One question we hear from customers of our systems all the time is "What if a member lets someone into the club behind them?". Technology provides the solution for this problem (a problem that is generally larger in clubs that have a lot of younger members). The device is called a tailgate detection system, or TDS. The TDS is a device that consists of two plexiglass posts mounted on the inside door frame of the entry door. The TDS watches the comings and goings of your club, and if it detects more than one person entering the facility on a single card swipe, it sends out an alert to your surveillance system.
Your surveillance system then picks up that signal as an "alarm event", which causes your DVR to log the event and record it at a very high quality and low speed. This change in the recording parameters allows the club owner to review the surveillance history of the TDS infraction quickly and easily by simply reviewing recordings in the alarm history event buffer. In fact, several of the DVR's we sell can even send an email to the club owner with a picture embedded into it of the TDS infraction. All of this works to reduce the amount of time that a club owner needs to spend reviewing surveillance footage.
Another question that we often hear is "Can I view my club's surveillance from my home?". As long as your DVR has a network interface on board (and most do), you can network the DVR to your router and, using a high speed Internet connection, you can view the club's surveillance using the Internet. There may be some advanced configurations that need to be performed at your club in order to allow this to occur - and these can be done by either your network technician, or remotely by the company that you buy your system from.
Built in to most DVR's is the capability to record only when motion is detected. This feature if used can save hard drive space on your DVR, allowing it to record for more time before overwriting itself. Many club owners report that they are getting 3-5 days of a recording history out of the DVR's, and many insurance providers have minimum requirements with respect to either hard drive size, or length of recording time, so you should probably check with your insurance company before you buy a DVR to make sure it meets their requirements.
