Video Surveillance for Businesses
Commercial Video Surveillance Solutions
Video surveillance can advance business operations on several fronts. The most obvious reason for video surveillance is security: Having cameras watching over a business or organizational premises gives managers or dedicated security teams an easy way to observe the entire premises to spot and prevent tampering, theft, trespassing, loitering, or other criminal activity.
The presence of cameras serves as an effective deterrent in many cases, because cameras discourage bad behavior before it takes place. And in the event of suspicious activity or a security breach, camera footage can help the security team or legal investigators with actionable information.
Today's AI-backed surveillance cameras can offer much more than security, too. Video analysis means surveillance cameras can help organizations understand customer behavior and traffic patterns, spot natural hazards, automatically perform actions (such as granting access to a parking lot based on license plate), and even share visual information with emergency operators in the event of an emergency. With 2-way audio, camera infrastructure can provide effective communications, too, rather than serve strictly as a data gathering tool.
Beyond Security
The list of benefits that video surveillance can bring your business keeps growing, as cameras themselves gain new functionality, and the data they produce can be analyzed in new ways. Cloud-based data retention and processing also enables affordable access to AI capabilities that would be cost prohibitive with on-site equipment alone.
Object recognition: Whether people or specific objects and attributes such as clothing color, today's surveillance systems can recognize the presence of the things that matter to you. And with more advanced technologies including license plate recognition (LPR), you can automate actions such as granting or denying access to your parking lot.
Event correlation: You can use objects or events spotted by your camera to trigger actions, such as sending an alert to a manager, or for forensic auditing as required by security events. Or you can crack down on retail fraud by correlating specific point-of-sale transactions with associated video clips, to review if you suspect theft by either employees or customers.
Access control: Cameras can be paired with other sensors to grant building access for employees or authorized guests, minimizing personnel needs and reducing risk to your employees. New employees can be added to an allow list, without the need to issue new keys.
Traffic analysis: You can review video footage manually or with the aid of AI systems to figure out where your customers or employees spend their time on-premises, so you can increase the odds of increasing their satisfaction and efficiency.
Communications: Cameras can be equipped with or paired with speaker systems, so you can use them as a two-way communication tool, not just observation points. Let a trespasser know they're on camera, or remind employees about required safety procedures.
Multi-site or multi-area management: If you're managing more than one retail location in the same city or region, you can use visual data from your cameras to determine when staff from one site might be better deployed at another, to match actual customer demand.
Emergency observation and data sharing: Cameras allow you to observe a scene while keeping your people out of harm's way. And sharing capabilities newly on the market allow you to automatically, securely share video information with local emergency response centers, for up-to-the-second situational awareness.
