cage, a tool cage and a server room are the same camera problem at different scales.
The picture you want is short and specific. The approach to the door. The door itself. The bench or hatch where an item is handed over, if there is one. You do not want a camera in a toilet, a change room, or aimed into a place staff reasonably treat as private. Workplace surveillance rules differ by state. This page is general information, not legal advice.
What we install
- The door and the approach. One camera that sees the door and a few metres of the corridor or shop floor in front of it. Close enough to see a person enter, not a speck at the end of a warehouse.
- The handover, where there is one. A dispensary hatch, a cash drawer, a counter where keys are signed out. Hands and the item, not a portrait system.
- Inside the cage, when the room is a store. A tool cage or a liquor cage can have a camera inside because it is a store, not a private room. A server room usually needs the door more than the racks.
- Recorder somewhere else. The recorder should not sit inside the room it is protecting. If that room is the one that is opened, the disk needs to be somewhere the same person cannot walk out with it.
What the AI layer watches for
- Door activity as events. A line or zone on the door, written to a timeline with a short clip either side, so you search "the cage door after 6pm" instead of scrubbing an evening.
- After-hours alerts. A person at that door outside the hours you set produces an email with the frame. A cooldown limits repeats.
- Movement inside a cage. Goods moved in a store cage can be flagged and, where you keep records, cross-checked against a book-out or a sale. The system suggests the mismatch. Someone checks it.
It does not grant access, replace a lock, or identify a person by face. Zones and tripwires is the piece most secure rooms use first.
Constraints to plan for
Put signage where people can see it before they enter the area you are recording, and tell staff. Audio is treated more strictly than video in Australia; we do not add microphones as a default. Ask any installer, including us, for licence and insurance details. Laws differ by state.