Do I Need Lightning Rods For Camera Poles?

I'm not sure if this is necessary. Any comments are welcome.

This is an appropriate line of thinking.

Lightning rods isolate damage by directing a direct strike right to the ground.  In theory, this helps mitigate costly repairs/replacement of devices on the pole itself (ie: lamps, cameras, radios, transceivers, etc)

The cost of full replacement of all these items is contrasted next to the cost of a lightning rod.  This could easily be a 10X cost difference for a pole with multiple cameras and network apparatus.  Or it may be 1:1 cost for a pole only mounting one camera.

In other words, if $4000 worth of surveillance equipment is hung on the pole, a $400 installed rod cost may be worth it.  If a pole only has a $100 camera hung on it, that same $400 rod cost may be harder to justify.

If for whatever reason, you can't put a lightning rod on your camera pole, you should at least have surge protection on the power and video connections. They're relatively cheap and even if it's a $100 camera, protecting it saves a $250 service call.

Is it essential, of course not. Is it a good idea, maybe, depending on the situation. Is it ever a bad idea, not really.

How is the camera feed being transmitted? Do you already have lightning arresting installed inside the building (assuming wired)? If it is fiber or wireless backhaul, tell the electrician that you don't have risk of lightning in your components. Adding the ground rod at that point would only help the power circuit.

Thanks you all for the tips. We are in the process of putting in surge protection the camera side and switch side. These cameras are linked to local ethernet switches via copper, cameras are powered via POE, from the switch they are linked to the central office via fiber.