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Sheet 08.1

What  commercial  CCTV  installation  costs  in  Melbourne.

The cost of a commercial CCTV installation in Melbourne is set by the building: how many cameras, how high they mount, how far the cable runs and how many days the recorder holds. This page has no price table, because a number without the building is a guess.

What it has is the list of things the number depends on, for cameras, alarms and access control, and a checklist you can hold against any three quotes. We attend site and send an itemised quote at no charge, so the real number costs you nothing to get.
Sheet
Guide
Published
30 September 2026
Last updated
30 September 2026
Written by
Gentex AU
G-10

Every  quote  has  four  parts.

A quote that shows one total hides which of the four is doing the work.

01 Equipment.
Cameras, recorder, switch, alarm panel, detectors, readers, locks. This is the part that can be compared by model number, and only if the model numbers are written down.
02 Cable and containment.
The metres of cable and the tray or conduit it runs in. In a warehouse this is often the largest line, and it is the one most often left vague.
03 Labour and access.
Hours on site, and what it takes to reach the work: a ladder, a lift, a ceiling opened up, a shift done out of hours.
04 Commissioning and handover.
Aiming, configuring, testing and documenting. Left out, you get equipment that is mounted and powered but not set up.
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What  moves  the  cost  of  a  commercial  CCTV  installation.

01 What each camera has to do.
A camera that identifies a face at a door needs a tighter lens and more resolution than one that watches a floor. Two quotes with the same camera count can differ because the cameras are not the same cameras.
02 Mounting height.
An office ceiling tile is a ladder job. A warehouse roof is a lift, a second person and a longer day. That is labour, and it does not show in a per-camera figure.
03 Cable distance and containment.
Where tray already runs past the camera position, the cable is pulled through it. Where it does not, conduit goes up first. A copper run also tops out at about 100 metres, so a long building needs a second switch position. Our data cabling page covers that layer.
04 Days of retention.
The recorder is sized by cameras multiplied by days. Doubling the retention changes the drives, not the cameras. A quote that does not state the days cannot be compared with one that does.
05 Outdoor, unlit and AI positions.
A yard camera needs a weather-rated housing and infrared. AI detection is decided per camera. The commercial CCTV installation page sets out where it helps and where it does not.
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What  moves  an  alarm  quote.

An alarm is priced by openings and rooms. Every door, roller door and opening window needs a contact, and every room worth protecting needs a motion detector. A tilt-slab warehouse with no ceiling space needs conduit for all of it.

Then there is the one recurring line. 24/7 monitoring is a separate paid service, because somebody has to be watching. It should appear apart from the installation, never folded into it. Our commercial alarm systems page sets out when monitoring is worth paying for.

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What  moves  an  access  control  quote.

Access control is priced by the door, and doors are not equal. A door that already has a compatible electric lock needs a reader and a cable. A glass or aluminium-framed door that has only ever had a key needs the lock as well.

The credential changes the reader: card, fob, phone or fingerprint. So does whether the door is read on the way out as well as the way in. The access control page covers those choices.

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Why  two  quotes  for  one  building  differ.

  • One was written after a site walk and the other from a phone call.
  • One names the equipment and the other says "4MP camera".
  • One assumes the existing cable will be reused and does not say so.
  • One includes commissioning and documentation and the other stops at "installed".
  • One shows its recurring charges and the other leaves them for the first invoice.

The cheapest quote is only the cheapest if it is for the same job. Make the quotes describe the same job first. Then compare the totals.

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The  itemised-quote  checklist.

Hold this against each quote. Where a line is missing, ask for it in writing before you compare totals.

Twelve lines a quote should carry

  • Devices: every camera, detector and reader listed by location, with make and model number.
  • Purpose: what each camera is for, or a coverage drawing that shows it.
  • Cable: the type, the number of runs, and whether tray or conduit is included or assumed to exist.
  • Recorder: the model, the drive capacity and the days of retention it gives at the quoted settings.
  • Switch: the PoE switch model and how many ports are left spare.
  • Backup power: whether the recorder, the switch and the alarm panel keep running in a power cut.
  • Access: lifts and out-of-hours work, and who pays for them.
  • Commissioning: what is tested before the installer leaves.
  • Handover: administrator credentials, configuration and as-built documentation, stated as yours.
  • Recurring charges: monitoring, cloud storage, licences and app subscriptions, each named. "None" should be written, not assumed.
  • Exclusions: what is not in the price, such as a new power point or making good a ceiling.
  • Who does the work: the installer's own crew or a subcontractor, and the licence they hold. Installing security equipment is a licensed activity in Victoria.

Send a floor plan or a site address. Enquiries are read Monday to Friday, 07:00–16:00.

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How  to  get  a  number  for  your  building.

We are based in Tullamarine and work across Melbourne and Victoria. We attend site, measure it and send an itemised quote with the equipment named, at no charge and no obligation. Hold it against the checklist above, the same as any other.

If you are pricing cameras first, start with the commercial CCTV installation page. If the job is cameras, an alarm and doors together, the schedule of what we install shows how one crew schedules them so the shared cable is run once.

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Questions  we  get  asked.

Can a CCTV system be priced per camera?

Not reliably. A per-camera figure leaves out the cable, the mounting height, the recorder and the labour to reach each position, and those are where two buildings differ. An itemised quote after site attendance is the figure that can be compared, and ours is at no charge.

Why does a business system cost more than a home camera kit?

Because the cable, the mounting and the recorder are different jobs. A business system has longer runs in tray or conduit, higher mounting positions, a recorder sized for weeks and a PoE switch in a rack. It is also commissioned and documented, which a kit is not.

Is a site visit needed before a quote?

Yes, for anything beyond a like-for-like replacement. Cable routes, ceiling construction and mounting heights cannot be read off a floor plan. Site attendance is at no charge and no obligation.

Should cameras, an alarm and access control be quoted together?

Yes, if you expect to install more than one of them. They share cable routes, the rack and the switch, and the ceiling only has to be opened once. One crew does all three here, so they are scheduled together.
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Related  sheets.

Get  the  real  number.

Send a floor plan or a site address. We attend, measure and send an itemised quote with the equipment named, at no charge and no obligation.

Transmittal Issued for enquiry
To
Gentex AU · Tullamarine VIC
Reply
Phone or email, usually the same business day
Attending
Mon–⁠Fri 07:00–⁠16:00
Licensing
Victorian Private Security Licence