Best CCTV for apartment complex in India 2026: Multi-camera setup guide

For a typical mid-size housing society, you'll need cameras at five zones: main gate (1-2 bullet cameras), lobby and lift area per building (1 dome camera each), each floor corridor (1 dome camera per floor), parking (bullet or PTZ depending on size), and the perimeter wall (bullet cameras with 30m+ IR).

A society with 4 buildings and basement parking typically needs 24-32 cameras on a 32-channel NVR.

Start coverage planning at the main gate, since this is the highest-value camera in the whole system. Use a CP Plus 4MP bullet camera angled to capture both vehicles and pedestrians entering, ideally paired with a second camera focused only on the security cabin for staff accountability.

Lobbies and lift landings need a dome camera each, since domes are less obvious and harder to tamper with in a shared space where residents and visitors pass constantly. One camera per floor corridor is standard, though buildings with long corridors or multiple wings may need two.

Parking coverage depends on layout: open surface parking works well with 2-3 wide-angle bullet cameras per section, while basement or stilt parking needs cameras at every ramp and pillar-blocked corner.

The perimeter wall is often skipped in budget setups, which is a mistake, since most society security incidents involve someone entering over a boundary wall rather than through the main gate. Budget for wall-mounted bullet cameras at every 25-30 metre stretch of exposed boundary.

For storage, societies should plan for 30 days minimum, since RWA disputes and incident reviews often surface weeks after the fact, not the next day. This pushes total storage needs higher than a typical home or shop setup, so size your NVR's hard drive bay accordingly rather than adding drives later.

Get sign-off from the RWA committee on camera placement near residential windows and balconies, since privacy complaints are common if cameras are angled into private units rather than shared spaces.