There may not at first glance appear to be anything particularly significant about the recently completed CCTV system in Theydon Bois. However, take a closer look at how the system has been installed, and how it all became possible, and there is much more than immediately meets the eye. The CCTV system was installed by locally based Essential Security Systems Ltd.

Firstly, without the cooperation of businesses throughout the town it would not have been practical for the Samsung cameras to have been economically installed. It has in fact been very much a community affair with The Bull Public House leading the way by allowing radio transmitters to be sited on its walls to allow the images from various cameras to be transmitted to the Samsung SRD-1670D digital video recorder located within the pub. The Bull has also provided a broadband connection to allow authorised Theydon Bois Parish Councillors and Council staff to remotely retrieve and view recorded video. Various shops throughout the town have also made a contribution to the effectiveness of the system by allowing cameras and transmitters to be mounted on the outside of their buildings.

“Being a locally based company we were particularly pleased to be entrusted to provide the CCTV system for Theydon Bois,” said Tony McGurk Director of Essential Security. “As is the case with most local authorities there was not a huge budget for the system, but working closely with Councillor Paul Vincent and his council colleagues we have been able to design a highly effective system and specify cameras and other equipment, which whilst competitively priced, has delivered against all expectations.”

Theydon Bois is a village bordering on Epping Forest which has a population of approximately 4,000. “This is not normally the type of place where you would expect too much trouble to take place,” said Councillor Paul Vincent. “We are however determined to deter anyone who wants to hang around the town centre and get involved in anti-social behaviour or any other criminal activity. In this respect we have invested in the CCTV system in order to provide the police, if necessary, with video evidence to help them successfully prosecute any wrongdoers.”

Essential Security Systems’ installation engineers have taken great care to ensure that the cameras do not have a negative aesthetic impact on their surroundings with some of the weather-proof camera housings sprayed to a colour which matches the character of the buildings on which they are installed. All cabling has been installed to an exceptionally high standard and despite budget restrictions, where possible, the cables have been neatly housed in weather-proof conduit.

Samsung SCB-3000 day/night cameras have been installed at various locations around the town centre. These capitalise on the advanced technology built into Samsung’s SV-V DSP chipset to capture superb high resolution colour images during the day and equally impressive monochrome images in night-time conditions.

The SCB-3000 also features twelve polygonal privacy zones which means that certain sections of a camera’s field of view can be masked where necessary, such as the children’s’ playground area or where the camera may be pointed in the direction of the windows of residential accommodation above one of the shops.

Essential Security Systems has also installed in the high street, a Samsung SCP-3370 PTZ dome camera which has a 37 x optical zoom feature allowing authorised users to observe close up detail of any activity. The motion detection feature of both camera models ensures that when an alarm event occurs it is immediately transmitted to the SRD-1670D DVR which has a 10TB video storage capacity allowing images from all the cameras to be stored for up to 30 days.

“We take a very keen interest in the performance of the CCTV system,” said Michael Slade, director at Essential Security. “Although it is not normal practice to do so, our service engineers inspect the cameras every month. When there is an incident we are also pleased to be able to offer a free service to the Police by way of extracting video evidence of any incidents from the SRD-1670D and burning it onto a DVD which we pass onto the Police.”