Park Forest, IL—(ENEWSPF)— While larger businesses might have the luxury of spending thousands of dollars on high-tech surveillance systems, video security could be quite expensive for the small business owner. One DownTown Park Forest business recently took a high-tech leap to deter crime, and it wasn’t all that expensive.
Preferring not to be identified, the business owner and an employee were eager to share news about the system they installed in case other businesses were seeking a relatively low-cost video system to help keep their store safe.
The shop owner installed a SVAT web-ready DVR security system with four hi-resolution cameras. The can display all four cameras at the same time in quad view. Running video can be displayed on a television, a monitor, or online. Once the user sets up an administrative account and configures the system, owners and employees can have full access to their system from any computer connected to the Internet. The business owner can view any and all cameras live through any web browser, 24 hours a day.
The initial investment of $598 plus shipping and handling was worth it to this business owner, especially since there is no monthly fee to access the system via the Internet except for the normal expense of an Internet account
“You can stop, rewind, view a certain time at your convenience at home. And you can change it to view just one camera.”
“We were told by police officers that DVR offers the best quality. If you do have an incident and you need to get a picture, VHS is not the best to have.”
The system writes to a 160GB hard drive and allows specified segments of video to be downloaded, burned to a DVD, and provided to law enforcement “if something did go wrong,” according to the business professional we spoke with.
“This is where you would go to make a copy. You can section-out various scenes, and that’s where the police or yourself could go and make a copy of the incident.”
The system ships with four cameras, each equipped with night vision, permitting recording in total darkness. The cameras also come equipped with infrared sensors, allowing the owners to record only when motion is detected at night, should that be their preference.
The system can store several weeks’ worth of video, depending on the resolution the business owner prefers to have. Limitations depend on the quality of video a user wishes to capture. The system records 30 M-JPEG images per second.
“Basically, this is picture-by-picture,” the employee said.
Installation does not require an exceptional amount of computer skills. While the employee says she has “intermediate” computer skills, the employee said installation of the system took less than two hours, “They do give you a step-by-step book, [showing] exactly how to set up your external and internal IP address. It’s pretty self-explanatory once you hook it together.”
“I’d say the hardest thing was running the wires in the ceiling.”
The employee says customers don’t mind at all that they’re being recorded on video, “All of them have been very supportive and even sympathetic to our situation. Many of them think this is the least we can do.”
“We’ve always had signs notifying the customers of us videotaping them. Some have noticed [the new system], and some haven’t. I think it’s pretty regular. You know when you go into Walgreens, Wal-Mart, Target, and stores like that, that you are going to be on surveillance.”
“Unfortunately, these days, people need to take those precautions.”
And now they can, for less.
Web Ready DVR Security System – Digital Video Recorder with 4 High Resolution Indoor/Outdoor Night Vision Surveillance Cameras is available at http://www.svat.com.