Copper, tools and fuel walk off at night.
A site has no power, no network and nothing to mount to. It also changes shape every couple of weeks. That is why an ordinary camera install does not work on one. The answer is usually something that arrives on wheels and leaves when the job ends.
Four constraints that decide the design.
No infrastructure
No mains power, no wired internet, nothing solid to mount to. The system has to bring its own power and its own connection, or it will not run.
The site moves
What needs watching in month one is not what needs watching in month four. A fixed camera aimed at a foundation is useless once that foundation is a third storey.
Alerts, not archives
Nobody sits and watches footage of an empty site. The camera spots the movement itself, which turns a recording into a phone call while it is still happening.
It ends
The job finishes and the kit should leave. Month to month, not a five year contract on a building that will not exist.
Trailer, or a temporary fixed build.
A mobile surveillance trailer is the usual answer. We tow it in, park it where the risk is, and move it as the site changes. It runs on solar and battery. It gets online over cellular backhaul, which means it uses a mobile network instead of a cable. The cameras sit high enough to see over hoarding, and they spot movement on the device rather than in a control room somewhere.
A temporary fixed install makes sense on a long build where there is power and a compound that will not move. It also makes sense where the site office needs a real network anyway. It costs less over a two year job, and you can often reuse the kit in the finished building.
Which one is right comes down to the site, how long the job runs, and what is going missing. That is a five minute conversation, not a form.
Before you ask.
How fast can it be on site?
Call and we will tell you what we have free. We will not quote a date that just sounds good. What is available moves week to week.
Does it work through a Calgary winter?
Cold shapes the design. It is not a footnote. We size the system on what the battery holds and what the solar panels give us in December. Kit that stops below freezing gets designed out rather than hoped over.
Can our site super see the cameras?
Yes, from a phone. We set access per person, and you can remove it the day someone leaves the project.
Will the footage be usable as evidence?
That depends on where the camera points more than on how sharp it is. A camera aimed at the gap everyone has to walk through is worth more than a wide view of the whole compound.
Tell us about the site.
How long the job runs, what is going missing, and whether there is power. Those three answers usually decide it.