Security & access
Video door phones and intercoms in Islamabad and Rawalpindi
A video door phone puts a camera and speaker at the gate and a screen inside, so you see and talk to a caller before opening. A single-house system with an outdoor unit, indoor monitor and gate-release wiring runs PKR 25,000 to 70,000 fitted, depending on screen count and whether it also releases the gate.
- Typical price
- From PKR 25,000
- How long it takes
- A single-monitor house is a half-day; an apartment block is quoted per unit
- Site survey
- Free in Islamabad & Rawalpindi
Position the outdoor unit for a face, not a forehead
Mounting height decides whether you see who is calling. Too high and every caller is a scalp; too low and it fills with a chest. We set it at face height for an adult standing at the gate, angled away from the afternoon sun so the picture is not a silhouette at the exact hour most deliveries arrive.
Run the cable properly, once
Gate to indoor monitor is a single run, and it is the part that fails when done cheaply. It goes in conduit, away from mains runs that induce hum into the audio, with enough slack at both ends. In a house under construction we run it before plaster; in a finished house we route it surface-neat rather than tearing walls open.
Wire the release and the second monitor
Most people want the gate to open from the monitor, which means tying into the gate lock or motor. Where there is more than one floor we add a second monitor, because a doorbell you have to run downstairs to answer gets ignored within a week.
Test at the gate, not at the bench
We test the picture, the audio both ways, the release and the night view standing at the gate at dusk — the condition it actually gets used in. Anything that reads poorly then gets adjusted before we pack up.
What the price covers. PKR 25,000 covers a single outdoor unit and one indoor monitor with fitting and up to twenty metres of cable. A second monitor adds around PKR 12,000, gate release wiring around PKR 6,000, and a multi-apartment system with individual handsets is quoted per unit after a survey.
Included on every visit
- Outdoor unit positioned and angled for a usable face image
- Indoor monitor, with a second monitor where there is a second floor
- Cable run in conduit, kept clear of mains runs
- Gate release wired where a lock or motor exists
- Night view checked on site at dusk
- Audio tested both directions at the gate
- Written warranty on hardware and workmanship
Questions people ask
Can I answer the gate when I am not at home?
Only with a WiFi model that pushes the call to your phone, and it is worth being realistic: that depends on your internet being up and on the app's notification arriving in time. It works well as a convenience and poorly as the only way anyone gets answered, so we usually fit it alongside an indoor monitor rather than instead of one.
Will it work with my existing gate motor?
Usually yes. Most door phones offer a dry relay contact that the gate controller accepts as a push-button input, so the release button on the monitor does exactly what the remote does. We confirm the controller has a spare input at the survey rather than discovering it on installation day.
Is the picture any good at night?
At the gate, at dusk, with a caller backlit by a streetlight, is the honest test — and it is the one we run before leaving. Units with infra-red around the lens manage a usable face at a metre or two. What no door phone does well is identify someone standing back from the gate in the dark; for that you want a camera on the boundary, which is a CCTV job.