Some Simple Tips For: Personally Installed Security Systems

When making plans to install television security cameras, many laundry owners purchase kits to lay out their own system. Such kits are available at Radio Shack, most large home improvement centers and electronics dealers. We suggest that laundry owners shop first to see what’s available and what the costs are, then return to their laundry to lay out their plan.

The fundamental thing is you are buying TV cameras, a recording device (VCR), and the necessary cable in various lengths to hook up the system, plus mounting devices for the cameras. The VCR may include day and date markers which tell what time an event happened. They may also include sound recording capability. Costs range from $1,000 to $5,000 depending on the degree of sophistication you desire, and can afford.

Installation is hard work, but it should be simple to do for anyone accustomed to repairing their own equipment. Most laundry operators already have the needed tools.

Place a camera so that it “covers” entry doors and others so that the customer areas of the laundry are covered. This allows you to see everyone who enters and you can watch their activities while they are there.

Once you have selected camera locations it’s time to connect them via their cable to the VCR. Most laundry facilities have dropped ceilings. Since most cameras will be located up near the ceiling level, it’s a simple matter to run the wire up, and pass it through above the tiles and out of sight. Pass it down to the VCR and connect. Connecting the VCR also is easy.

OK, it’s not quite that simple, but almost.

Depending on the system, you could watch your laundry from home, office or the back room of the laundry. If your system is basic, you’ll need plenty of tapes to keep and store for a few months. This will help protect against slip and fall accident claims and reports of lost, very expensive clothing, etc. You’ll also be able to judge employee-customer relations.

There are those among us in the coin laundry business who think that having a television security system is good only because it might prevent bad guys from doing bad things in their laundry. And that is true as far as it goes. However, that doesn’t go nearly far enough.

A security camera system provides wonderful management capabilities for the laundry owner and their staff, For example, an owner, from home, using a computer can quietly check on employees to see that they are doing their job. They can also look at their laundry at night to determine whether or not it’s time to lock the doors. No more expense to hire someone to lock up at night. As soon as the customer space is vacant, the door locks can be activated. Instead of leaving home, driving to the laundry, locking up and going back home. It’s a saving for time, gas and gives added security too.

Of course that will require enough camera coverage to view the entire space from home so as not to lock someone in. Most laundries with four cameras at work will do just that. Then you must keep the security video tape recorded for enough time to make sure you have them ready for response to events.

Why? Not only should the viewer be able to see the entire laundry, but having cameras on all corners of the laundry could save false claims for slip and fall. One woman poured liquid detergent on the floor claiming her child slipped and fell then asked medical expenses from three laundries on three consecutive days. The operator’s insurers didn’t have to pay, and in fact she barely avoided prosecution.

Operators also use these tapes to respond when loss claims are made. “I put in a $20, and got only a dollar back in change.” The cameras could tell you that they did get some change. The time and date on the tape could tell the laundry owner where to look to find the bill in the stack. She may have thought it was a twenty, but maybe it was just a single and she may have just been trying a scam.

 

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