How to assess a commercial CCTV
system you have inherited.

Inherited CCTV is rarely as good as the previous owner believed.

By Lucas Marendy, Director, Unified Security · NSW Master Licence 000109179 · Updated September 2026

Most facility managers, building owners and operators inherit a CCTV system at some point - through an acquisition, a new role, or a building they have just taken over. The first instinct is to assume it works. The reality, in our experience, is that inherited commercial CCTV is rarely doing the job people think it is.

This piece sets out the practical audit our commercial CCTV team runs on every site we take on. It is not a substitute for a formal review, but it gives you a working checklist for the first walkthrough - enough to know whether the system you have inherited is fit for purpose or quietly failing.

What to test in the first walkthrough.

• check_circlePull live view on every camera - confirm they all stream, not just the ones on the main monitor
• check_circleCheck recording status and the actual retention window on the recorder, not the spec sheet
• check_circleWalk the perimeter and verify cameras are aimed where they should be, not where they were five years ago
• check_circleTest recorded playback for one critical scene - tills, entry, loading dock - and see if it identifies what it needs to
• check_circleConfirm who has remote access to the system and whether their accounts are still active
• check_circleCheck the latest firmware date on the recorder and a sample of cameras
• check_circleVerify the recorder is on UPS or backup power, not just mains

Repair, replace or rebuild.

Once you have walked the site, the answer is usually one of three. Repair where the design is sound but the system has drifted from spec - aim, focus, firmware. Replace components where they are past support or no longer fit for purpose. Rebuild where the original design never reflected the operation in the first place.

A good security contractor will tell you which of those three applies and will not push for the most expensive option by default. If you would like that assessment on a site you have inherited, that is the kind of work we do.

What we typically find on Hunter sites.

Across Newcastle and the Hunter, the inherited systems we audit most often are analogue or early-IP recorders from the 2010s. They are usually still recording, but on firmware nobody has touched in years, with retention well under 30 days and cameras knocked out of alignment by storms, pruning or building works. On industrial and self-storage sites, the perimeter cameras are almost always the first thing to have drifted - and the first thing that fails when footage is needed.