If you have a surveillance system in your workplace, you’re automatically a step ahead of similar businesses regarding safety. But what type of camera system do you have? And how old is it? After all, technology constantly evolves, and upgrading your surveillance system might be necessary to maintain the effectiveness of the security protocols you’ve created.
How do you know it’s time to upgrade your surveillance system? The answer may not be the same for every business, but here are RCI’s top 6 signs it’s time to upgrade your surveillance system.
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It’s Hard to Find the Footage You Need
Learning how to use your surveillance system shouldn’t be a part-time job. But unfortunately, there was a time when we had no choice but to take a long time to come through footage. That’s because everything was analog!
You would tape footage on physical cassettes and then look through each one to find out what happened within a specific time frame. If that time frame was more than a couple of hours, say goodbye to productivity!
These days most systems are IP. So you can use them to select a time frame without physically changing out tapes.
The best systems limit things further by allowing you only to record when motion is detected!
You Must Be Onsite to Access It
Another advantage of an IP system? You can access it from anywhere.
These days you can open your garage or turn on your oven from your smartphone. So, if you can’t do the same with something as crucial as your surveillance system, it’s time to replace it.
Modern systems can give you live notifications so you can know if anything is off at the office by logging in from your phone or computer, even if there’s no one there. Then you can call the authorities or, hopefully, see a curious raccoon walking by and return to what you were doing!
Broken Cameras
Ok, here’s an obvious one. If you have a broken camera, you need to, at the very least, upgrade your surveillance system by replacing it with one that works!
Some people think that even the appearance of cameras is enough to keep them safe. But unfortunately, while it may deter some crime, some criminals are tech-savvy enough to know if a camera is real or fake.
There’s also the matter that not everything you want to see is a crime. For example, you may want to know why something broke, even if it was an accident. Having footage of an incident can be the difference between accepting or rejecting an insurance claim!
You Don’t Have Full Coverage
Wise people never let the perfect be the enemy of the good. So maybe when you first installed your surveillance system, you didn’t have enough money to cover everything you wanted to.
Having cameras on the main entrance and other ways in and out are a great start to a surveillance system. But ideally, you should cover the entire area of the building (with obvious exceptions for bathrooms or changing rooms).
If you don’t have full coverage because you started your system small, expanded your building, or broke some cameras, you should invest in a system expansion.
Bear in mind that every system has a limit, so if you bought a system and four cameras that were only designed to hold four cameras, you would need to purchase a new one with the additional cameras.
It’s always best to purchase at least a level up from the amount you need if you’re getting close to maxing out your surveillance system.
You Can’t Identify Faces in Your Footage
The point of cameras is to capture needed information. So if your cameras only capture the vague perception of movement that would be more at home on a Bigfoot sitings website than as a piece of evidence in a police report, your cameras aren’t serving their purpose.
Upgrading your surveillance system is a must if your footage is too grainy or fuzzy to know what you’re looking at.
Your System Was Store-Bought
Anyone who installs a surveillance system in Virginia is legally required to obtain a DCJS license from the Department of Justice. So most installers will have that but always check! And if you put in a store-bought system, it’s probably not high quality.
Upgrading Your Surveillance System is the Right Choice When You Want the Best
Even if you don’t have one of these specific reasons for upgrading your surveillance system, upgrading is the right choice if you want the newest equipment with the most up-to-date features.
Are you thinking about upgrading your surveillance system? RCI has a licensed and experienced team ready to answer your question, design your system and install it to meet your needs!
