IP Video Surveillance Systems | Rochester NY

A camera system is judged on one clip, and you do not get to choose which one

The proof of a surveillance system is the moment somebody needs the footage. Everything before that is a line item. Everything after it is either an answer or a shrug, and which one you get was decided months earlier by where the camera was mounted and what it was pointed at.

Most systems fail that test the same way. The count was right and the placement was not. Twenty four cameras, and the one covering the main door faces a window at four in the afternoon, so anybody walking through it is a silhouette. No amount of megapixels fixes a position, and no quote priced by camera count will tell you that before you buy.

Placement is the design

What does this particular camera have to prove?

We have partnered with the world's finest IP camera and recording manufacturers, and we design and install only the finest IP camera and recording equipment available. Equipment is the easy half. Each camera location is carefully selected and installed with the appropriate equipment to produce the sharpest image that position allows.

That selection starts with a question most quotes never ask, and everything below follows from the answer.

What the camera has to prove

Identify a stranger, recognise somebody you already know, or simply establish that a person was present. Those are three different jobs at three different distances. A camera asked to do the first from a position that only supports the third produces footage nobody can use.

Distance and field of view

Pixels spread out as the scene widens. A single camera covering an entire loading bay puts very few of them on any one face inside it. Coverage and identification pull in opposite directions, and the design decides which one each position is for.

Light, at the hours nobody tests

Backlit doorways, low sun through a west facing window, a parking lot lit by two poles and whatever the moon is doing. Placement failures usually show up at one specific hour, which is why we assess positions across the day rather than at noon on a walkthrough.

Choke points

Everyone passes through a small number of places: entrances, corridors, stairwells, dock doors, the one gate the yard actually uses. Cameras at choke points return far more usable footage than cameras spread evenly across a floor plan.

Recording and retention

Every frame you view is saved on our sophisticated, user friendly digital recording system. Depending on your requirements, images can remain on the recorders until they need to be viewed or shared. That retention window is a design decision, not a default somebody left alone.

Mounting and what survives

Height, angle, weather, vibration, and whether anybody can reach it with a ladder. A camera in exactly the right position that gets knocked out of alignment in March is not in the right position in April, and nobody notices until they need it.

What we handle

From the shot list to the export

Design and camera placement

A shot list before a bill of material. We walk the site, work out what each position has to prove, and design the system around those answers rather than around a camera count.

IP cameras and recording

Precision camera equipment and a user friendly digital recording system, sized so the retention window you asked for is the retention window you actually get.

Network design and IT integration

Our technical team integrates with your existing IT infrastructure for a fully networked IP video, streaming, and recording system, planned with whoever runs your network rather than around them.

Remote and mobile viewing

With a simple cell phone log on, you can view any specific camera from anywhere in the world. Our remote access package puts the building in your pocket without putting it on the open internet.

Event based video messaging

You are apprised of events at your facility in real time rather than at the end of the week. Alerts carry the clip, so the first thing you see is what happened, not a notification about it.

Retention, export, and investigations

Footage that comes out cleanly, in a format the people who need it can open, with a record of what was pulled and by whom. Set up in advance rather than improvised on the morning it matters.

How a project runs

Five phases, and the first one decides the value of the other four

The site walk is where a camera system is actually won or lost. Everything downstream is execution against decisions made while standing in the room.

01

Walk the site and build the shot list

What has to be provable, where, and to what standard. This usually collapses into fewer positions than a floor plan suggests, and better ones.
02

Design cameras, network, and storage together

Lens and sensor choice per position, network path and bandwidth, and storage sized to the retention window you actually want rather than to whatever the recorder shipped with.
03

Installation and network integration

Cameras, cabling, switching, and recording brought up alongside your IT team, with the remote access path configured deliberately instead of by opening a port and hoping.
04

Commissioning and image verification

Every camera checked against the shot it was designed to get, at the times of day that actually challenge it. Not at noon on install day, when everything looks fine.
05

Health, retention, and footage requests

Camera health watched so failures surface before they matter, retention held where it was set, and somebody to call when you need footage pulled properly.

The day it matters

Getting footage out, and getting it out intact

The worst possible time to find out how your system exports video is the morning after something happened, with a police officer standing in your lobby and a facilities manager who has never opened the software. That is also when most organizations discover their retention window was shorter than they assumed.

We settle all of that in advance: who is allowed to pull footage, how it comes out, what format the people who will need it can actually open, and how long the recorders hold it. Depending on your requirements, images can remain on the recorders until they need to be viewed or shared.

Named people authorised to pull and export footage
Export in a format law enforcement and insurers can open
A record of what was pulled, by whom, and when
Retention long enough that a late report is still recoverable
Camera health watched, so failures surface early
Somebody to call while the officer is still in your lobby

Beyond security

The cameras your facility manager will use every single week

Our surveillance systems are typically bought for security, but they earn a place in building and facility maintenance plans too. With a simple cell phone log on, your facility manager can view any specific camera from anywhere in the world.

