A Costly Lesson From a Warehouse
A large warehouse had a simple routine: every two weeks, the store manager conducted a stock check.
During one of these checks, they discovered that several valuable motor engine parts were missing. Naturally, the first step was to review the CCTV footage. After all, the system had been set up with a 30‑day retention plan, surely the evidence would be there.
But when they tried to play back the footage, the system only had 13 days of recordings. Everything beyond that had already been overwritten.
The cameras were working. The system was recording. But the storage had been underestimated. The evidence was gone before anyone even knew it was needed.
Why Did the System Fail?
This wasn’t a hardware failure. It wasn’t sabotage. It was a design flaw, relying on assumptions instead of calculating true bandwidth and storage requirements.
Here’s the simple math that could have saved them.
1. Bandwidth
Bitrate×Number of Cameras\text{Bitrate} \times \text{Number of Cameras}
Example: 150 cameras × 6 Mbps = 900 Mbps raw load (before H.265+ compression).
2. Storage
(Bitrate×Hours/day×Days×Cameras)÷8÷1000(\text{Bitrate} \times \text{Hours/day} \times \text{Days} \times \text{Cameras}) \div 8 \div 1000
Example: 6 Mbps × 24h × 30 days × 150 ÷ 8 ≈ 48 TB raw (plus RAID & growth factor).
The Golden Rule
In security, there’s no such thing as an “average” day. There’s only the day something happens.
That’s why I always design for peak load, not average load. Anything less is gambling with your security.
Don’t Want to Do the Math?
Manual calculations are useful, but they can be time‑consuming and prone to error. That’s why I built a free tool to make this easier.
Try the SafeViewTech CCTV Storage Calculator to instantly estimate your system’s bandwidth and storage requirements.
Lesson Learned
The warehouse’s cameras weren’t the problem. The design was. A CCTV system without proper storage planning is like a safe without a lock, it looks secure until the day you actually need it.
Over to You
What’s the biggest CCTV design mistake you’ve seen in the field? Share your experience, I’d love to hear how others are tackling these challenges.