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Choosing The Right Video Surveillance System For Your Business If you are wondering about choosing the right video surveillance system for your business, you are in the right place. Read on to learn everything and about choosing the right CCTV provider near you too. We are sure you will find this article super helpful. How To Choose A Video Surveillance System If you’ve made the decision to invest in a video surveillance and security system, don’t just buy the first one you come across. IT is also not recommended to buy it based on only on price. There are many factors to take into consideration when designing a surveillance system. While the purpose of the system is important, camera locations, DVR features, lighting, indoor or outdoor requirements, recoding details and storage rank high too. Information is key before you jump into the search for the right system. Doing the research will help save you time, money and a lot of headaches. So, let’s review a few ways to determine what might make for a good fit. Why Do You Need A Video Surveillance System? The most important question is why do you need a CCTV security system in the first place? Security is the typical answer. However, there are other benefits. A good surveillance system can help you monitor employee safety, theft, or behavior on site. Did you know you could integrate video recordings with a cash register to minimize employee theft? Point of sale integration provides the whole story to the manager. The camera records the customer and the money transaction and the DVR also records the data transaction; what product was actually sold. For example, the bartender serves top shelf drinks to his friend but rings up well drinks in the register. Recordings can be used for training purposes, improve customer experiences or to prevent the threat of a lawsuit. A CCTV system doesn’t have to be reserved just for saving money or keeping your business safe. Camera recordings can help with both profit and loss control too.  Recording customer habits may help increase profits by monitoring high traffic areas in the store for product placement. PRO TIP: Learn more about cabling installation before you read on! We know you will find it helpful too! How Many Cameras Do We Need? You may think that the larger the area, the more cameras you need to install. That is not necessarily the truth. You can buy fewer cameras depending on what you actually need to “see”. You may not be concerned with certain areas in the location. On the other hand, you may invest in a pan/tilt/zoom (PTZ) camera that moves up, down and around, eliminating the need for several fixed cameras. You can cover a much larger area with the PTZ and in many cases, with an IP camera zoom in to great detail. Or maybe you don’t need something that expansive. Maybe you aren’t concerned about every square foot of your property and only want to view certain areas of the business; your dumpster or parking lot. You would look into a smaller system with several cameras. Don’t forget to consider the future of your business. Do you have plans to grow? If so, you may want to choose an IP based system, as they are usually the best bet for a growing business because they are easier to expand. What Are Some of the Options You Need When Choosing A Video Surveillance System? The bells and whistles that are available for video surveillance systems today are extraordinary. Waterproof, vandal resistant, dustproof, infrared technology for night viewing, zoom, remote video monitoring from any PC, tablet or smartphone and cameras that offer 180 -360 field of view. There are low-resolution cameras for areas that are either well lit or don’t require a lot of detail. High-resolution cameras that are good for places where you need to see a lot of detail like license plates or printing on boxes. Perhaps you only need to record an area when there is someone present. You can save money and storage space by getting a camera with a motion sensor. Make a list of your needs are so you can find the right system for the right problem. Where Should the Cameras Go? There are several differ styles of cameras so not only should you consider the athletics of the installed cameras but the purpose of each camera. Cameras can be very obvious and placed in a way to show people they are being watched. They can also be hidden to keep them from being stolen or vandalized. Sometimes covert cameras are installed simply to “catch” a thief. The recording can be used to substantiate a dismissal of an employee or given to the police for evidence to prosecute the person. It all depends on the purpose of the cameras. How Long Do You Want to Store the Recordings? How long do you want to store the images recorded in the DVR? A five-day period of recording, without audio, will take about 50 GB of storage on a hard drive. If you’re just trying to keep an eye on things and don’t anticipate a need for long-term storage then you don’t need to buy a large hard drive. However, some business owners have saved a lot of money in court because they had images they saved for years. Nowadays, storage space is so incredibly inexpensive that it makes sense to hold onto the recordings for at least a year. Do You Need Audio? Audio can be quite convenient, allowing you to speak to people directly as they are on camera. This can be helpful with deliveries, instructions to employees or even to warn somebody off your property. However, audio adds to the amount of information being stored and may require a larger hard drive to store the data. BE careful, there may be legal considerations when recording audio in some environments and states have different laws regarding this issue. Who Will Be Operating It?

