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Not to complicate things, but a few other things come to mind:
1. Since expansibility seems to be a consideration, I'd consider incorporating that in the initial cable/wiring plan. In other words, go ahead and pull both what you need now and what you will foreseeably need for expansion. There are both cost and design advantages that pay off down the road (i.e., it forces you to think about power needs, etc. so that your current system doesn't wind up limiting your future options, and it makes expansion much easier and cheaper as well). It's also amazing how often it happens that the company that does the initial pull is no longer in business two years later, and no one can figure out what they did.
2. The system should provide for observation of employee activity in areas like the stock room, etc. as well as the activities of customers. For most retail businesses, employees (not robbers or shoplifters) represent the largest single threat of many different types of loss and most systems should not - repeat not - be designed around the purpose of providing evidence in the event of a robbery. Most retailers continue to lose money (which they often mis-attribute to shoplifting, etc.) despite these systems for the simple reason that they're watching the wrong people. You could get robbed four times a year with an SLE of $500 per, and still be losing five times that or more out the back door.
3. Be sure to have a good plan for media backup, off-site storage and rotation - including the loss of media if it gets tied up as evidence (potentially for years).
4. Remember that in terms of robbery loss prevention, CCTV has little or no value. Ski masks are cheap, and addicts don't care. Much more important are secure cash-handling procedures, limiting the amounts allowed to accumulate in cash drawers, high-bill limits, slot safes that employees can't open (with prominent signage to that effect) and are properly anchored, frequent but randomly-timed deposits, etc. And if the store has an ATM machine, for crying out loud don't put it next to the front plate glass window or door - cameras or no cameras. Put it well inside the store instead...for both good security and even better retail reasons (you want people to have to walk past those tempting Baby Ruth bars and chips, right?)
5. 30 fps (1/1) recording sounds too high to me on practical grounds, and is not necessary to capture an acceptable level of action - which is different from recognition. You're not producing a TV show. Remember that a face (for recognition purposes) can be captured with a good digital camera still shot - we do it at picnics and weddings with our little digitals all the time, right? Recording speed adds nothing to that. So, if anything, I'd put the best-res camera on the "bottleneck" or "funnel" point, and then use lower resolution for the "action" capture, but not at more than 1/3 or 1/4 speed, and perhaps even less than that.
Check out this page with a DVR requirement calculator (scroll down). For 1/1 at 720 x 240 res, normal (not even "enhanced" or "fine") picture quality gives you 158 GB in just one full day. (The same page has a lens calculator, incidentally).
1. Since expansibility seems to be a consideration, I'd consider incorporating that in the initial cable/wiring plan. In other words, go ahead and pull both what you need now and what you will foreseeably need for expansion. There are both cost and design advantages that pay off down the road (i.e., it forces you to think about power needs, etc. so that your current system doesn't wind up limiting your future options, and it makes expansion much easier and cheaper as well). It's also amazing how often it happens that the company that does the initial pull is no longer in business two years later, and no one can figure out what they did.
2. The system should provide for observation of employee activity in areas like the stock room, etc. as well as the activities of customers. For most retail businesses, employees (not robbers or shoplifters) represent the largest single threat of many different types of loss and most systems should not - repeat not - be designed around the purpose of providing evidence in the event of a robbery. Most retailers continue to lose money (which they often mis-attribute to shoplifting, etc.) despite these systems for the simple reason that they're watching the wrong people. You could get robbed four times a year with an SLE of $500 per, and still be losing five times that or more out the back door.
3. Be sure to have a good plan for media backup, off-site storage and rotation - including the loss of media if it gets tied up as evidence (potentially for years).
4. Remember that in terms of robbery loss prevention, CCTV has little or no value. Ski masks are cheap, and addicts don't care. Much more important are secure cash-handling procedures, limiting the amounts allowed to accumulate in cash drawers, high-bill limits, slot safes that employees can't open (with prominent signage to that effect) and are properly anchored, frequent but randomly-timed deposits, etc. And if the store has an ATM machine, for crying out loud don't put it next to the front plate glass window or door - cameras or no cameras. Put it well inside the store instead...for both good security and even better retail reasons (you want people to have to walk past those tempting Baby Ruth bars and chips, right?)
5. 30 fps (1/1) recording sounds too high to me on practical grounds, and is not necessary to capture an acceptable level of action - which is different from recognition. You're not producing a TV show. Remember that a face (for recognition purposes) can be captured with a good digital camera still shot - we do it at picnics and weddings with our little digitals all the time, right? Recording speed adds nothing to that. So, if anything, I'd put the best-res camera on the "bottleneck" or "funnel" point, and then use lower resolution for the "action" capture, but not at more than 1/3 or 1/4 speed, and perhaps even less than that.
Check out this page with a DVR requirement calculator (scroll down). For 1/1 at 720 x 240 res, normal (not even "enhanced" or "fine") picture quality gives you 158 GB in just one full day. (The same page has a lens calculator, incidentally).
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