How my CCTV System paid for itself

We have always installed CCTV systems at our customers homes and businesses. I highly recommend them as a deterent. For almost the entire 15 years in business we have done this. In the early days they were usually just modulated to TVs around the house. While now, and for the past 7 years or so, we have digital DVRs connected the the internet that can be remote monitored and record acvitivy based on motion.

I've seen several instances over the years where the systems have recorded break-ins, potential break-ins and sometimes just funny stuff. We've delivered CD copies of incidence to police and other authorities from these systems too.

Recently though, our office CCTV system came in handy in a way I hadn't considered before. Asset and Inventory management. We had a Hospital grade TV delivered (these are really expensive and are sealed so O2 will not get sparked) that was broken but we didn't realize until after the fact. Granted, we should have inspected the box a little better but regardless, once we opened it, the entire glass front of the TV was broken. We called and were told since we accepted it there is no proof it was broken before. I checked my DVR for a record and sure enough, several cameras have recorded the delivery. We see the box is damaged as soon as the driver pulls it off the truck. In addition, we see how he is deliberately trying to hide the damaged portion and actually uses his body to block that part of the box while he loads it into our warehouse in such a way to put the damaged side of the box against the wall so we cannot see it.

I simply copied this information to a CD and sent copies to both the shipping company as well as our vendor and we were sent a new TV. These TVs, since specialty, are still rather expensive, around $5,ooo a piece, so this one small recording literally covered the entire cost of my CCTV and DVR system and I feel was well worth it. In addition, I have the piece of mind to know the cameras also act as somewhat of a deterrent and I can always log in and see what is going on at my office.

Consider this when thinking about your CCTV needs in your home or office.