Once upon a time, video security cameras were the sole province of high-end financial institutions and chain department stores. As prices have come down and the advantages have become more obvious, a video security system is a must for operating any retail business - or any business at all with security concerns.
A good video security camera monitoring system can:
As you can see, there are many reasons for employing a video security camera system that extend beyond simple monitoring of our premises. The type of security system that you choose will depend on exactly what your purpose is for monitoring activities. In response to the rise in demand for video security cameras and monitoring equipment in the wake of 9/11, the industry has made great strides in technology. In just a few short years, the capabilities of video monitoring have gone from unwieldy, bulky wired cameras and videotapes with banks of monitors for real time surveillance to tiny dome cameras that can pan, tilt and zoom to cover up to 1600 square feet - and be accessed by a personal computer, PDA or other wireless device from anywhere in the world.
Don't put away the VCR and videotape, yet, though. The simplest and least expensive video surveillance system is still a single video security camera attached to a monitor and a VCR. If your main intent is to be able to monitor areas of a store or business for safety and security purposes, this is still among your best solutions, particularly for a small business like a retail convenience store. A very effective video security system consisting of 1-4 video security cameras, a video monitor and a VCR for recording can be professionally installed.
As your needs become more complex, though, the cons of a videotape based security system grow. Generally, VCR based security and monitoring systems use a time lapse record function to maximize the amount of surveillance that can be recorded on one videotape. If your business requires full recording of events, the amount of time that will be required to manage and store videotapes can quickly become daunting. Reusing the same videotapes by recording over older data rapidly degrades the quality of the images, and repeated accesses of the data degrade the data even further. At that point, it may make more sense to look into DVR for recording images from your video security cameras. In many cases, upgrading from a VCR and videotape based system to a DVR based system is only a matter of replacing the VCRs with DVRs. The advantages of a DVR based video security camera system over one that records security images to a videotape include ease of finding particular events, easier indexing and storage, and far less degradation of images with use. The choice of recording system to use with your video security cameras is one that a professional security firm can help you make. With input from experienced professionals, you can choose the most affordable and appropriate video security system for your needs.