Frequently Asked Questions About CCTV Systems

CCTV systems are a familiar sight in retail spaces. Businesses use them to monitor customers and employees in order to prevent shoplifting and theft. Many businesses also place CCTV cameras at their entrances and overlooking their parking lots to allow surveillance and protect their employees, customers and premises. Over the past few years, though, CCTV cameras have become more popular as home security systems, especially in homes with young children. If you’ve been considering a security camera for your home but want more facts to help you with your decision, these answers to frequently asked questions can help.

What is CCTV?

CCTV stands for closed circuit television. A CCTV system includes cameras, monitors and a recording device such as a DVR, VCR or a PC hard drive. Its purpose is to monitor and record activities to provide security for people and property.

Why Use CCTV?

In a business, a CCTV camera is a visible deterrent against theft and vandalism because it’s a clear indicator that the premises are monitored and recorded. At home, a CCTV security system can help monitor your property, indoors and out, including letting you keep an eye on a sleeping baby, or monitor your home from a distance. In case of a break-in or other problem, recordings made by your closed circuit system can provide the information and identification that law enforcement needs to apprehend and prosecute the thief.

What Are the Main Features of a CCTV Surveillance System?

A CCTV system has three main functions: surveillance, recording and playback. a surveillance camera allows you to watch an area remotely via a feed from a CCTV camera. Generally, the footage from the camera is recorded to media to be stored in case it is needed later. In addition, a CCTV system includes one or more monitors on which the footage – live or recorded – can be viewed.

How Do I Choose the Right CCTV System?

Your choice of systems depends on your budget and your needs. If you just want to be able to see who’s at your front door and in your back yard, you won’t need more than a camera at each entrance which can be accessed via your PC. A system such as that would be relatively simple and inexpensive. If you want more extensive monitoring, longer storage or more access, you’ll need a more complex and more expensive system.

Generally, it’s to your benefit to have your security system professionally installed, but many installation professionals will happily install CCTV systems bought through a discount dealer, which can save you considerably. If a CCTV security system sounds right to you, contact a dealer of security systems to learn more.

CCTV Systems Improve Security

Can a CCTV security system increase your profits? CCTV systems, closed circuit television cameras with monitors, can allow you to monitor your property and help head off problems, but it can also help stop entitled employees from siphoning off your profits into their friends’ drinks.

If you own a bar or tavern, you don’t need an industry survey to tell you that you lose as much as 35% of your possible profit due to “shrinkage” –the euphemism for what you lose in productivity thanks to employee theft, poor work habits and pure incompetence. Bar owners, for example, are often at the mercy of bartenders who pour free drinks for friends, over pour drinks for favorite customers or make a drink for the hot blond with Grey Goose instead of Smirnoff. It may not seem like much to the bartender, but when it happens shift after shift, it can take a healthy bite out of your weekly profits.

You may, however, be surprised to find out that poor work habits can account for a bite nearly as big as theft does. Most employees guilty of “wastage” don’t really mean to cost you money, and they’d be surprised to realize how costly their little mistakes can be over time. Many bar owners are startled to learn, after purchasing a CCTV surveillance system, just how much of their potential profits end up poured down the drain as “mistakes” or when a pitcher placed under a tap for filling overflows because the bartender is distracted.

Cameras mounted where they can record the goings on behind the bar can help you pinpoint incidents of waste and outright theft so that you can deal with them through better training or through disciplinary actions. That alone can increase your profits by a surprising margin. Even more importantly, a video surveillance system at the door can help establish facts when you’re facing legal questions, such as proving that IDs are being checked at the door appropriately, or that a patron was drunk before entering your business. For even more security in cases that might endanger your license, you can combine a CCTV camera with a DVR to record the ID itself.

Why let nearly a quarter of your profits slip away in “complimentary” drinks, pocketed tickets and spilled beers? Check out the range of CCTV systems available for your bar, tavern or nightclub to see how cameras and monitors can help you keep more of the profits to which your business is entitled.