If you are a small business owner just setting up your retail store, convenience store, a cafe, or a small restaurant, or a fast food store, you will want to read this article very carefully. It will describe the effective placement of surveillance video cameras in your shop. The goal is to minimize the number of cameras needed, and to maximize the desired effect. Turns out, the minimum number of cameras is four, and with four cameras total, you can fully monitor the cash register, as well as the entrances and exists of a small retail shop. I'll illustrate this on an example of Subway that I visited today.
I had a quick dinner with a friend tonight at Subway. On a Sunday night, Subway was not the most crowded place. It is reassuring that they are usually open late. My friend noticed Subway rarely runs out of customers, even late at night. There is always someone buying or eating a sandwich there. And most times, there is a line. The Subway we were in was not one of the largest Subways, it was in fact quite cozy.
Before going into the positioning of the cameras, I want you to imagine your typical Subway experience. The main deli, or the serving area with the cash register and a large food and equipment storage room was alongside one wall, while the dining tables, the entrance to the restaurant, the restroom, and the exit doors were along the other side of the room. I observed carefully the positioning of the four security cameras they had in the dining area. The beauty of their arrangement is that, as for the security cameras, a business owner just needs to secure the P.O.S., point of sale, or the cash register against theft of cash, and then the "Employees Only" door that leads from the Storage Room to the Dining Area. There are no other exit points at all for the cash or for the equipment or for the food.
The cameras this Subway used were of the "dome camera" variety, placed on the ceiling. The positioning of the security cameras followed a simple floor plan. The first two cameras are simply positioned above the cash register, one in front of it, and the other behind it. They take accurate images of the cash register in real time from two perspectives, from the perspective of the cashier and from the perspective of the customer.
The second pair of cameras was simply positioned in the dining area, very near the "Employees Only" entrance/exit door that lead into the storage area.
Since the Subway system requires patrons to pay before they leave the cash register, sit down and eat, there is no need to use cameras to cover the dining area in any detail. And, of course, the restroom coverage would be against the law anyways.
So there you have it. A very effective and efficient four-camera surveillance system in a small Subway franchise. The Subway four-camera placement model is an epitome of effectiveness and efficiency. It covers several main junctures of their floor plan with just four surveillance cameras. Both places where assets or cash can leave the premises are double covered. I have observed other small retail shops and they for the most part have a similar arrangement of the furniture and doors into the storage area. If you are a retail business owner yourself, and are looking to equip your retail shop with a Security Camera/ Digital Video Recorder, DVR, system, consider adopt their model to suit your needs and your floor plan. If you pick a modern camera/DVR system, you'll be able to observe your shop over the internet, or even on your smart phone over the wireless 3G network. As a business owner, you will be able to maintain control over the goings-on in your retail business and be free to do whatever else you want to do from wherever you want to be. You'll be a step closer to the true American Dream.
Jason has been writing business articles for three years now. He focuses on computers and technology. Lately he has been having a lot of fun writing about Digital Video Recorders, DVR, for business and home security. Check out his new website: http://8channeldvr.org where he discusses reasons to upgrade from a 4 camera DVR system to an 8 channel DVR system.
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