Cameras on every way in, one aimed at the gate for licence plates, and a wide view over where things are stored. For most shops with a yard that adds up to 8 to 16 cameras.
What does a typical shop yard look like to us?
Picture a fabrication shop in Morden. There is an office at the front, a few overhead doors on the side, and a fenced yard out back with steel, trailers and a skid steer. One gate opens onto the road.
Most of the risk sits in the yard, not the building. The office has locks and an alarm. The yard has a chain and a padlock, and nobody can see it from the front desk.
Where should the first cameras go?
Start with the ways in. Every vehicle and every person has to pass through one of them.
- The gate. One camera set up to read licence plates, plus a wider view of the gate itself.
- Each overhead door and man door. You want a face or a vehicle, not the top of a hat.
- The storage area. A wide view over where the valuable equipment, fuel or material sits.
- The blind corners. Behind the shop, the far end of the lot, and the spots hidden by stacked material.
We walk the site with you before we suggest anything. We look at it the way someone with bad intentions would, which is usually where the blind spots show up.
Why does the gate camera matter most?
The gate is the one place every vehicle has to pass. If you can see it clearly, you know who came in, when, and in what.
A plate camera needs to be set up for that one job. It is aimed tight on the lane, at the height and angle where plates show up. A general view of the yard usually can't read a plate, even in daylight. That is why the gate often gets two cameras.
What makes a yard harder than a shop?
Distance, light and weather.
- Distance. A network cable run has a length limit. A camera on a far fence post or a second building may need a pole, a small network box partway, or a wireless link. Each adds cost.
- Light. A yard with one light over the door is dark everywhere else. Cameras that see in the dark help, but a dim yard still loses detail at the far end.
- Weather. A camera rated for outdoor use handles a Manitoba January. What usually fails is the cable entry, the housing or the power supply, so we choose those for our winters.
- Metal buildings. Wireless cameras drop out around steel walls and stacked equipment. We cable wherever we can.
How do alerts change what the cameras do?
Without alerts, cameras only tell you what happened after you go looking. With alerts, they tell you while it is happening.
We set the yard cameras to flag a person or a vehicle after hours, and to ignore animals. So a truck at the gate at 2 a.m. reaches your phone, and the fox crossing the lot does not. You can pull up any moment from the last several weeks on your phone or desktop.
What does a shop yard setup cost?
A shop with a yard is a bigger job than a small office. Several buildings, long runs to a far gate, or a second yard cost more and are quoted after the site walk. See all starting prices and what moves them.
A shop in Winkler with a small fenced lot sits near the low end. A yard with a back lot and a separate cold storage building sits near the top.