LTE Construction Camera: The Wholesale Buyer's Spec and Sourcing Guide

What an LTE construction camera is, and what it has to survive

An LTE construction camera is a security camera with its own 4G modem and SIM, so it uploads video over the mobile network instead of site WiFi or a cable run. The solar versions add a panel and an internal battery, so the unit needs neither grid power nor a network drop — the two things a construction site does not have on day one and frequently loses again mid-project. For a distributor the buying spec reduces to six numbers: 1080p–2K resolution, an 8000mAh–20000mAh battery, an 8W or 15W solar panel, IP66 housing, microSD recording up to 128GB, and a pole install of 5–10 minutes per camera. SolaGuard's 49 always-on (AOV) models sit inside exactly that envelope, with wholesale prices quoted per order, drawn from a 150-SKU catalogue. Everything below is the reasoning behind those figures, written for importers and procurement buyers rather than end users.

Why a construction site breaks an ordinary camera spec

Construction is the hardest deployment a battery camera faces, and it fails in specific, predictable ways.

Permanent power arrives last

On most projects the permanent supply is energised near handover, while the theft exposure peaks during groundworks and first fix — copper, cable drums, fuel, hand tools, generators. A camera that needs mains is useless for the months the site actually needs watching. A generator-fed temporary board is worse: it is switched off at night, which is when the camera matters.

The perimeter moves

Hoarding shifts, the site gate relocates, the material laydown area changes with each phase. Anything trenched or hard-wired has to be pulled up and re-run. A solar 4G unit is mounted on a pole, a container corner or a scaffold standard and moved with a single bracket — which is why the 5–10 minute install figure matters more on construction than anywhere else. You are not installing once, you are relocating repeatedly.

There is nothing to connect to

No fibre, no DSL, no stable WiFi. Even where a site office has broadband, it does not reach the far corner of the plot. LTE removes the question entirely: each camera is its own connection.

Dust, rain and vibration

Cutting, grinding and earthmoving generate fine dust; monsoon and tropical rain do the rest. IP66 is the rating on every outdoor SolaGuard model — dust-tight, and sealed against powerful water jets. Anyone quoting you a higher ingress rating for a site camera should be asked to show it printed on the housing, not just on the datasheet.

PIR triggering versus always-on video (AOV)

This is the single biggest technical decision in the category, and it is where cheap units disappoint buyers.

Most budget solar cameras record only when a passive infrared (PIR) sensor fires. PIR detects a heat differential moving across its zone. That is power-efficient and genuinely useless in several scenarios a construction site produces every week.

AOV means Always-On Video: 24/7 continuous recording held at low standby power through AI scene analysis rather than a motion trip. It is an industry-generic term, not a SolaGuard trademark — you will see it from several factories, and you should ask any supplier using it what their standby behaviour actually is. The practical difference for a claim is the run-up: with PIR, footage begins the moment someone is already inside the frame and already moving. With AOV you have the approach, the vehicle, the plate angle and the walk-away.

The 49 AOV SKUs, series by series

These are the exact figures on the product pages, which is where your customers will check them.

The multi-lens models put two or three imagers in one housing, so a single mounting point and a single SIM cover more than one field of view — useful at a gate where you want the approach road and the pedestrian door from the same pole, or on a compound corner. Single-lens SG-C41G-10T66-V1 is the volume entry point; SG-D42G-10F66-V1 is the dual-lens equivalent; SG-D42G-15F66-V1 is the 20000mAh / 15W flagship.

Sizing battery and panel to the actual site

The 8000mAh / 8W combination is correct for open sites with clear sky exposure — early-phase groundworks, laydown yards, rural plots, perimeter fence lines. Move to the 20000mAh / 15W series when any of the following apply: the mounting point is shadowed for part of the day by a tower crane, a rising structure or an adjacent building; the project runs through a monsoon or a low-light season; or the camera is expected to carry a heavy continuous recording duty rather than an intermittent one. Getting this wrong is the most common cause of a returned unit, and it is a site-survey question, not a catalogue question — send us the mounting positions and orientation and we will tell you which series to quote.

Storage, connectivity and what the SIM has to carry

Each camera records locally to microSD up to 128GB as standard; higher-capacity cards are a custom-order conversation, not a stock item. Treat local storage as the primary record and the LTE link as the retrieval path — pulling the clips you need on demand rather than streaming everything continuously keeps the data plan realistic and the battery in its designed duty cycle. For multi-camera sites, the SIM tariff is usually a bigger line item than buyers expect; size it with your carrier before quoting a managed package, and quote data separately from hardware.

Resolution is 1080p–2K as standard across the catalogue. 4K exists only as a custom/OEM build — if a competitor's site camera claims 4K at a similar price point on solar, ask what that does to the power budget.

Sourcing terms, certification and lead time

The trial MOQ of 10 exists for a reason on this product category: put two or three units on a live site through a full weather cycle before committing to a container. Quantity pricing, freight and final lead time always come from a person — see wholesale terms for the structure, and the dealer programme for margin tiers and territory.

OEM and private label for construction resellers

Every model in the catalogue, including all 49 AOV SKUs, is available for OEM and private label at a 100-unit MOQ — your branding on the housing, packaging and app presentation. Beyond branding, the factory builds to specification: higher resolution, a different battery and panel pairing, alternative storage provisioning. Those are quoted per project, and the honest answer on custom builds is that price and lead time depend on the change requested and come from an engineer, not from a web page.

Before you issue the PO

Check the model number on the quotation against the product catalogue line by line — variant suffixes differ in ways that matter. Confirm the ingress rating is IP66 and that the battery and panel pairing matches the sites you are actually deploying to, not the best-case one. Order the sample by air first. Then scale.

Questions on series selection, OEM scope or a site-specific power budget: info@solaguard.net.