No bots, just experts.
Free pre-sales support for every customer. Paid services available like full system design, remote installation, and more. This product is the paid engineering-design service — qty 1 = 1 hour.
Quantity = Hours
The quantity you select is the number of engineering hours you are purchasing. Need 10 hours, set qty to 10. Need 4 hours, set qty to 4. Each unit of this product is one hour of surveillance engineering design time from our senior commercial-surveillance team.
What This Covers
Time spent on the engineering problems that drive a successful deployment: camera placement from a floor plan, NVR and switch sizing, network and PoE planning, compliance review (NDAA, HIPAA, DEA, cannabis state regulations, PCI), multi-vendor integration design, and delivered specification documents you can hand to an integrator or use for your own install.
Hardware-purchase credit.
Buy hardware from us after the engagement and we credit back up to one hour ($175) against your hardware order as a thank-you for buying from us. One-time credit per engagement — not a full refund, but a meaningful gesture.
Free vs Paid
FREE: Pre-Sales Support
Got a list of products? BOM questions? Compatibility check? Product comparisons? We answer free, typically within one business day. Volume pricing on qualifying orders. No bots — every answer comes from an expert on our team.
Do not need to purchase this service just to ask a pre-sales question.
PAID: Engineering Design
You need camera placement from a floor plan, NVR sizing, compliance audit, or multi-vendor integration design — that is this product. Buy by the hour at $175/hour, transparent pricing.
How to Scope Hours Before Purchase
- Submit a brief: Contact our team with your site details (facility type, size, current camera count if any, known constraints). Free.
- We scope the hours: Our senior engineer reviews and responds within one business day with an estimate (for example: “A 15,000 sq ft office refresh looks like 4 hours — floor-plan walkthrough, camera placement, NVR sizing, and delivered BOM.”)
- You buy the hours: Purchase this product with the matching quantity. 4 hours = qty 4. 10 hours = qty 10.
- We deliver: Design document delivered 7 to 14 days after purchase for single-site engagements; 4 to 8 weeks for multi-site or enterprise scopes.
Typical Engagements (Hours Guidance)
| Engagement | Typical Hours (Qty) | Deliverables |
|---|
| Quick consultation (screen-share) | 1 hour (qty 1) | Product-comparison or placement guidance call |
| Single-site design review (under 20 cameras) | 3 to 4 hours (qty 3-4) | Camera placement review, NVR sizing, BOM delivery |
| Full single-site system design (20 to 80 cameras) | 8 to 20 hours (qty 8-20) | Complete design document: placement, BOM, sizing, compliance, integration |
| NDAA compliance audit + migration plan | 4 to 10 hours (qty 4-10) | Camera-by-camera gap report, replacement BOM, phased rollout plan |
| Multi-site standardization | 20 to 60 hours (qty 20-60) | Portfolio template, federation architecture, compliance framework |
| Enterprise or campus design | 40 to 120+ hours (qty 40+) | Full campus design with multi-building coordination |
What One Hour Delivers
Examples of what fits in a single hour, based on typical engagements:
- 60-90 minute floor-plan walkthrough with a senior engineer, with recorded notes and call-outs
- Camera placement document for a single floor or section (mount heights, angles, field-of-view, blind-spot analysis)
- NVR and storage sizing calculation with retention, RAID, and growth headroom
- PoE switch sizing and cable-plant routing for a defined camera count
- NDAA, HIPAA, DEA, or cannabis-state compliance gap analysis for a single facility
- VMS platform comparison and recommendation for your specific workflow
- Integration design between surveillance, access control, and alarm-panel systems
- BOM refinement and vendor compatibility verification
- One round of design revisions on a delivered document
Who This Is For
Good Fit
- Facility managers starting a camera project without an integrator partner
- Property owners comparing integrator proposals who want an independent reference BOM
- Multi-site operators standardizing across properties
- Compliance-sensitive deployments (NDAA, HIPAA, DEA, cannabis, PCI)
- Hikvision or Dahua replacements at scale
- Renovations and tenant-improvement projects
Not a Fit
- You already have a working BOM and just need pricing (pre-sales support is free — just contact us)
- Residential or single-family surveillance
- Under-5-camera installations (too small to justify the engagement)
- Installation labor only — we design and supply; install is typically a local integrator (we also offer paid remote installation as a separate service)
Deliverables (Full System Design Example)
For a typical 8 to 20 hour full-site design engagement, you receive:
- Camera placement document — floor-plan overlay with every camera position, mount height, angle, field-of-view, and blind-spot analysis
- Complete BOM — every line item: cameras, NVRs, switches, cables, mounting hardware, UPS, licensing, with volume pricing built in
- NVR and storage sizing — right-sized for your camera count and retention, accounting for H.265+ codec, RAID overhead, and buffer
- Network and PoE plan — switch count, PoE budget, cable-plant routing, VLAN segmentation, with 25% growth headroom
- Compliance review — NDAA Section 889, HIPAA, DEA, PCI-DSS, FERPA, or state-specific cannabis compliance as applicable, with gap analysis and remediation plan
- Integration matrix — VMS, access-control, alarm-panel, and analytics integration plan with verified vendor compatibility
Frequently Asked Questions
Why charge for design?
Engineering design is real work — 8 to 40+ hours per site. We stopped giving it away free in exchange for a shot at a hardware order. Charging puts honest time against honest work. Pre-sales support stays free (no bots, just experts); hardware buyers also get up to one hour ($175) credited back on their order.
Can I get a pre-sales question answered without buying this?
Yes. Pre-sales tech support is free for every customer — product questions, BOM quotes, compatibility checks, price confirmation. Just contact us. This product is for paid engineering-design work that goes beyond pre-sales scope.
How do I know how many hours to buy?
Submit a brief first — free. We scope the hours with you, then you purchase the matching quantity. Qty = hours. Typical single-site reviews run 3-4 hours (qty 3-4); full system designs 8-20 hours (qty 8-20).
Do I have to buy from you after the design?
No. The design document is yours. Most customers buy from us because volume pricing is worth it, but there is no purchase obligation.
How does the hardware credit work?
If you buy hardware from us after the engagement, we credit back up to one hour ($175) against your hardware order. One-time credit per engagement; does not scale with engagement size or hardware-order size. A thank-you for buying from us, not a full refund.
What is the turnaround?
Single-site design: 2-4 weeks from intro call to delivered document. Full system design: 3-6 weeks. Multi-site and enterprise: 4-8 weeks. Rush engagements available at 1.5x standard pricing.
Can you handle installation?
Install is typically done by a local integrator. We also offer paid remote installation as a separate service if that fits your scope. The design document is written to be handed off cleanly to any installer.
