CCTV monitoring and remote video monitoring: the options and how to choose

Remote video monitoring, CCTV monitoring, CCTV monitoring service, virtual guard, live video monitoring and security camera monitoring service are often used for the same thing. They are not always the same thing. The name tells you little. Three questions tell you a lot.

Who looks at the video? What makes them look? And who acts when something is wrong? The answers sort almost every offer into one of three groups, which the next sections walk through.

The words change by country. In India, the UK and Australia, people mostly say CCTV monitoring or a CCTV monitoring service. In the US you will see security camera monitoring service, live video monitoring and virtual guard. The offers behind these names overlap.

• People watching on your behalf, from a monitoring centre
• AI alerts that go straight to you
• A mix of the two

A monitoring centre is a room of trained operators who receive alarms and video from many sites. In the UK it is often called an alarm receiving centre. When a business buys CCTV monitoring, it is buying access to that room. Here is what usually happens.

• Your cameras, your recorder or your alarm panel are linked to the centre over the internet.
• Something triggers it. That can be an alarm sensor, motion in a place that should be empty, or software that spots a person. Many centres do not watch every camera all the time. They are called when something triggers.
• An operator opens the live video and decides whether it is real.
• The operator then follows what you agreed in advance. Depending on the service, that can be speaking to the person through a speaker on site, phoning you or a key holder, sending a guard or a patrol, or calling the police.
• Afterwards, ask for a record of what the operator saw and what they did.

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This is the typical model. It is usually sold as a monthly fee for each site or camera, often with a contract and often with its own equipment. A person judges what they see and makes the call.

• Good for: sites where you want a person to judge what they see and make the call, including calling the police for you.
• Good for: high value or high risk sites, and anywhere the owner or manager cannot reasonably answer a message at 3 a.m.
• Good for: a voice warning to someone on site, if the service offers one.
• Watch out for: the recurring cost. People are paid for their time, so services with people usually cost more than software alone.
• Watch out for: how the operator is triggered. If the trigger is plain motion, wind and animals set it off, and the operator sees a lot of nothing.
• Watch out for: the camera view and the lighting. A person can only judge what the camera lets them see.
• Watch out for: contract length and what happens to the equipment when you leave.

We do not quote market prices. They differ by country and by provider, and two offers are rarely like for like. What we can explain is what moves the bill.

A monitoring centre is staffed by people. A week has 168 hours, and one person works far fewer of them. A centre that has someone ready every hour therefore needs a team behind each seat. The centre shares that cost between its customers. If you ran your own control room, you would pay for all of it yourself: the people, the screens and the software, for every hour you want covered.

Whatever you are quoted, ask for the total over the whole term, not just the monthly figure.

• Hours covered. Nights and weekends only is a smaller job than every hour of every day.
• Cameras and sites. More cameras mean more to check when something triggers.
• How the operator is triggered. A service that looks only when an alarm sensor fires needs fewer operator minutes than one that also checks your cameras on a schedule.
• What the operator can do. Speaking through a speaker, phoning a key holder and calling the police are one thing. Sending a guard or a patrol is often a separate service, with its own charge.
• Equipment and set-up. Some services need their own cameras, speakers or a box on your network. Others work with what you have.
• Contract length, and what you pay if you leave early.
• False alarms and call-outs. Ask whether you pay for them.

Here, software watches the video all the time and only speaks up when it sees something it was set to look for. It sends you a photo or a message. There is nobody in between. You, or the person you choose, look at the photo and decide what to do: ring the site manager, ring a neighbour, or call the police yourself.

The cost is usually lower because no one is being paid to watch. The trade is that you carry the response.

• Good for: owners and managers who can read a message and act, day or night.
• Good for: many cameras or many sites, where having a person watch every one would cost too much.
• Good for: businesses that already have cameras and a recorder and want them to tell someone something, instead of just recording.
• Watch out for: nobody picking up. If no one will see the message at 3 a.m., this is the wrong choice on its own.
• Watch out for: nobody calls the police for you. You do, and local rules decide what the police will do.
• Watch out for: the software only knows what it was set to look for, and it only sees what the camera sees.

