Technology · Radar
Radar perimeter security
Thousands of square metres covered by one unit, day and night, rain or shine. Here is what it does, what it does not do, and when it pays off — radar shadow included.
When we recommend it — and when we don't
A good fit
- Open, uncluttered grounds of roughly 500–20,000 m²
- Lots of vegetation moving in the wind
- A long driveway needing early vehicle warning
Not a fit
- Small plots: the budget does more in cameras
- Heavily subdivided gardens without a plan for the shadows
- As a single layer: without image verification there is no reliable classification
Reference specifications, variants and the full comparison: technical page · radar section.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a security radar cost for a home?
It depends on the range and how many units the terrain calls for. One 60 m class unit covers thousands of square metres; the fixed price comes after measuring the shadows during the visit.
Is radar suitable for a large plot?
It is its ideal terrain: it covers large open surfaces with a single unit and one IP. The more open the plot, the better it performs.
What is the difference between 24 GHz and 60 GHz radar?
24 GHz is the usual one for area surveillance; 60 GHz measures speed precisely and suits driveways and internal speed control. Chosen by use case.
Does radar tell a car from a person?
Yes, it classifies person and vehicle; everything else stays “unknown”. A large dog or a wild boar is also “unknown”, which is why radar is paired with an AI camera.
What is radar shadow?
The blind zone behind every solid object: a wall, a large hedge, the plant room. It is physics, not a defect; it is covered with another unit or LiDAR, and measured on site.
Does radar work in rain and at night?
Yes: it does not interpret an image, it detects moving mass. Rain, shadows, headlights and insects on the lens do not affect it — those are the classic camera false-alarm causes.
Does it ignore wind-blown vegetation?
Yes, via the “swaying objects” filter. In a Mediterranean garden with olives, oleanders and palms, that function alone justifies radar over a motion detector.
How much area does one radar cover?
A 60 m class unit covers of the order of thousands of square metres for people; long-range variants reach tens of thousands. The exact figure depends on model and mounting.
Does radar emit dangerous radiation?
Transmit power is below 100 milliwatts, a fraction of a mobile phone's, in a licence-free short-range band across the EU.
Can radar be used in a garden with many walls?
It can, but every wall casts a shadow. Heavily subdivided gardens need more than one unit or a stronger camera layer — decided by measuring, not from the catalogue.
Does radar warn of a car approaching up the drive?
Yes: it gives early vehicle warning, useful on long access drives. The 60 GHz unit adds speed measurement.
At what height is radar installed?
As a reference, around 3.5 m for the 60 m class; long-range variants mount higher. The correct height is set during the visit by terrain.
Does radar need maintenance?
Little: it has no moving parts. On the coast the bracket and fixing are checked like the rest, because the weak point is usually the anchoring, not the unit.
Does radar replace cameras?
No: radar detects, the camera verifies and identifies. Without the AI camera there is no reliable person-versus-large-animal classification.
When do you NOT recommend radar?
On small plots (below roughly 500 m²) and heavily subdivided gardens with no plan for the shadows: there the money does more in cameras. We will say so before quoting.
How does a security radar work?
It emits low-power radio waves and measures the reflections: for every moving object it obtains range, angle and speed in each measurement cycle, and builds a track from them. There is no rotating antenna — the whole sector is observed at once.
Can radar see through hedges or walls?
No. Behind every solid obstacle there is a radar shadow (a radar blind spot behind the house) — physics, not a defect; the solution is a second unit or a LiDAR plane. Subdivided gardens need combined units or a stronger camera layer; we measure the shadow on site during the visit.
Can it tell my dog from a person?
Not fully: classification distinguishes person and vehicle, and everything else — a large dog or a wild boar included — remains “unknown”. That is why radar is always installed alongside an AI camera, which is what resolves the dog and the boar.
Is the radiation dangerous?
Transmit power is below 100 milliwatts — a fraction of a mobile phone's — in a licence-free short-range band across the EU.
Does it work in rain, fog and darkness?
Yes: it does not interpret an image, it detects moving mass. Rain, shadows, headlights and insects on the lens — the classic causes of camera false alarms — do not affect it, and wind-blown vegetation is filtered out in configuration.
Thermal
Seeing at night without a single light on
A thermal camera sees no colour and no detail: it sees heat. A human body stands out against cold ground even with no street lamp, which is why it is the most reliable layer for long sight lines and unlit fincas, where an ordinary camera would see only black.
In practice, on a person of average height, thermal detects presence at tens of metres, recognises a human figure at mid-range and identifies in detail closer in — the classic detect/recognise/identify pattern. On a long your area perimeter that means knowing someone has entered the line well before they reach the house, without depending on any light being on.
It does not replace the AI that decides or the radar that covers volume: it combines with them. Thermal puts eyes where there is no light; the AI says whether that heat is a person, a wild boar or a car's hot engine.
Autonomy
A system that doesn't fall when the network does
Many modern systems depend on the cloud for the essentials: lose the internet and they stop detecting. On a your area finca or villa, where power and network cuts are part of life, that is a design fault.
That is why the critical chain we install is local: detection, logic and siren live in the house itself and keep working without internet. The cloud is there to alert you and to let you see the image, not to decide. A power backup keeps the system up through outages, and the alert to your phone uses the mobile network, with a second path when the fixed line fails.
The result is a system that protects the same on the day everything works and the day the power, the fibre or both go down. Deterrence cannot depend on the router being on.
Zoning
Zoning: making an alarm say where
A house protected as a single block can only say “something is happening”. A house divided into zones says “someone is on the north line, by the pool”, and that difference is what lets you decide in seconds instead of stepping out blind.
We divide the your area plot into logical zones — perimeter, garden, access points, the immediate surround of the house — and each has its own rule: what is watched, at what hour, at what sensitivity. At night the outer perimeter can be armed while you move around inside; when away, everything. The same installation protects differently depending on the moment.
Zoning also narrows the alert: instead of one sensor tripping on everything, each zone reports separately, and the image tells you exactly where to look.
Access points
The weak point isn't the fence — it's the gate
In most homes the intruder does not climb the highest wall; they come in where there is already a gap made for coming in: the vehicle gate, the service door, the gardener's or the pool access. These are the points legitimate people use every day, and precisely for that reason the worst-watched.
In your area we treat those accesses as zones in their own right: detection that tells the expected passage from the one that is not, image verification of who arrives, and a record of every opening. The point is not to turn your home into a bunker, but to know who comes in when you are away, and to make sure an open service door is not an invisible hole.
Where there is domestic staff, maintenance or frequent deliveries, this is the layer that turns a normal flow of people into something traceable, with no friction for you.
Long absences
The house that sits empty for months
A large share of this province's homes stand empty most of the year, and that is precisely their most fragile point: no one notices a forced window, a water leak or a power cut until the damage is done. Second-home security is not only about intruders; it is about finding out.
For your area houses that sit empty for months we add, if wanted, a “sign of life”: the system confirms each day that it is still standing, with power and communication, and warns you if anything stops responding. Water telemetry with automatic shut-off keeps a January leak from becoming a bill and a disaster discovered at Easter.
Everything is seen and controlled from your phone, whether you are in Málaga or in another country. The empty house stops being a black box.
Shall we talk about your home?
No-obligation technical visit anywhere in the province of Malaga. We work in English and Spanish.