Subscriber Discussion

Superstore Surveillance - What Kind Of Cameras Should I Use?

The Hypermarket has a 600*150 feet hall (90,000 sqft) and 22 twin cashiers.

I am considering Speed Domes for the shopping Hall, box cameras for Cashiers, and fixed domes for offices and stores. Thoughts?


Hi Brian

Thank you very much reminding me with this effective and cost saving dummy shootout.

I'll bring it up to my customer to see his reaction as well.

I realize you are interested in 'live camera' design, but I have been involved in a number of 'big-box retail' projects that included a significant number of 'dummy minidome' housings (this one cost ~$10 USD but there are less expensive models) that cast the impression of many more cameras than actually deployed.

While the effectiveness of dummy cameras can be debated (almost half could not spot the fake in our shootout), many retailers use them. I may hang six housings in a merchandise areas, but have only have two live cameras between them. Since it is difficult to tell which housings are live and which ones are empty, the deterrence value for the price makes them a standard design element.

Thank you John;
Yes ; it's been planned to have the dedicated operators in a control room with wall monitors and desk top ones as well.
What if we lay fixed dome throughout the shopping hall ( except on cashiers where we would like to declare watching by Cameras ) with some supplementary PTZ cameras for additional investigation by operators on events discovered by fixed dome ones?

Yousef,

Does the store plan to have dedicated staff watching / controlling the speed dome cameras? If yes, that will make sense.

My first thought is to use minidome cameras at the cashiers as they will be less visible, unless for some reason you want customers to be aware of them, and then box cameras would accomplish that.