In this part of the country that turns out to be worth real money. Did the plow contractor actually come at four in the morning, or did they simply invoice for it? Did the grounds crew cut on schedule? Is the dock clear before a truck gets dispatched to it? Those questions get answered from a phone instead of from a drive across town in February.

Contractor verification

Snow contracts in Western New York are expensive and almost entirely unverifiable after the fact. A camera on the lot settles the question in about fifteen seconds.

Operations at a glance

Dock and yard status, staging areas, and whether the thing somebody just told you on the phone matches what is actually happening out there.

Multi site oversight

One log on across every building you are responsible for, which is the difference between managing four sites and driving to four sites.

Look before you dispatch

See the condition before sending somebody to it. A surprising share of after hours callouts stop being callouts once somebody can actually look.

From a phone, anywhere: Any camera Any site Live or recorded Event alerts with the clip attached

Around Rochester and Western New York

Where we put cameras

Manufacturing and industrial

High bay spaces where distances defeat the wrong lens, plus tool cribs, staging areas, and process lines where an incident needs a timeline rather than a rumour.

Warehouse and distribution

Dock doors, yards, and racking that changes the geometry of the space every time it moves. Shrinkage investigations live or die on dock coverage.

Multi tenant and commercial office

Shared lobbies, elevators, garages, and after hours entrances, where the landlord needs coverage that works without watching individual tenants.

Colleges and campuses

Many buildings, many entrances, and long exterior paths. Coverage has to be consistent across the campus rather than excellent in three buildings and absent in eleven.

Retail and multi site

The same design repeated across locations so that footage looks the same everywhere, which matters enormously when somebody has to review six sites in an afternoon.

Property management and grounds

Lots, entrances, dumpster areas, and the contractor verification that quietly pays for a chunk of the system every winter.

Why GSMG

Positions chosen, not cameras counted

Engineers do the design

All of our engineers are New York State licensed Professional Engineers. A camera layout that comes out of a site walk and a shot list looks very different from one that comes out of a price sheet.

Your network is a design input

Our technical team integrates with your existing IT infrastructure rather than dropping a parallel network into your building and leaving your IT staff to discover it later.

One team across every system

We design and install video, access control, intrusion, and life safety. A badge event, a door alarm, and the clip that goes with them arrive as one timeline instead of three vendors holding a third each.

Equipment we will stand behind

We have partnered with the world's finest IP camera and recording manufacturers and install only equipment we are prepared to be judged on. Working since 2011 across buildings from a single floor to over a million square feet.

Common questions

Before you call

How many cameras do we actually need?

Usually fewer than a quote suggests, positioned better. The number that matters is how many shots you need, and a shot list tends to collapse into fewer positions than a floor plan implies. We would rather put six cameras where they will produce usable footage than twenty where they will produce coverage, which is a different and much less useful thing.

Is it legal to record video at my business in New York?

Generally yes in work areas, and it is ordinary practice. There is a firm statutory limit worth knowing about: New York prohibits an employer from causing a video recording to be made of an employee in a restroom, locker room, or a room designated for employees to change their clothes, absent a court order, and a recording made in violation of that may not be used for any purpose. Beyond that, workplace privacy expectations still apply and a written policy is worth having. We design around those constraints as a matter of routine.

Should the cameras record audio?

Video and audio are legally different, and audio is the riskier of the two. A camera that records conversations can create eavesdropping and wiretap exposure that video alone does not, and the analysis turns on facts we are not positioned to judge for you. Most commercial systems we design have audio disabled for exactly that reason. If you have a specific need for it, get your counsel's view first and we will configure the system to whatever they tell you.

Do we have to tell employees they are on camera?

New York requires private employers to give written notice and obtain acknowledgment before electronically monitoring employees' telephone, email, or internet use, and to post notice conspicuously. Cameras are a separate question from that particular statute, but the sensible practice is identical: tell people, put it in the handbook, sign the lobby. Have your counsel draft the language. We will tell you precisely what the system is and is not capable of, so the policy matches reality.

How long should footage be kept?

It depends entirely on what you would ever need to go back for. Slip and fall claims and employee disputes often surface weeks after the fact. Theft frequently surfaces at inventory. Some organizations have a contractual or regulatory floor. Storage is the constraint and it scales with camera count, resolution, frame rate, and how much of the day the system records. We size storage to the retention window you want, because discovering your window was two weeks on the day you needed six is a poor way to learn.

Will it work with our existing network?

Yes, and that is a design input rather than an afterthought. Our technical team helps you integrate with your existing IT infrastructure for a fully networked IP video, streaming, and recording system. In practice that means talking to whoever runs your network early about bandwidth, switching, segmentation, and where recording lives. A camera system that quietly saturates a network makes enemies fast.

Can I check the building from my phone?

Yes. With a simple cell phone log on you can view any specific camera from anywhere in the world. Our remote access package and event based video messaging keep you apprised of what is happening at your facility in real time. Plenty of clients end up using it more for operations than for security, which is a fair sign it was worth installing.

Cameras designed for the shot they have to get