"There’s no excuse for small- and medium-sized businesses not to take advantage of the massive improvement in security that CCTV brings," says Gee. "Even the most modest four camera installation will dramatically increase the overall security level and provide peace of mind to staff and visitors."

Technological advances and the move away from proprietary equipment to more economical PC-based systems have led the drive in cost reduction. An added benefit of this move has been a significant improvement in image storage; 45-day records are now commonplace.

The Vineyard Hotel – a four star, 158-room hotel and conference facility in the Cape’s southern suburbs – recently upgraded their entire CCTV system. This included increasing the number of camera sites and image storage capacity, all based on a new digital network.

State-of-the-art day/night, high resolution cameras were used in the forecourt to monitor access and installed in such a way to facilitate clear face recognition in the event of any unlawful incident. The digital format also allows for evidence to be easily extracted from the storage drive for printing or e-mailing. The convenience that digital brings is also a major benefit says Gee. "Monitoring can be done off-site and, for those that are interested, remote access to the surveillance system can be achieved via a laptop while out of the office or on holiday. No more out of sight, out of mind!"

Equation has developed a specialised niche in the in-house security market because of their experience in the installation and supply of traditional IT systems – cabling and networks are the backbone of modern security systems.

"There’s no doubt the effect CCTV surveillance has on reducing crime – witness the positive effect cameras have had on improving safety in Cape Town’s CBD," says Gee. "Historically only large corporations with significant risk exposure could contemplate CCTV systems; but the digital revolution has changed all that."

"Next time you visit a business, smile. You’re probably on camera!"