Mid-sized small business -- retail -- best solution?

[hendrickx 0]

I'm a technically competent IT guy by day who's been asked to help a decently large metaphysical store add 6 cameras with room to grow. I'm thinking a 9-port system with 6 dome-style cameras would work. I assume 1 camera on each till (2) , one on each door (2), and 2 to cover broad areas of the shop.

 

Suggestions? Looking to be on a budget. The owner thinks $400 is reasonable. I'll be happy if we get away under $900 with something between junk and high-end megapixel cameras.

 

Thanks for the help.

[hendrickx 0]

Saw the Aposonic A-BR8B8-C320 on Newegg for $749.99. Would it fit the bill? Anyone have experience with the quality/ease of use?

[tomcctv 190]

Saw the Aposonic A-BR8B8-C320 on Newegg for $749.99. Would it fit the bill? Anyone have experience with the quality/ease of use?

 

if you wish to remain friends with your customer then stay away from installing that system.

 

you would be best spending as much on the dvr as possable and adding to it over time. remember cheap systems are cheap and dont get better.

 

the other option would be to install just 4 ip axis cameras. or the mobotix q24.

[Soundy 1]

I'm a technically competent IT guy by day who's been asked to help a decently large metaphysical store add 6 cameras with room to grow. I'm thinking a 9-port system with 6 dome-style cameras would work. I assume 1 camera on each till (2) , one on each door (2), and 2 to cover broad areas of the shop.

 

Suggestions? Looking to be on a budget. The owner thinks $400 is reasonable. I'll be happy if we get away under $900 with something between junk and high-end megapixel cameras.

 

Thanks for the help.

 

What's between $400 and $900? Is that the price per camera, or the price you're looking at for the DVR? I would hope the former, if you're serious about a quality system.

 

Your camera layout sounds like a typical retail plan, but it's hard to give specific advice without seeing the store layout. For example, backlighting conditions may affect your choice of door cameras. A single megapixel camera may be able to cover both tills as effectively as two analog, depending on their layout. Limiting your broad store views to two cameras may be affected by the shape of the sales floor and the existence of tall shelves, or structural details (beams, posts). Ongoing "areas of concern" (eg. particular products with high shoplifting rates) may dictate some camera positions.

[hendrickx 0]

What's between $400 and $900? Is that the price per camera, or the price you're looking at for the DVR? I would hope the former, if you're serious about a quality system.

 

She was hoping that'd be total. I'm not sure what's possible.

 

 

if you wish to remain friends with your customer then stay away from installing that system.

 

you would be best spending as much on the dvr as possable and adding to it over time. remember cheap systems are cheap and dont get better.

 

What's the problem with this system? Saying "It's cheap" isn't enough to dissuade her. She has X dollars budgeted, I need to make the business case that it's not enough or she's going to buy it, with me installing or without.

[kensplace 0]

Her expectations are very unrealistic.

 

Why has she got tills in the shop? Why didnt she just use some carboard boxes to store the money in, a pen and paper for receipts and a calculator for the numbers. It would be cheap, and do the job, sort of..

 

But she bought the right tool for the job....

 

Same as she should spend the money on the right tools for this job, its a business, and she wont be thanking you if you cave in and go with her wishes for a 400 (or even 900) dollar system, she may thank you when its installed, but not when she needs the footage from it.

 

I would tell her she is best of getting a cctv company in, and paying decent money now, rather than paying for a cheap system, realising later its not any good, and paying again for a new system (and probably realising again, its still not good enough) before finally buying something that does the job well.

[hendrickx 0]

Her expectations are very unrealistic.

 

Why has she got tills in the shop? Why didnt she just use some carboard boxes to store the money in, a pen and paper for receipts and a calculator for the numbers. It would be cheap, and do the job, sort of..

 

But she bought the right tool for the job....

 

Same as she should spend the money on the right tools for this job, its a business, and she wont be thanking you if you cave in and go with her wishes for a 400 (or even 900) dollar system, she may thank you when its installed, but not when she needs the footage from it.

 

I would tell her she is best of getting a cctv company in, and paying decent money now, rather than paying for a cheap system, realising later its not any good, and paying again for a new system (and probably realising again, its still not good enough) before finally buying something that does the job well.

 

I think I'll tell her the truth -- this is what I found in your price range, and there are no reviews for it. A forum I trust says youwon't be happy with the footage, and I've never had to support it. If you want the euquipment I'm familiar with supporting, it's expensive, and quote her on a GE Storesafe with some semi-decent cameras.

[dejota 0]

Instead of telling you how everything about your plan an situation is horrible, i'll tell you a bit about the market on CCTV.

 

There's very little to no middle ground. If you want excellent quality you pay excellent quantatiy. You're best bet is to get her approval on the quality of the system BEFORE it's installed and payed for. Any reputable salesman or business will have some means for you to be able to preview the quality of the gear your looking at (and they should be able to stream it to a remote location for her preview). If the owner says it's good enough for her before you tell her a price then she has no right to complain after you make the deal and install the system.

 

Secondly, the solution that always seems easiest to me when you need quality capable of identification is making sure there's only one entrance to your store and when they come in put a big over the top bullet cam right in their faces and say smile. It not only does it's job as a detterent immediately it provides a close enough shot that if something goes down in other areas of the store where you can't identify them by face you have a good shot of their clothes/hat/identifying features that you can reference to your close up they took on the way in.

 

You can do this project within your budget. You're listenting to a bunch of seasoned CCTV vets who's first instinct is always to tell the customer about their over the top expectations (because frankly it's the case 99% of the time). But in this case, especially when you may have the ability to bottleneck any potential suspects and get a close up, it's certainly doable.

[hendrickx 0]

Perfect. There is only one entrance, so this would work. I don't mean to come off as disregarding any of your input, I do thank everyone who has posted.

 

Middle ground would help the situation. Unfortunately, that's exactly what I was after.

[tomcctv 190]

Instead of telling you how everything about your plan an situation is horrible, i'll tell you a bit about the market on CCTV.

 

There's very little to no middle ground. If you want excellent quality you pay excellent quantatiy. You're best bet is to get her approval on the quality of the system BEFORE it's installed and payed for. Any reputable salesman or business will have some means for you to be able to preview the quality of the gear your looking at (and they should be able to stream it to a remote location for her preview). If the owner says it's good enough for her before you tell her a price then she has no right to complain after you make the deal and install the system.

 

Secondly, the solution that always seems easiest to me when you need quality capable of identification is making sure there's only one entrance to your store and when they come in put a big over the top bullet cam right in their faces and say smile. It not only does it's job as a detterent immediately it provides a close enough shot that if something goes down in other areas of the store where you can't identify them by face you have a good shot of their clothes/hat/identifying features that you can reference to your close up they took on the way in.

 

You can do this project within your budget. You're listenting to a bunch of seasoned CCTV vets who's first instinct is always to tell the customer about their over the top expectations (because frankly it's the case 99% of the time). But in this case, especially when you may have the ability to bottleneck any potential suspects and get a close up, it's certainly doable.

 

 

I take it dejota you are a salesman. what you are saying is so long as you have 1 camera on the whole system looking at the doorway and getting a good face image then the rest of the system does not matter. what a good excuse for selling a crap system.