It comes down to one question. When the alert arrives at 3 a.m., who acts, and how fast? If the answer is you, or someone you trust, alerts on your own phone are often enough. If the answer is nobody, they are not.

• Alerts are enough when: you or someone you trust can read a message and act at any hour.
• Alerts are enough when: your first step would be to look at a photo and make a phone call, to a manager, a guard, a neighbour or the police.
• Alerts are enough when: you do not need a stranger to speak to people on site or to call the police for you.
• Alerts are enough when: you already have cameras and a recorder and want them to tell you something instead of only recording.
• Alerts are enough when: you have many cameras or several sites, and paying for a person to watch each one would cost too much.
• A monitoring centre is the better fit when: nobody will see a message overnight.
• A monitoring centre is the better fit when: you want a person to judge the video and call the police for you.
• A monitoring centre is the better fit when: your insurer or the police in your area call for a monitored system. Ask them.
• A monitoring centre is the better fit when: you want a voice warning spoken to someone on site.

Some set-ups combine them. Software does the watching all night and picks out the moments that matter. People then confirm and respond. Another common pattern is alerts to your own phone as the default, with a monitoring service added for the highest risk site or the quietest hours.

The cost lands between the two. The extra work is making it clear who does what, so that both do not ring you at once and neither assumes the other has it.

• Good for: businesses with one or two high risk sites and several lower risk ones.
• Good for: owners who can answer during the day but not overnight.
• Watch out for: two services means two contracts, two sets of questions and two bills.

Whether police come depends on local rules, not on how clever the product is. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, police give a response number only to systems watched by a recognised monitoring centre that meets national standards. In some US cities, Seattle for example since October 2024, police send officers to a monitored alarm only when there is evidence such as video, audio or a panic alarm, not on a motion sensor alone.

Other places have other rules. Ask your local police, your insurer and your provider what applies to you before you rely on any set-up to bring officers. If you need a person to call the police for you, a monitoring centre is the right tool.

Monitoring is a promise about what happens when you are not looking, and a brochure rarely spells out the details. These questions do.

• Who looks at the video, and what makes them look? Every movement, only certain events, or only when I ask?
• Does an operator watch my cameras all the time, or only when an alarm or a software trigger fires?
• How long from something happening to me being told or the police being called? Ask how that time is measured.
• What can they do: speak through a speaker, phone me, phone the police? Under what rules would the police come in my area?
• Who pays when the operator sends a guard or a patrol?
• Do I need new cameras or a new recorder, or does it work with what I have?
• What is the total cost over the whole contract, including equipment, set-up, extras and ending it?
• Where does the video go, who can see it, and how long is it kept?
• What happens when the internet or the power drops?
• How are false alarms handled, and do I pay for them?
• Can I cancel, and how much notice do I have to give?
• Is the centre inspected by an independent body, and can I see the certificate?

We are the AI alerts to you option. Our software runs on a Windows PC at your site and works with the cameras and recorders you already have: Hikvision, Dahua, CP Plus, Axis, Hanwha, Uniview, TVT, and any camera or recorder that supports RTSP or ONVIF. It installs in 60 seconds, and your recorder keeps recording as usual.

It watches every camera for three things: smoke and fire, people after hours in zones you mark, and a camera that has been covered. When one of those happens, a second, larger model double-checks it, and then we send you the photo on WhatsApp, Telegram or the Foreman app while it is still happening.

We are not a monitoring centre, and we do not sell a CCTV monitoring service. We do not provide guards, a monitoring centre or alarm response. The alert comes to you and the people you choose. If you need a person to judge the video and call the police for you, a monitoring centre is the better fit, and we would rather say so. And where we watch for smoke and fire, we do not replace certified fire alarms or life-safety systems.