Customer: Spaces and Places letting and estate agents
Location: Weston-Super-Mare
Requirement: CCTV solution that would be very discreet, with little backroom equipment or maintenance
Solution: Mobotix Q22 IP Camera
Services: Installation and configuration of camera, installation of 16MB memory card, training
Customer’s View: “I am not a technical person but the new system is incredibly simple to use.” Mrs C Box, Marketing Manager – Spaces and Places
Letting and estate agents take to CCTV
Letting and estate agents are a growing market for the installation of CCTV, according to Darren Roe, operations director at Ecl-ips.
He said the company had installed five systems within the lettings and estates sector in only a few months.
“People often think of pubs, clubs and banks as the only place you will find CCTV on the high street,” he said. “But we have seen a substantial increase in requests from letting agencies, estate agents and smaller retails outlets over the last few months.”
Weston-super-Mare’s Spaces and Places is one such client who recently installed CCTV following a burglary.
“We had never really considered CCTV before but we had a burglary recently where a thief got away with a substantial sum of money after bypassing our alarm system, and it made us re-evaluate our security,” said marketing manager, Mrs Box.
“We needed CCTV not just for night time security but to protect our staff during the daytime, especially when we have abusive or aggressive people coming into our premises or if a dispute arises.”
Discreet system
Mrs Box needed a CCTV solution that would be very discreet, with little backroom equipment or maintenance. “We also wanted a system we could view remotely, either from the main office or at night from home to check on the premises if an alarm was triggered,” she said.
Ecl-ips recommended and installed a Mobotix Q22 IP camera.
Darren Roe said: “The model is particularly suited to small high street locations like letting agents as a single camera can monitor an entire main area with its 360 degree view.
“In addition, the Q22 we installed has a removable 16GB Flash memory card, so in the case of Spaces and Places, they can record a loop of three continuous days worth of footage without the need for any special PC or video storage device which reduces costs and makes the system maintenance free.”
Audio element
The Mobotix system also offers two way audio, audio recording and playback of pre-recorded messages or warnings of an event.
Mrs Box said: “I am not a technical person but the new system is incredibly simple to use. If I hear raised voices in the outer office, I can just click on an icon on my desktop PC and check to see that everything is OK and if somebody is getting abusive, we can point out that we have a CCTV system and that usually acts as a deterrent and calms the situation down.
Ian Potter, operations manager for the Association of Residential Letting Agents, said: “Most of our members tend not to handle cash. But it’s not unusual to hear of staff being subjected to aggressive behaviors and the Association can understand CCTV being used in those circumstances.”
Mike Lewis, Mobotix UK and Eire country manager, said: “Letting agencies and smaller retail outlets don’t tend to have dedicated facilities or security managers and what they need is simplicity and cost efficiency.
“The Q22 is a good choice for deployment within these small office and retail environments as it is designed to be very unobtrusive, offer hi -resolution images and audio but without needing a complicated back end system to manage the camera or DVR to store video footage.”
Download the Spaces and Places case study PDF