Two CCTV quotes for the same Dubai warehouse can differ by half, and nothing on the front page explains why. The explanation is almost always storage, and sometimes it is that one of the systems could not be signed off at all.
Dubai regulates this
Security systems in Dubai fall under the Security Industry Regulatory Agency, which sets requirements covering the technical specification, who may install, and how footage is stored and retained. Other emirates operate their own arrangements through their own authorities — Dubai's rules are not the UAE's rules.
Requirements also vary by premises type. A warehouse, a school, a jewellery retailer and an office are not treated alike, and the requirements change over time. Establishing what applies to your premises category before quoting is the difference between a system that passes and one that has to be revisited after installation.
Storage is where quotes diverge invisibly
Cameras are the visible cost and rarely the largest. Retention drives capacity, and capacity scales with camera count, resolution, frame rate and how many hours a day there is motion to record.
A cheaper quote has usually achieved it in one of three ways: fewer frames per second, lower resolution, or a retention period shorter than the requirement. All three are invisible on a quotation and obvious the first time footage is requested and does not exist.
- Ask every supplier for the storage arithmetic against the retention you actually need
- Check the resolution and frame rate quoted, not just the camera model
- Confirm the retention period matches the requirement for your premises type
- Establish who signs the system off, and what they will ask to see
Placement beats specification
A well-placed ordinary camera is worth more than an excellent one aimed wrongly. The failures repeat: a camera facing a roller shutter at midday recording a silhouette, a yard covered at an angle where plates are unreadable, an entrance framed so movement shows but nobody is identifiable.
Decide what you need to be able to prove, then place cameras against that. Identification and overview are different lenses and different budgets, and conflating them produces footage that satisfies neither.
Conditions here shorten equipment life
Direct sun on unshaded housings and dust on external lenses both degrade what a camera delivers over a UAE summer. Housings and cleaning intervals should be specified for these conditions rather than taken from a European datasheet.
We survey, design and specify CCTV systems for Dubai premises and verify the installed result camera by camera. Requirements change, so anything uncertain should be confirmed with the authority rather than quoted from memory — including by us. Footage is personal data, so the retention and access questions in UAE data protection for small businesses apply to it as much as to your customer records. Cameras also need a network that carries them — IT networking in Dubai covers the cabling and switching side of a surveillance install.