An auto repair shop is one of the harder places to secure. You have expensive tools, diagnostic equipment and customer vehicles inside overnight, big overhead doors, high ceilings and lifts moving cars up and down all day. A camera system or alarm designed for an office or a house won’t cut it. Here is what actually works in a working shop, based on a recent Ottawa install where we put in both cameras and an alarm.

Why shops need a different setup

Shops break a lot of the normal rules. Lifts and raised vehicles block sight lines that look clear on an empty floor. Bay doors open onto bright daylight while the back corners stay dark, which is hard on cheaper cameras. Dust, exhaust and temperature swings in winter are hard on equipment. And the shop is busy during the day, so the install has to happen fast with as little disruption as possible.

Cameras: coverage that holds up

Mount high and plan around the lifts

We mount cameras high on the block walls or steel beams and aim them so the shop floor stays visible even with a vehicle up on the hoist. Each bay gets coverage from more than one angle where possible, so a raised car never hides the floor completely.

Cover the entrances and the money

The overhead doors, the customer entrance, the parts area and the office are the priority. Those are the views you’ll pull up if something goes missing or a customer questions damage. “Was that scratch there when it came in?” gets settled in seconds when you have clear footage of the car arriving.

Commercial cameras and an on-site recorder

We use commercial turret and dome cameras with good low-light performance, wired back over network cable to an on-site NVR (network video recorder). Footage stays in your building, not only in someone’s cloud, and keeps recording even if the internet goes down.

Protected cabling

In a working shop, cables get bumped, snagged and pulled. On block walls we run cable in conduit so it stays protected and the install looks clean.

Alarm: protect the building after hours

Cameras record what happens; an alarm stops it from going on for long. For this shop we installed an Ajax wireless alarm with a hub, motion detection, keypads and a door contact on each bay entrance. The owner arms and disarms from the keypad or his phone and gets instant alerts, with professional monitoring on top. Wireless sensors also mean no new wire runs through a finished shop.

How we keep install day short

Every camera and alarm device is configured and tested on our bench before we go on site. Install day is then mounting, connecting and walk-testing, not troubleshooting, so the shop keeps running around us.

Seeing the shop from anywhere

At handover, the owner gets the camera app on his phone and tablet, so he can check any camera live or review footage from home. We walk him through it before we leave.

Frequently asked questions

How many cameras does an auto shop need?

It depends on the number of bays and entrances. A typical two- to four-bay shop needs enough cameras to cover each bay from a clear angle, every door, the parts area and the office. We count it out on a site visit rather than guessing.

Can the cameras and alarm work together?

Yes. They’re separate systems, but you manage both from your phone, and the alarm tells you when something happens while the cameras show you what it was.

Will the install shut the shop down?

No. Because everything is pre-configured and tested beforehand, we work around your bays and keep disruption to a minimum.

Running a garage, auto shop or warehouse in Ottawa? See our commercial security and CCTV installation services, request a quote, or call 613-627-0660 and we’ll walk your space and plan coverage that actually works.