By the SightShield team · · 3 min read
What goes wrong in basements
Basements generate a steady stream of complaints: scratched and dented cars, stolen batteries, wheel caps and helmets, two-wheelers parked in someone else’s slot, visitors using residents’ slots, and occasionally a car that leaves with a stranger behind the wheel. They are also where people feel least safe at night. A good camera plan answers the question “what happened, when, and which vehicle” without needing a camera on every slot.
Where the cameras go
- Every ramp, entry and exit: a camera facing vehicles as they come down and another as they go up, so every vehicle passes two cameras.
- Every lift lobby and staircase door at basement level, where people move between cars and flats.
- Driving aisles, with cameras looking down the length of each aisle rather than across it.
- High-value areas: EV chargers, the electrical room door, the DG area and the STP or pump room entrance.
- Two-wheeler zones, where theft of helmets and parts is most common.
Low ceilings, pillars and lighting
Basement ceilings are often only about 2.4 to 3 m high, crowded with beams, ducts, sprinkler pipes and cable trays. A camera that is too low will be hit by tall vehicles or loading; too close to a beam and half the view is concrete. Mount cameras on the underside of beams or on pillars facing along the aisle, and check the view with a phone during the site survey.
Lighting in basements is usually tube lights on timers or motion sensors, which means large areas go dark when nobody is moving. Cameras with good low-light performance and white-light or hybrid illumination give usable colour images; pure infrared is fine for aisles but gives grey images that make vehicle colours hard to identify. Ask the association whether common-area lights stay on at a low level at night.
Colour night vision vs infrared →How many cameras?
| Basement | Typical layout | Camera count (indicative) |
|---|---|---|
| Small building, 20 car slots | One ramp, one lift lobby, two aisles | 5 to 7 |
| Mid-size apartment, 100 slots | Two ramps, two lift lobbies, five aisles, EV chargers | 14 to 20 |
| Large community, 400+ slots over two levels | Several ramps and towers, many aisles | 50 or more, with a separate NVR per tower or level |
Settling damage disputes
Most disputes are about a scratch or dent discovered in the morning. Footage from the aisle camera narrows the time window; the ramp cameras then show which vehicles came and went in that window. Overlapping views along aisles matter more than very high resolution on any one camera. Keep 30 days of footage at least, so that a dent noticed after a holiday can still be traced.
How many days of recording? →Cabling and network
Basements are long. Cable runs from the far end of a large basement to a security cabin can exceed the 100 m limit of copper network cable. Place a network switch in a basement electrical room or riser and link it to the main NVR by fibre. Use conduit or cable trays, keep CCTV cables away from power cables, and leave service loops so cameras can be moved when slots are re-marked.
How far can CCTV cable run? →Worked example
A 180-flat community in Thanisandra had two basement levels, about 260 car and 150 two-wheeler slots. We planned two cameras per ramp, one per lift lobby, aisle cameras at both ends of each row, and extra coverage at the eight EV chargers — 38 cameras in all, on two switches linked by fibre to the NVR at the main gate. Within the first month, footage resolved a battery theft and two slot disputes.
Quick answers
Do we need a camera for every parking slot?+
No. Cameras along aisles and at every ramp and lift lobby usually give enough coverage to trace what happened.
Can basement cameras read number plates?+
Normal cameras can often show a plate clearly at a ramp at slow speed, but they are not automatic number plate recognition systems.
Why are basement recordings dark at night?+
Lights on motion timers switch off. Choose cameras with good low-light performance or keep a low level of lighting on.
How long should basement footage be stored?+
At least 30 days; many communities keep longer for disputes found after holidays.
Where should the basement NVR be?+
Usually at the main security cabin, with network switches in basement electrical rooms linked by fibre.