The camera system schools are upgrading to
UniFi Protect is a modern security camera system that lets your staff find the footage they need in minutes, without scrolling through hours of material or a master's in IT. Designed around your campus, installed and supported for Melbourne schools by Macro State, with no ongoing licence fees.
Built for the team, not the IT department.
UniFi Protect is designed around the staff who use it rather than the people who install it. Office staff open an app on a laptop or phone, choose a camera and move to the moment they need. Cameras report their own status, so a fault is raised rather than discovered.
What UniFi Protect does differently
The parts of the system your school will actually use.
Smart detections
Protect tags people and vehicles as it records, so an afternoon of footage arrives already sorted into events. You scan a list of moments instead of a timeline of empty corridors.
Footage anyone can find
Pick the camera, drag to the time, export the clip. Office staff do it themselves in about a minute, without raising a ticket or waiting for an installer to call back.
Incident reporting built in
Case Manager keeps the footage from an incident together as a single case, instead of a pile of exported files on someone's desktop. The report and the evidence stay in one place.
What schools ask us to solve
The same four concerns come up at every campus. The system is set up around them before we hand it over.
Incident review
Playground and classroom incidents settled with footage instead of competing accounts, and kept together as one case for the file. Fast enough to use before the parent rings back.
Duty of care and child safety
Clear evidence of supervision and response, retained for exactly as long as your policy says. The cameras stay visible, status light and all, which changes behaviour in a way no recording ever will.
Privacy and who can see footage
Privacy zones black out the areas that shouldn't be recorded, and microphones are disabled wherever conversations are sensitive. Every login is scoped: one person reviews and exports, another sees live views only.
After-hours and holidays
Motion alerts reach the right person's phone while the campus is empty, so a break-in is something you hear about overnight rather than at 8am on Monday.
- This will help hide the progress line overflow.
- This will ensure the overflowing progress line is hidden underneath it.
From first conversation to a fully covered campus
Four steps, scheduled around school hours. You know what happens and when.
Week 1
Campus assessment
Walk-through with your principal or business manager. Incident hot spots, entries and blind spots mapped. Existing cabling and cameras tested for what can be reused.
Week 2
Design and scope
Camera placement marked on your site plan, a hardware list, and a fixed-price scope. No variations unless you change the brief.
Week 3
Installation
Scheduled in the holidays, after 4pm or on weekends. Every camera angle reviewed with you on screen before we sign off.
Week 4
Handover and training
Your office staff shown how to find, export and file footage themselves. Retention, privacy zones and alerts set to your policy. Documentation pack handed over.
What you walk away with
A camera map with coverage notes for every angle. Logins scoped so the right people can view and export, and nobody else can. Retention set to your policy. Privacy zones and microphone settings configured for the areas you nominate. Alerts routed so after-hours events reach a real phone. A training session for your office staff, and a documentation pack that doesn't assume you'll ring us. We don't leave until your team can run it without us.
Specialists, not a general IT company
UniFi is what we do, all day, across Melbourne. Owner-led, so the person who scopes your campus is the person who answers when you ring. Placeholder section — swap in the Why Macro State component from V2.
Questions Melbourne schools ask us
Straight answers for principals and business managers, before you commit to anything.
Usually under a minute. Pick the camera, drag to the time, export the clip. Office staff do it themselves; no IT ticket, no waiting for the installer to call back.
Only the roles you approve. The principal, business manager and nominated staff each get their own login with set permissions, so one person can review and export recordings while another sees live views only. Privacy zones black out areas that shouldn't be recorded at all, and microphones are disabled wherever conversations are sensitive. The whole access list is documented at handover.
Yes. Installs are scheduled in holidays, after 4pm or on weekends. Noisy work never happens during class, and everyone on site holds a current Working with Children Check.
Existing Ethernet cabling is often reusable, which saves real money on a large campus. Older analogue cameras aren't compatible and get replaced. We tell you exactly what's reusable at the assessment, in writing.
No licence fees and no per-camera subscription. Footage records on site, on hardware you own. Optional managed support is available if you'd rather we kept an eye on it for you.
As long as your retention policy says. We size the recorder at the assessment to hit that number, so the policy drives the hardware rather than the other way around. Retention is set before handover and you can change it yourself later.
Yes, and nothing gets thrown away when you do. UniFi Access runs alongside Protect, so a swipe at a door and the footage of that door line up on the same timeline. Plenty of schools start with cameras and add gates a year or two later.
Still have questions?
Tell us about your campus and we'll give you a straight answer. No pressure, no jargon.
Book a campus assessment
We'll walk your campus, map what you already have and where the gaps are, and come back with a fixed-price scope. About an hour of your time, and it commits you to nothing.