First, a note on who we are: we are Siwenlide, based in Shunyi, Beijing. We have spent 14 years on enterprise network packages, low-voltage and cabling projects, and IT operations, and surveillance and access control are the two areas we handle most often within low-voltage work.This article answers a very specific question: if a company in Beijing wants to install surveillance cameras and access control in its office, what kind of provider should it hire, where does the money go, and what needs to be clarified before signing?
When it comes to installing surveillance, the hard part is never buying the cameras. The hard part is discovering six months later that the hard drive has been full and nobody knew; finding that the boss wants to check the feed on a phone, but the device is exposed directly on the public internet; or learning that access control and surveillance were installed by two different crews who blame each other when something goes wrong. None of these are equipment problems. They are problems of who does the work and how it is accepted.
Four types of providers you can find in Beijing
| Type | Characteristics | Best suited to |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Neighborhood installation crews | Most of what comes up when you search “surveillance installation” on classified listing sites and maps is this type. They arrive quickly and charge low unit prices, usually per camera, and they leave as soon as the job is done | Shops and small warehouses with three to five camera points, no networking, or local viewing only |
| 2. Professional security or low-voltage firms | Their core business is surveillance, access control, alarms and structured cabling. They hold construction qualifications and can provide camera-point drawings and acceptance documents. There are many such firms in Beijing; they dominate the first page of search results | Whole floors, entire buildings or factory sites starting at dozens of camera points, where formal installation and warranty are required |
| 3. System integrators | They take on large building intelligence, fire safety and data center projects. Surveillance is only one subsystem, and the work goes through tendering | Industrial parks, entire new buildings, and organizations with tendering requirements |
| 4. Enterprise network service providers (this is our category) | They treat surveillance and access control as part of the company network: the same drawings as the switches, wireless and firewalls; the same team handles ongoing operations after installation; and remote viewing runs over a secure channel rather than being exposed on the public internet | Offices of several dozen to two or three hundred people, where surveillance has to be managed alongside the office network, secure remote viewing is required, and the company does not want to bring in a second provider for maintenance later |
None of the four is inherently better or worse; what matters is fit. For a shop installing three cameras, the first type is the most economical. For a whole building going through tendering, the third type fits. For an office that needs surveillance, access control and networking done together and managed long term, either the second or the fourth type works; the difference is who is responsible after installation.
Where the money goes: what makes up a surveillance quote
A quote may look like a simple per-camera calculation, but it is actually six cost items added together. Once you understand the components, you can compare quotes from different providers on equal footing.
- Cameras: indoor domes, outdoor bullets and PTZ domes for wide coverage, typically 4 megapixels and up. This is the most visible line on the quote, but usually not the largest one.
- Recording storage: an NVR plus hard drives. How many days and how many channels you keep determines the drive capacity. 30 days is a common baseline.
- Power and switching: switches that carry both power and data over a single network cable, saving about half the installation work compared with running separate power lines.
- Cabling work: network cable from each camera point to the low-voltage room, plus conduit, wall chasing and ceiling work. The more scattered the points and the more finished the interior, the higher this item’s share.
- Access control: card readers or facial recognition terminals, electric locks, exit buttons and controllers — one set per door. Running the same cable batch as surveillance saves a round of wall chasing.
- Commissioning and handover: adjusting each camera angle, configuring remote access, setting permissions, and producing camera-point drawings and a password list. This is the item most often dropped from low-price quotes.
Order of magnitude: on our Low-Voltage & Cabling Projects in Beijing page we published a public reference figure: for an office area of about 500 square meters with standard Cat 6 cabling at 40 to 60 data points, plus a core switch and 10 cameras, a conventional solution costs roughly RMB 80,000–150,000, varying with point density and material grade. If you are only installing surveillance without recabling, the cost is far below that. Final pricing is subject to an on-site survey. (Reference as of September 2026; not a quotation commitment.)
Five things you must ask before signing
- How many days of recording do you keep, and what happens when storage is full? If they cannot give you a number of days, the drives were probably sized arbitrarily. The proper approach is to calculate capacity from channel count and retention days, with the oldest footage overwritten automatically.