Direct inward dialing is a service provided by a dial tone provider to allow an outside caller to directly dial an extension (or group of extensions ex. Dispatch dept.) of an office without the assistance of a receptionist or automated attendant. The carrier typically provides a block of direct inward dial numbers (DID numbers) to the business to be assigned to designated employees or ring groups within a phone system. The company’s PBX or hosted phone system is programmed to recognize the DID being dialed and routes the incoming call to its assigned extension. Some businesses assign DIDs to all employees, some only to certain extensions or divisions. DID service does not require a physical phone line for each telephone number given to the business. In most cases, the carrier provides more phone numbers than trunks. PRO TIP: Learn more about business telephone systems provider, support and installation services by Comtex. We offer business telephone solutions in Bergen County NJ and beyond! Direct inward dialing was developed over 40 years ago to allow companies to assign employees a dedicated telephone number without having to pay for a physical phone line for each extension. Prior to DID service, the only way to do this was cost prohibitive; install a trunk for each employee. A business traditionally had the option to use only analog copper trunks, each having a dedicated telephone number. A company would have several trunks in a hunt group connected to its PBX but only publish the main number. A caller would hear a greeting from an automated attendant or get a live receptionist. In either option, a transfer was required to reach the appropriate recipient. When using analog trunks, when the main number was dialed, and that trunk was in use, the call would “hunt” (roll over) to the next available trunk (that has its own telephone number) in the hunt group. The hunting feature prevents the ability to assign a telephone number to an extension because you never know what trunk the call will ring into the system. The system will not know the number the caller dialed, only the number the call rang into the system, therefore you cannot guarantee that the call will ring at the originally dialed desired extension. DID service resolved this issue. It was invented as a way to route incoming calls to a specified extension without having to pay for a physical line for each extension. DID service was were first used in connection with a PRI or a T-1 circuit which provided dial tone to a PBX or an on site telephone system controller.  A T-1 circuit has 24 channels (lines) and a PRI has 23 channels (lines) for voice communication. For the purpose of this blog, I will refer to both types as a PRI. Each PRI channel serves as a single telephone trunk/line; it is the same as having 23 separate traditional phone lines, except that traditional analog lines have a dedicated phone number dedicated to each line. The PRI has number(s) assigned to the circuit, not each channel. When the DID is dialed, the call is presented to the circuit and will ring (not really but for simplistic reasons) into the system on any available channel. As long as a channel is available, the call will be received by the phone system and then routed to the desired extension. Typically a dial tone service provider allocates a single or consecutive range of DID telephone numbers that are within the customer’s area code and local exchange. The customer then assigns each DID to an individual employee; similar to assigning an employee an email address. When an outside caller dials a DID, it rings the employee’s extension, bypassing an automated attendant or operator who must transfer the call to the intended recipient. It is not uncommon for a company with a PRI to have only 1 main advertised telephone number (which can be considered a DID) but yet have up to 23 employees conducting outside conversations (on 23 trunks) at the same time. In the alternative, you may have more DIDs than channels. A business can utilize 100 telephone numbers (DIDs) but they will only have the ability for 23 employees to conduct an outside call at the same time. The telecommunications industry is ever evolving.   The DID now has an important application in IP communications, including SIP trunking, other IP based dial tone and in connection with hosted phone systems. Session Initiated Protocol (SIP) trunks are similar in concept to a PRI circuit but there is no physical connection to the dial tone carrier. Instead the SIP provider delivers voice services over the internet to its designated end users. DID service also allows the public switched telephone network (PSTN) users to call people with IP based dial tone and IP telephones. The IP networks assign DIDs to a communications gateway that routes and translates calls between the two networks. The amazing thing is that with all the different types of phone service (PSTN, cellular, circuits, SIP trunking, cable providers, etc.), when you dial a phone number, calls are completed with extreme reliability.   I’ll bet Alexander Graham Bell never envisioned the continuing changes over the last century. Look for our next Blog detailing the Many Benefits of DIDs and the importance of redundancy for the PRI Conclusion Comtex offers a variety of solutions for your business. Please take a look at our location below. We offer access control systems, CCTV systems and more.  

