Custom Restaurant Camera Systems

Dining Areas

The dining area provides critical video coverage of the customer service delivered at your restaurant, allowing you to see everything that happened from when a client entered the restaurant to when they left. In many restaurants, the majority of your customer contact occurs in these areas, making it critical coverage to ensure that the standards you have set in place for customer service are being upheld (even when you aren’t on site).

The AVM (Advanced Video Management) recorders that we employ for our camera systems make these cameras even more useful, by allowing you to visually scan through days or even weeks of video in a matter of seconds. With this level of access to your recorded video, the cameras become less about security and more about management of your restaurant. Our clients can use their dining room cameras to scan through days, weeks and months of video quickly to assess client flow to better address staffing needs and even staff performance.

Ever wonder if your clients are waiting too long for servers to address their concerns, or even to greet them? That is something that our camera systems can tell you, without even having to take much time out of your day. The cameras in the dining area become a critical element, delivering far more information than any other camera in many cases.

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Waiting Areas

Your clients begin to develop their opinions about your restaurant as soon as they enter your front door, and in today’s age of online reviews the contact and experience of every client is paramount. Good service can make a huge difference to your bottom line for coming months and even years, as these reviews are often permanent. The waiting/reception area will help you identify any issues before they can become permanent problems.

Reviewing the footage of waiting area cameras can show you how your host or hostesses are greeting each customer, and getting them to their seats as quickly as possible. When there are clients waiting by the door, you will be able to identify the cause by a quick look at if there are tables available, servers available, etc. All too often, it seems that after waiting for a table, clients are paraded by a row of empty tables once they are finally seated. While people understand waiting, if they feel there was no reason for it, then it can tarnish their entire experience. With our AVM system, waiting area cameras can be used as a training tool to help enlighten your entire staff on the client experience and how each task performed all comes together into the clients’ experience (and many times affects their tips).

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Food and Liquor Storage

There is no mistaking, if you run a restaurant you have experienced unexpected shrinkage of inventory. From soda to food to alcohol, this is literally your bread and butter. Shortages have a dire impact on the profitability of the restaurant, so naturally coverage in these areas is paramount. Some clients have even decided to install security cameras after noticing over $1000 of soda missing in a month’s time (Pizza Restaurant). As owners and managers, we know that everything in our facility equates to money, so anything that comes up missing is a huge loss.

Many employees have gotten very sophisticated in their attempts at theft, so having clear and, even more importantly, easy to review security coverage of these areas is critical. Now when something comes up short, you will be able to determine what is due to theft, and what is due to carelessness, mistakes or even improperly stocking the shelves. In many cases, clients find that their losses weren’t due to overt theft, but instead due to staff putting things in the wrong place. With normal camera systems, this would be tedious to catch, but with our AVM system you can scan through video quickly to identify these problems.

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Bar Areas

Your bar can be your greatest asset, or liability. Comparison of your liquor sales to inventory shows you just how much profit gets poured into the pockets of bartenders with heavy hands trying to get better tips. Clear video coverage will help you determine the difference between a bartender that just needs more training, and one that is blatantly stealing to get a better paycheck.

The bar area is one of the most critical in the restaurant (if you have one, that is). These areas bring in the most revenue when running properly, and lose the most money when they are not. In addition, this is the area where the greatest amount of cash changes hands, making it the most likely to be the source of any cash shortages or tickets that mysteriously disappear.

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Cash Registers and POS

Cash shortages in the register can be difficult to rectify without video and a good system to play back. With high quality HD video of your registers and surrounding areas, you will be able to see each transaction in detail to find the cause of the problem. We pair cameras with our AVM (Advanced Video Management) system because it allows you to quickly scan through hours of video in a matter of seconds visually. This means that you can quickly jump to each transaction to find exactly what happened. Because it is a visual scan, you can watch for body language and indicators that something important is happening to cue you in on what needs to be played in detail.

Today, many transactions occur with credit cards instead of cash. However, it is equally as important to secure the data from the credit cards, as your facility may be found liable by credit card companies for damages if credit card data is stolen in your facility. This is why coverage of credit card handling point is equally as important. Many restaurants have already caught employees scanning cards to later use, it could easily happen at your facility as well.

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Stairwells and Hallways

While the stairwells and hallways are not nearly as important as many of the other areas of the restaurant, when it comes to slip-and-fall claims or other liability, people targeting these fraudulent lawsuits will try to target areas where there is no video coverage, to avoid from having evidence against them. We have helped restaurants successfully defend themselves against fraudulent persons trying to make false claims and even led to arrest of these people.

Crime breeds in areas of no coverage, this is why we carefully consider the entire restaurant for adequate coverage when designing the system and placing the cameras. Often, we are able to provide coverage of the hallway by adjusting the angles of other cameras, helping avoid from having to install additional cameras.

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Kitchen and Food Prep Areas

Addressing complaints from staff and customers can be difficult if you don’t have all of the information. The kitchen and food prep areas, aside from housing a great deal of your product, also provides coverage of the food preparation, allowing you to identify any concerns in the preparation, cleanliness and procedures. These cameras can really help not only monitor for lost food, but also provide video that can be used to improve training for employees at the same time.

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Self-Serve Lines

Needless to say, it is great to have clients able to pick up product from self-service lines, not only does it reduce the necessary staff, but also clients who are able to pick up and look at a product are far more likely to purchase. However, with this also comes the potential for theft. These lines can be an area of great loss if not monitored. With cameras like our SMART HD IP Cameras, you could even keep count of traffic flow through these lines, a popular addition for some of our franchises.

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Back Office

The back office is an area where many managers are hesitant or even resistant when it comes to placement of a camera. As a manager, I want a camera in my office. Often, the safe for a restaurant or bar is located in the manager’s office, so that of course is a reason for video coverage. However, the reason that I would always want a camera in my office, is to document what happens in any interactions with employees in the office. While I know that I will act appropriately, I do not know how employees will react to delivery of difficult news, terminations, or coaching. Having a camera in my office is a safeguard for me, allowing me evidence of what happened if I get accused of any impropriety with employees, especially when alone in my office.

With systems like our AVM recorder, even though the camera is there and recording does not mean that anyone who you grant access will be able to see that camera. This camera can be crucial for the operation of your business, so I would always include it in an appropriate restaurant camera system plan.

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Front Door

The front door to your restaurant gives you great face shots of individuals entering the business, as well as vehicles moving past the entryway. This can provide the most crucial video coverage, as it may be the best shot you have of persons entering. This way, in the event of theft, fraudulent lawsuit, threats or damage to property, you can have actionable information and identifiable coverage.

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Back Door

The back door is critical to cover, because of the fact that normally employees will enter and exit through this door. When product comes up missing, food or alcohol, it usually is moving through the back door. Also, all of your deliveries are occurring through this door, meaning that the video can also be used to rectify deliveries and times as needed.

These cameras can also be used to help protect employees as they are leaving at night, allowing managers to see that they are getting out to their vehicles. This can be an area of great concern, as employees are often leaving after hours with pockets full of cash and can be a great target for thieves.

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Parking Lots and Streets

Coverage of parking lot areas around your restaurant will not only provide you with video in case someone has damage to their vehicle in your parking lot, but that is only the beginning of the value to these cameras.

When paired with a powerful recording system like our AVM (Advanced Video Management) system, coverage of the parking lots can be used to deliver highly valuable information at a glance. In a few moments time, you can scan through the week and judge client flow into and out of your business at a glance. This valuable information can tell you when to staff, when to offer discounts and more. These cameras can be a critical piece in turning your 'security camera system' into a 'Restaurant Management' system

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