Commercial vs Domestic CCTV – What is The Difference?

It has been shown in numerous studies that CCTV is one of the most effective tools in the fight against both commercial and domestic crime. Just the presence of security cameras is likely to deter many potential thieves. 

Many of us have security cameras at home, and it’s possible to pick these up from DIY stores at quite reasonable prices. It can often be tempting for business owners to use these for their commercial premises as well. By setting them up themselves, the thinking goes, there could well be a significant saving compared to a professionally installed system specifically designed for commercial premises.

This month, we’re going to be looking into the main differences between domestic and commercial CCTV systems, and discover why getting a domestic system for your business could well prove to be a false economy. But let’s start by considering why it might be worth spending a bit more on CCTV for commercial rather than domestic premises.

Commercial premises are far more likely to suffer from crime

The first thing that you need to remember is that commercial premises are targeted by criminals far more frequently than domestic ones – we gave a few statistics covering this in this previous blog. So it follows that the security systems you need in place to counter this have to be more effective. There’s a very good reason why professionally installed commercial CCTV systems cost more than those domestic ones available from DIY stores: they’re specifically designed for this purpose and are going to do a better job of protecting your business premises and assets. So how do they do that?

Wider coverage

Most domestic cameras only have the capacity to cover relatively small spaces – that’s perfectly understandable, because most of us don’t have living rooms and bedrooms the size of warehouses, shops, offices and factories. If you install a CCTV camera designed for domestic use, it’s probably going to cover only a small portion of your space, and any intruder will easily be able to work around that. The other thing you can do is install multiple cameras, but that raises a whole host of other issues.

Greater storage of data

Domestic CCTV cameras are generally not designed for constant use – we tend to put them on when we go out or are away. As a result, most don’t come with the capacity to store large amounts of footage – certainly not the quantity you’re likely to need if you’ve got multiple cameras on constantly, as people tend to in a commercial environment, monitoring entry points, valuable assets or even your staff. 

Better quality images

With better systems come better quality images that will be more effective in monitoring people and events. So, whether you’re trying to identify what’s happened in a crowded shop, what a particular member of staff was up to, or get a good look at the face of someone who’s stolen from or vandalised your premises, a higher definition image is far more likely to give you the information and evidence you need. 

Professional installation

You can probably do a decent job of installing cameras yourself, but are you going to be able to match the expertise of a professional who does it every day? They’ll know the best places to site the cameras and where your most vulnerable access points are, so that you’ll have a far better chance of capturing the images you’ll need.

Scutum London offers a wide range of professional CCTV systems that can be specifically designed for your commercial premises to ensure you’ll get the solution that will best meet your needs. And with our CCTV monitoring service, you can have the peace of mind that comes with knowing that someone has an eye on what’s happening 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

Contact us now to find out more.