Think twice before calling back that unknown missed call! Calling back you cost you or your employer money! Cell phones have become a necessity in the work force and almost 35% of mobile phones are provided by employers. Comtex wants to alert you to the resurgence of an old scam that has come back again to haunt cell phone users. It’s currently known as the “one ring scam”. The thief programs a robo-dialer to make calls over the internet that only ring your phone once. If you answer the call, it disconnects. While that isn’t harmful to your pocket, the missed call is meant to pique your curiosity so that you call back the number listed in the caller ID. Bad idea! The caller ID lists a 3 digital area code that appears to be domestic, but in reality it is an international pay-per-call telephone number. Calling one of these numbers will cost you upfront $10 to $30! You think you are calling a local number but you are dialing an international hotline that charges a fee for connecting the call, plus a huge per minute fee for the duration of the call. This scam is reminiscent of the old “809” area code trick that enticed you to call a foreign telephone number to claim your prize or help out a family member. The con artists obtain a block of these phone numbers. When you return the call, you hear music playing or listen to a long advertisement for services. The longer you wait, the more money the thief earns. Some area codes to look out for are (284), (876), (473), (268), and (809). A way to avoid this scam is to let any unidentified caller go to voice mail so you can determine if it is legitimate before you return the call. You can also Google the phone number to see if anyone posted it as being connected to a scam. Of course, the best solution is to only return calls from identified numbers. There are other variations of this scam that include automatically signing you up for fake services that will be added to your cell phone bill without your knowledge or permission. While there are warnings that this scam can also allow the thief to steal your contact or financial information, there is no evidence that is possible. They would have to hack into your phone to obtain any information; clicking on a link in an email or text. The mere act of dialing a telephone number should not compromise this data. It is good practice to always review your cell phone bills for “mysterious” charges. The sooner you discover the fraudulent charges, the easier it is to get a credit. Another suggestion is to speak with you cell phone carrier and ask them to block all international calls. Be careful, not all carriers consider the Caribbean or the Dominican Republic an international call. Discuss your concerns with the carrier and seek the best way to inhibit these types of calls.  

Ensure Business continuity. If there is a local power failure, your phone lines go down or there is a natural disaster, 75% of your remote employees would still be able to work. Reduce your attrition rate. Attrition can be expensive for an organization; job postings, interviewing, paperwork and training. Two thirds of employees would change their job to reduce commuting time and costs and 95% of employers claim that offering remote privileges increases staff retention. Increase Employee Accessibility. Decisions and projects are delayed because of a delay in reaching key employees. Collaborations are negatively affected when all team members cannot be reached simultaneously. In fact, at least 2 hours a week, per staff member are wasted because of a communication problems. Equipment Savings with BYOD. More and more, employees increasingly want to bring their own device to communicate and access data at work. More than 50% of employers will require it by 2017. It will save them money (reduce hardware, licensing and maintenance costs), increase employee productivity (employees are more comfortable and work faster using their familiar device) and increase employee satisfaction (work flexibility). Increase Productivity. While there is a $600 billion dollar loss attributed to staff distraction, 66% of employers claim an increase in productivity in remote workers. Some companies report that remote workers out produce the onsite workers. Decreased real estate costs. Less employees at the office require less office space. It is an average of $10,000 per full time employee; $68 million for major real IT organizations. Reduction is unscheduled time off. Did you know that 78% of employees taking a sick day are really healthy? Unscheduled absences creates a $300 billion dollar loss to American employers. However, employees who have the ability to remotely work from home will more likely work when they are sick. This is because they do not have to get ready for work or commute and they have the comforts of home at their disposal. Employers also benefit from sick staff remotely working because they will not infect coworkers. Reduce Staff Compensation. According to statistics, 36% of workers would forgo a raise to work from home, and 37% of IT employees would take a pay cut to work at home.

There is an ever expanding increase in the demand for videoconferencing across all lines of communications; no internal or external limitations. Mitel and Vidyo extended its original 2013 partnership to allow Mitel to embed Vidyo ‘s APIs into video, audio and collaboration features inside numerous Mitel solutions. This expansion offers Mitel end users the ability to engage in high definition video conferencing from any mobile endpoint across the organization or beyond its internal borders. In response to the ever increasing corporate demand to keep employees connected and productive anywhere, anytime and on any device, Mitel incorporated VidyoWorks into the newest version of Mitel MiCollab, Mitel’s enterprise communications collaboration platform. It seems to be a logical progression for Mitel to incorporate videoconferencing into the MiCollab solution; the platform places a great deal of importance on mobile communications. Mitel MiCollab provides the essential mix of tools that unite employees together from any device or location, providing for spontaneous or planned communications and collaborations. Employees may choose from instant messaging, voice, desktop video, or web collaboration; whatever method works best given the event, attendees and or location. Not only will staff have the ability to connect with others using traditional phones and computers, but also using mobile phones and tablet devices. In today’s busy working environment being able to connect with others in a timely manner can make all the difference in being able to make timely, well informed decisions. It is directly related to business success. This agreement will allow Mitel’s 3,500 channel partners to deliver the best in videoconferencing and collaboration to any endpoint, fixed or mobile. For more information on how you can leverage this technology, please contact us!