Site survey and design records

Record layout, power, network routes, interfaces, ownership and dependencies during the survey. Mark uncertain assumptions for confirmation before implementation.

Sources and scopeSource record 25 August 2026

Technical source record: 25 August 2026. Check the linked documentation for current product requirements.

Research and static guidance only; product and deployment specific behaviour requires controlled environment validation and authoritative product evidence.

Verification and testing

On this page

Overview#

The survey captures physical and logical facts that determine whether a protocol design will work. It isn't a universal wiring or code prescription; qualified practitioners must assess electrical, radio, fire, egress, environmental and structural requirements locally.

Record before design#

Assets and topology#

exact existing and proposed devices, firmware, interfaces and licences;
controller, server, recorder, broker, gateway, directory, cloud and operator relationships;
physical and logical network paths, VLANs/routes/firewalls, NAT, multicast and wireless/cellular paths;
serial bus topology, cable type/length, termination, bias, grounding/isolation and addressing;
power source, PoE class/budget, UPS, battery, surge/environment and reboot sequence;
field inputs/outputs and safety interlocks, documented without assuming universal NO/NC behaviour.

Data and performance#

stream codecs, resolution, frame rate, bitrate mode, GOP, audio and metadata;
event rates, burst patterns, queue capacity, alarm supervision and retry behaviour;
storage retention, export, replication and failure capacity;
time source path, required accuracy, drift tolerance and offline duration;
directory/identity latency, controller offline cache and mobile credential dependencies.

Trust and operations#

security zones and every intended conduit;
administrative, operator, service, vendor and break glass identities;
certificates/keys and enrolment dependencies;
Internet/cloud data flows and tenant/data location assumptions;
local maintenance, monitoring, backup and recovery access;
privacy sensitive fields/areas and evidence handling.

Design outputs#

Produce a versioned architecture, asset schedule, addressing plan, protocol/profile matrix, data flow and firewall matrix, multicast/discovery plan, identity/role matrix, certificate plan, storage/bandwidth calculation, failure state matrix, monitoring plan, acceptance cases and migration/rollback plan.

Common omissions#

secondary network interfaces or undocumented vendor tunnels;
dynamic media port ranges and connection direction;
IPv6 when only IPv4 policy was designed;
edge recording retrieval traffic and catch up bandwidth;
controller/cloud split brain after outage;
clock loss and certificate validation dependency;
battery/PoE behaviour during heater, IR, lock or PTZ peak load;
life safety authority and local certified functions.

Applying the checklist#

Tailor the checklist to the exact products, site conditions, and jurisdiction. Record responsible reviewers, unresolved assumptions, qualified practitioner findings, and the environment validation evidence used to approve the design.