Security Knowledge Centre
Know before
you buy.
Installer-written guides on burglary, vehicle crime, doorstep theft, business security, the law and how CCTV actually works. Written from the survey, the ladder and the app — not from a brochure.
Buying guide · 9 min
The complete guide to Hikvision CCTV.
Hikvision is the most widely installed professional CCTV platform in the UK. That means a huge range, confusing model nu…
Technology explained · 6 min
What is Hikvision ColorVu?
Infrared CCTV gives you a grey silhouette at night. ColorVu gives you the colour of the jacket and the car. Here's how i…
Technology explained · 6 min
What is Hikvision AcuSense?
The reason most people turn CCTV notifications off within a week is that the camera alerts on everything. AcuSense fixes…
Comparison · 5 min
ColorVu vs AcuSense.
They're not rivals — they solve different problems. ColorVu is about what you can see. AcuSense is about what you get to…
Comparison · 5 min
4MP vs 8MP. Is 4K worth it?
Marketing says 4K everywhere. Storage bills say otherwise. Here's where the extra pixels change what you can identify — …
Buying guide · 5 min
Choosing a Hikvision NVR.
The recorder is the part nobody gets excited about and everybody regrets under-specifying. Here's what actually matters …
Buying guide · 5 min
How much storage does CCTV need?
'How many days does it record?' is the second question every customer asks. Here are the real numbers, and the settings …
Technology explained · 5 min
How Hik-Connect actually works.
Hik-Connect is the app on your phone. Set up properly it's the best thing about the system; set up badly it's the reason…
Buying guide · 6 min
Best Hikvision CCTV for a UK home.
Not a list of model numbers that will be out of date by spring. A specification by property type, from the people who fi…
Buying guide · 6 min
Best Hikvision CCTV for a business.
A business system is designed around an operation, not a floor plan. Here's what we specify for the common ones.…
Buying guide · 5 min
What Hikvision CCTV installation costs.
We don't publish a price list because every property is different — but we can tell you exactly what moves the number, a…
Burglary & break-ins · 6 min
What burglars look for — and what puts them off.
Most burglaries are opportunist and take under ten minutes. The house is chosen in seconds from the street. Here's what …
Burglary & break-ins · 5 min
Been burgled? The first 24 hours.
It's a horrible feeling and it's easy to make things harder for yourself in the first hour. Here's the order to do thing…
Burglary & break-ins · 5 min
Does CCTV deter burglars?
Short answer: yes, when it's visible and obviously real — and it does a second job no deterrent can, which is giving you…
Burglary & break-ins · 4 min
The clocks go back. Burglaries go up.
Every autumn the same thing happens: the evenings get dark by five, empty houses become obvious, and burglary reports cl…
Burglary & break-ins · 4 min
Securing your home while you're away.
An empty house for a week is exactly what a burglar is looking for. The good news: the signs that give it away are all e…
Vehicle crime · 5 min
Keyless car theft. How it works. How to stop it.
Two people, a small device each, and your car is gone from the drive in under a minute — without a key, without a window…
Vehicle crime · 4 min
Catalytic converter theft. Two minutes, one jack.
A jack, a battery saw, and ninety seconds under the car. Catalytic converter theft is noisy but fast, and it's targeted …
Vehicle crime · 5 min
Best CCTV for a driveway.
The driveway is where the expensive things are and where most cameras are pointed wrongly. Here's what it needs to captu…
Vehicle crime · 4 min
Car broken into on the drive? Here's what helps.
Smashed window, glovebox emptied, gone in a minute. It's one of the most common reports on our crime pages, and one wher…
Doorstep & neighbours · 4 min
Parcel theft. Doorbell camera or CCTV?
Doorstep theft follows delivery vans. A doorbell camera is the obvious answer and it's often the right one — but not alw…
Doorstep & neighbours · 4 min
Anti-social behaviour. What a camera can do.
Groups outside, damage to cars, noise, things thrown at the house. It's the crime category that wears people down, and i…
Legal & privacy · 4 min
Can my neighbour point a camera at my house?
It's the question we're asked most about the law, from both sides. Here's the plain-English position for England and Wal…
Business · 4 min
Shoplifting. What your CCTV has to capture.
Most shop cameras are pointed at the floor from the ceiling. They show that something happened; they rarely show who. He…
Business · 5 min
Warehouse CCTV. Yards, bays and the fence.
A warehouse is an operation before it's a building: vehicles, bays, shifts, contractors, a fence. The CCTV has to be des…
Business · 4 min
Restaurant & takeaway CCTV. Tills, back doors, staff.
Hospitality has its own pattern: cash and cards at the till, a back door that's propped open, deliveries at odd hours, l…
How CCTV works · 4 min
What footage the police actually need.
After an incident the question is never 'do you have CCTV' — it's 'can we identify anyone from it'. Here's what makes fo…
How CCTV works · 4 min
Wired vs wireless CCTV. The honest answer.
'Wireless' sounds simpler. For a camera that matters, it usually isn't. Here's the real trade-off, and the places where …
How CCTV works · 3 min
Does CCTV work without internet?
Yes, if it's designed to. The recorder does the recording; the internet only carries the app. Here's what keeps working …
How CCTV works · 4 min
How many cameras does my house need?
Fewer than the kit in the shop suggests. Placement beats count: four cameras in the right places outperform eight in the…
How CCTV works · 4 min
CCTV not recording? Seven things to check.
The worst time to find out the recorder stopped is after something happens. Here are the causes we find most often on ca…
Comparison · 5 min
Hikvision vs Dahua
Two capable professional ecosystems with more in common than either's marketing admits.
Comparison · 5 min
Hikvision vs HiLook
Same family, different tiers. How much camera your property needs.
Comparison · 5 min
Ajax vs Texecom
App-first wireless vs graded professional panels.
Comparison · 5 min
Professional CCTV vs Ring
When each is right — and why the difference matters more than the price.
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