If you are a in body corporate / strata management, apartment security is an ongoing issue.

In order to foster a positive environment in the community of tenants it is critical that everyone feels safe and secure in their living space.

At CW Electrical & Automation we’ve worked with Body Corporates throughout Melbourne to install and / or upgrade their public lighting and CCTV systems. This is some of the feedback we have received.

Quote from an Owners Corp representative:

“It’s summer. This is the time we have incidents. Since we completed the upgrades, we haven’t had a single security incident. The difference has been phenomenal.”

Quote from a tenant:

“I was so happy to see the lighting upgraded. We feel safer now.”

There are two main components to apartment / body corporate security. They are:

1. Public lighting 
2. CCTV

Both are important. I wouldn’t recommend neglecting one in favour of the other. Although if your outdoor lighting is really deficient, I would advise to invest in upgrades to your lighting as a priority to CCTV.

In this article I’m going to go over important considerations for CCTV and communal lighting.

Public Lighting

Here’s the key things to consider when assessing the lighting for your communal areas:

1. Automated control. You will need some sort of automated control for switching the lights on at night and off during daylight hours. Day / night switches are much better than timers. Timers will constantly need to be adjusted due to sunrise / sunset times changing throughout the year and also daylight savings. If it is impractical to install a day / night switch we can install astronomical timers which use geographical location data to know exactly what time the sun will rise and fall each day and control the lights accordingly.
2. LED. You want to get rid of your old, globe based CFL or incandescent lights and put nice new LED’s in. The LEDs are brighter, look more modern and save power. As a minimum, ensure you get a 5-year warranty for your new LED lights, and a lot of suppliers are offering 7-year warranties.
3. Coverage: work with your electrician to ensure that sufficient lighting is in place. Some areas will need more coverage than others. You want to minimise dark spots as these areas are the magnets for crime.
4. Consider neighbours. Neighbours will give you issues if you just light up the area without any consideration of light spilling over the fence and into the neighbour’s property. In order to prevent this issue, in certain areas it may be a good idea to install adjustable head lights, so they can be pointed down, away from neighbour’s backyard.

Security Cameras

Here’s the key things to consider when assessing the CCTV for your communal areas:

1. Access: you need to think about the location for the NVR (this is the hub that stores the cameras data). Preferably it would be in a locked-up room. If this is not possible a weatherproof cabinet can be installed outside. You also may want to install a 4G router with a sim card. This is so you can access the cameras remotely. We recommend the ALDI sim card as it’s as little as $95 for 12 months.

2. Camera quality: you want to ensure that the cameras you’re installing are good quality; matching current industry standards. Genrally speaking the minimum features you should be looking for are:

• minimum 6MP
• IP cameras (not analog)
• audio
• night view (new technology, starlight from Dahua or ColorVu from Hikvision)
• IP66 weatherproof rating
• Minimum 3 year warranty

3. Camera locations: ensure that the perimeter is fully covered; focus on key areas like driveway, main entrances, car park and bins area.

If you modernise your apartment complex with new, modern CCTV systems and public lighting you can be sure to create a safer, happier environments for the tenants, which will in turn create a better situation for the owners as well.

CW Electrical & Automation is a local, Melbourne based security and electrical installations company. We do have a special niche for apartment / body corporate areas so feel free to reach out to us for more info.