CCTV Supplier in Tamworth
Most of what comes over the counter for Tamworth is commercial. A unit off Ventura Park, or a yard on one of the Jolly Sailor estates, with the camera set well back on a pole and the whole apron in one frame. Somebody crosses that apron overnight and the footage gives you a shape in a hood. The insurer wants a face. The camera was never going to give one.
We sell the parts and we do not fit them. CCTV101 is the trading name of Cerrado Ltd, company number 06685310, trading since 2008 out of Unit 60, Camp Hill Industrial Estate, John Kempe Way, Birmingham, B12 0HU. Counter hours are Monday to Friday, 10:00 to 17:00, closed on public holidays. Ring 0121 655 0146 first.
Eight megapixels earns its keep out here
I talk most people out of 4K. On a house frontage it is usually a worse camera than the 4MP beside it, because the same sensor area gets carved into more and smaller photosites, and the whole thing falls over once the light goes. Tamworth is the exception I keep making. Retail park and distribution work gives you two things a suburban semi never does. Light on the ground after dark, and distance between the lens and whatever you need to see.
Megapixels are the wrong unit anyway. A camera is a fixed count of pixels smeared across whatever width of scene you aim it at, so the only number worth arguing about is how many of them land on a metre of what you want. Around 125 pixels per metre to recognise somebody you know. About 250 before you identify a stranger off the footage alone.
Pixels across the frame, in numbers
A 4MP camera is 2560 pixels wide and a 4K one is 3840. The rest is division.
| What the camera is covering | 4MP across it | 4K across it | What you end up with |
|---|---|---|---|
| Goods-in door or fire exit, about 6m | 427 px/m | 640 px/m | Identification either way. Save the money. |
| Retail frontage or two bays, about 12m | 213 px/m | 320 px/m | Only the 4K clears the identification mark |
| Delivery apron, about 20m | 128 px/m | 192 px/m | Recognition at best, on both |
| Yard row or car park aisle, about 30m | 85 px/m | 128 px/m | 4K buys you a whole grade here |
| Full width of a distribution yard, about 45m | 57 px/m | 85 px/m | Neither is evidence. Context only. |
The bottom two rows are the argument. Once the scene is that wide, 4K stops being a vanity purchase, because it separates knowing somebody crossed the yard from knowing which gate they used. It is still not a face. Put one tight camera on the way in at 6mm or longer and let the wide one carry the story. Four wide cameras and nothing tight is a yard with no evidence in it.
Amington and Wilnecote often have cable in the walls already
The newer estates out that way went up with structured cabling, and that changes the job. Older Black Country stock means drilling and surface trunking. Out here you are patching into something a builder already pulled, which is faster and cheaper right up to the point where you test it.
Two things bite. The first is termination. Plenty of builder-run Cat5e has only two pairs punched down, fine for a phone point and fine for an ordinary PoE camera, since 802.3af and 802.3at both live on two pairs. Ask it to carry a heated PTZ on 802.3bt and it will not, because that standard wants all four. The second is the far end. Internal-grade cable poked through a wall to a soffit goes brittle in two winters and the sheath is not UV rated, so that last metre wants external-grade cable. Cheap now. Expensive later.
Where the house has a patch panel, put the recorder next to it. Not under the stairs. The runs land there already, and a UPS across the lot beats a system that reboots whenever the estate flickers. Calls out of Glascote reach us for a switch and patch leads more often than for a drum of cable.
The recorder pays for the extra pixels
Resolution is not free at the recorder. Four 4K streams at full frame rate will use up an NVR’s incoming bandwidth long before they use up its channel count, and channel count is the number people buy on. Check the megabits. Then check the drive.
Two dodges. Drop the wide cameras to 12 or 15 frames a second, which is ample for a yard, and make certain H.265+ is switched on at the camera, because it frequently is not out of the box. Our note on what size NVR you need works the sums, and the specification on any recorder page carries the real incoming limit rather than the headline.
Down the A5 to the M42, and where the zone starts
The quick way in is the A5 west to M42 Junction 10, then south on the M42 to the M6, and north on the M6 to Junction 6 at Spaghetti Junction and come off onto the A38(M) Aston Expressway. Run it down to Dartmouth Circus. Ignore the tunnel signs there. Take the A4540 Middleway east and south instead, and Camp Hill Circus drops you onto John Kempe Way.
That tunnel instruction is about money. Birmingham’s Clean Air Zone covers the area inside the A4540 Middleway ring road, and our premises sit outside that boundary, so collecting from Camp Hill costs a non-compliant van nothing. The route in still decides whether you pay. Follow the A38 into the tunnels and you are in the zone. Stay on the Middleway and you are not. Check the council’s zone checker first, and the trade counter page covers parking.
When the M42 is sitting still, and it does, the A4091 through Kingsbury and Minworth is the honest alternative. It puts you onto the A38 at Minworth and brings you through Erdington to that same Expressway, with the same call to make at Dartmouth Circus. Slower on a good day and quicker on a bad one. Fazeley and Polesworth find the A5 easier either way.
From a Tamworth postcode I would usually let the courier do it
Stock position first, because it saves a wasted run down the M42. Most lines are not held in depth. Anything not on the shelf can usually be got in for next day if the order lands before noon, so ring in the morning rather than at four. A few lines are trade only and need an approved trade account, and trade pricing needs an account as well, although anybody can buy at list price over the counter.
Tamworth is far enough out that the drive has to earn itself, and for a switch and a couple of cameras it does not. Put it on the carrier. Express runs 1 to 2 working days and standard 3 to 5, free over £750 to the UK mainland, with terms on the delivery policy page. Collection earns its keep on a full yard order you want to look at before it goes in the van. Come mid-morning if you do, because the counter shuts at five.
Frequently asked questions
Is 4K actually worth it on a yard off Ventura Park?
On a wide yard shot, yes, and I do not say that often. Past roughly 30 metres of scene width a 4MP camera has dropped below recognition while the 4K is still above it. Pair it with something tight on the gate. The wide one alone will never give you a face.
Coming down the M42 from Tamworth, will I be charged for the Clean Air Zone?
Not for coming here. Camp Hill sits outside the A4540 Middleway, which is where the zone boundary runs. Your route decides the charge. Drop into the A38 tunnels at Dartmouth Circus and you are inside it, so stay out on the Middleway and go round to Camp Hill Circus.
The house in Amington already has network points. Can I just plug cameras in?
Often, and it saves a day. Test first. Check all four pairs are punched down before you promise anyone a high-power camera, and check any run to an external point is rated for outdoors rather than internal cable pushed through a hole.
Can I buy from you without a trade account?
Yes, at list price, over the counter or online. An approved trade account gets you trade pricing and the handful of lines we sell trade only. Apply through the contact page. It is not automatic, and we do check.