- How do I view footage on my phone, and is the device exposed on the public internet? This is the most important question. Mapping the recorder port straight to the public internet and keeping the factory password is the most common reason surveillance gets viewed by outsiders or used as a springboard into the internal network. The right approach is to change the default password and route remote viewing through a secure channel.
- Will the same crew handle access control and surveillance? When two different firms do the work, the first thing that happens after a problem is mutual blame. At minimum, insist on one set of drawings and a single acceptance process.
- Who manages it after installation? Who notices a failed drive, who responds when a camera goes offline, who deactivates an access card when an employee leaves? If the installer leaves as soon as the job is done, you have to watch all of this yourself.
- What does acceptance testing cover? At least four things: review each camera view for coverage and blind spots; confirm playback can be searched by time; check remote viewing on a phone; and verify that after a power cut and restore, the devices resume recording automatically.
Three typical problems we have seen
- The hard drive turned out to have failed six months earlier — discovered only when footage was needed. The recorder raised no alarm and nobody inspected it, so the surveillance might as well not exist. The fix is to bring the recorder into routine inspections, with alerts for drive failures and cameras going offline.
- The recorder sits directly on the public internet with its factory password. This is not uncommon in the legacy systems we have taken over. Change the password first, remove the public internet mapping, and move remote viewing to a secure channel.
- Surveillance, access control and networking were done by three different firms, leaving three stacks of equipment and three sets of passwords in the rack. Anyone taking over has to figure it all out from scratch. The fix is one topology diagram and one equipment and password list, handed to the company rather than kept on the installer’s phone.
What we do — and what we are not suited for
- Surveillance and access control delivered as one package: on-site survey, camera-point drawings, equipment selection, cabling, commissioning, as-built drawings and a password list, with a single acceptance.
- One set of drawings with the office network: switches, wireless, firewalls, surveillance and access control designed together, saving a round of wall chasing and leaving a single equipment stack in the rack.
- Secure remote viewing: the recorder is not exposed on the public internet; the boss and authorized staff view it on their phones through our zero trust remote access.
- Management continues after installation: drives and offline cameras are part of routine inspections, access cards are added or removed as staffing changes, and repair requests go through the same channel as network operations.
- Upgrading legacy systems: we first inventory what can be kept, replace only what needs replacing, and do not insist on tearing everything down and starting over.
- Building-wide or campus-level security and fire-safety integration — go to a system integrator and use tendering.
- A single shop with three to five cameras and no networking — a neighborhood installation crew is more economical.
- Special venues that require public security network registration — you will need a security company holding the corresponding credentials.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: For a 60-person office, roughly how much do surveillance and access control cost?
A: It depends on the number of camera locations and whether new cabling is needed. If you only install surveillance plus two or three access-control doors over the existing network cabling, it falls in the range of tens of thousands of RMB; if cabling is included, refer to the published pricing approach on the low-voltage & cabling page above. An accurate quote requires an on-site visit, and we do not charge for it.(For reference as of September 2026; this is not a binding quotation.)
Q: Can I view it remotely on my phone? Is it secure?
A: Yes — provided the equipment is not exposed directly to the public internet. Our approach keeps the recorder on the internal network only, with remote access through a zero trust channel; the company authorizes who may view it, and access is cut off the day an employee leaves.
Q: We already have an older surveillance system. Can we upgrade it without replacing everything?
A: Yes. We start by taking stock of the cameras, cabling and recorder, and keep using whatever still works. Usually replacing the recorder and hard drives and adding a few key camera locations is enough.
Q: Can surveillance be bundled together with IT operations?
A: Yes. One-time installation work is quoted per camera location, and ongoing inspections, alerts and fault handling fall under our monthly IT operations packages, managed together with your network equipment. What each package includes is published on our official website.
Need surveillance and access control for your office?
Siwenlide has spent 14 years delivering enterprise Network Equipment Packages and Low-Voltage & Cabling Projects. Surveillance, access control and office networking are handled by the same team, which keeps managing them after installation. We can start with a free on-site visit and provide a camera layout plan and a quotation — call 400-686-2011.
Further reading:How to plan and select a corporate surveillance system · Beijing low-voltage & cabling projects: scope of services and pricing approach · How to equip a new office’s IT from scratch · How risky is it to expose equipment directly to the public internet
