Contrary to the blandishments of the salesman and to the apparent ease and slickness of video demonstrations, the establishment of a videotape closed circuit television (CCTV) set-up requires considerable forethought and careful planning. Any psychiatric unit or University Department that can afford to employ full-time technicians solely to organize, operate and look after the set-up will probably not find this report relevant. The manpower costs would exceed all other costs and we would be speaking in terms of tens of thousands of pounds. However, one avenue is worth exploring: if a teaching hospital has an associated audio-visual centre it may be possible for the Department to negotiate to buy sessions of a specialist technician’s time. The cost of such a technician might well be covered by a research proposal grant.