Homes & villas

How does Homes & villas work, step by step?

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   Step 1: Agree the scope with the client and their adviser

   Before anything is set out, the client and the designer or security consultant agree what the system is for. Deterrence, recorded evidence, live viewing from a phone and integration with an alarm are different objectives and they pull the design in different directions. The output is a marked-up plan showing the intended positions, a schedule of what serves each one, and a note of what the system is expected to be able to do at handover. On most projects this is settled at the same time as the electrical layout, because it shares the same containment and the same first fix.

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   Step 2: Coordinate containment before first fix closes

   This is the step that decides whether the finished installation looks designed or bolted on. Routes are agreed with the electrical contractor and set against the structure: which walls carry conduit, where the drops fall, how external positions are reached from inside, and where cables pass through the insulation line and the airtightness line. Penetrations through those lines are sealed as the fabric details require. Where a route crosses structure, the coordination is with the structural engineer, not resolved on site with a drill.

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   Step 3: Pull cable and leave it protected

   Cables are pulled to each position with draw cords left in any route that may be needed later, coiled, labelled at both ends and left long enough for a comfortable termination. Both ends are protected and kept dry. Cable pulled during first fix and then left uncapped in a wet shell is a common cause of faults that only appear at commissioning, by which point the plasterer has been and gone. Routes and actual runs are recorded as installed, because the as-built record is what the next contractor works from.

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   Step 4: Provide power and network to the right places

   Each position needs power and a data path, and on most residential systems both arrive over the same cable from equipment at the recorder end. That concentrates the electrical demand at one point, and the electrical designer allows for it on the circuit schedule rather than discovering it at second fix. The building's network provision is coordinated at the same time, because the recorder, the router and any remote viewing all sit on the same infrastructure. Where the client wants the system to survive a power cut, that is a design decision made early, since it changes the electrical provision.

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   Step 5: Locate and build the recorder position

   The recorder needs somewhere ventilated, dry, accessible for maintenance and out of the way of daily use. Loft spaces, cupboards under stairs and utility rooms are all common and all have drawbacks, usually heat, damp or the client's storage. The designer settles the position and the builder provides for it: a shelf or enclosure, power, a network connection and a route in for the cables. It is worth fixing this on the drawings, because a recorder relocated after the cables are cut is an expensive change.

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   Step 6: Mount, terminate and set the system up

   At second fix the positions are mounted to sound fixings appropriate to the substrate, sealed where they pass through the external envelope, and terminated. Each is then set up and each recording path is checked end to end. Fields of view are set on site with the client or their adviser present, because what a plan shows and what a camera sees are rarely identical once the building exists. The installer confirms what the system records and how it behaves in the dark and in rain, and the client sees it working before it is signed off.

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   Step 7: Integrate with entry and alarm where required

   Where the specification calls for it, the system is linked to the door entry panel and the intruder alarm so that events on one appear on the other. Interfaces are proved individually and then together, and the sequence is watched in both normal and fault conditions. This is deliberately left until the contributing systems are complete, because integration testing on a half-finished alarm proves nothing.

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   Step 8: Commission, demonstrate and hand over

   Commissioning is a discrete activity with a written record, not the last hour of the last day. Every position is confirmed as recording, remote access is proved on the client's own devices, and the system is left in the state the client actually wants. Handover covers what the household needs to do and the obligations that come with recording images of people, including signage, how long recordings are kept and what happens if somebody asks for a copy. The client and their advisers determine how those obligations are met; the installer records what was handed over and to whom.