"Extra Eyes"

Use of CCTV is on the increase...

More hotels are using closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras to monitor guests and employees.

"The hotel industry is one of our fastest-growing vertical markets," said Richard Rotondo, president, of Digital Vision CCTV, LLC. "Owners, Managers & security staff members like the ability to go back and review incidents so they have verification of what happened."


"Hotels and motels have shown a significant up tick in interest in purchasing this type technology," said Mr. Rotondo. "Not just creating a history of what the camera is viewing, but they are looking for the ability to have technology notify them of something of interest–an exception or intrusion."

"We have experienced a significant increase in demand for video surveillance, access control and security training from the hotel market over the past few years," "This is a trend we believe will continue."

The hotel industry is a price-driven business, so cost-effective video systems with remote access capabilities & networking will impact the industry because it allows the use of shared equipment to provide high-level service with economies of scale.

Recording rate, wiring, storage determine costs. Frame rate and storage costs are keys to determining the cost of a closed-circuit television system. "Storage and wiring costs can be expensive to add new camera locations said Rotondo, "It makes sense to leverage existing system components where possible like cabling if you have it installed for camera locations that are already in place. Digital Vision has had a great deal of success in “retro-fitting” or building on older system foundations with new equipment and digital platforms saving client’s added expense of all new cabling.

Swapping an old black & white analog camera with a new digital color can be easily accomplished. Certainly all of the cable is tested to ensure quality and replaced if necessary. This way the client only bears the labor cost of the new camera locations. When upgrading a 16 camera system having to run perhaps only 5-8 new locations can be a tremendous savings!


Most hotels require a storage capacity of up to 30 days. Having an adequate hard drive of anywhere between 250GB to 500GB can accomplish this. There are also ways hoteliers can reduce storage costs by recording in a “motion-activated” set-up or at slower frame rates. Digital systems also have the ability to “mask” or block-out viewing areas to cut down on motion which really comes into play when viewing exterior areas. Trees or bushes blowing or traffic on a distance street can all cause the cameras to record on a continuous basis thus eating up storage space. "We say record at one or two frames per second until pertinent motion detection occurs and the system automatically takes it up to 30 frames per second," he said. "It also can notify somebody to look at this."