Dallmeier: video surveillance for the restaurant chain of McDonald’s

Dallmeier: video surveillance for the restaurant chain of McDonald's. The UK has more than 1,000 McDonald’s restaurants, with operations split into northern, central and southern regions. Tough demands are placed on the digital video recorders in McDonald’s restaurants and the machines must be robust enough to operate in a catering environment and flexible to allow upgrading if requirements change. They need to be easy to operate and, above all, they must provide evidencequality recordings, with no risk of anyone changing the settings or jeopardizing network security.

The choice of Dallmeier recorders for the heart of the Southern Region’s systems has followed extensive – and continuing – testing of the Dallmeier recorders against other makes. „One of the key things we always investigate is whether a product is as secure as Dallmeier’s,” says Southern Region Security Manager Andy Lane. ”It’s by far and away the best product for the money that we have found,“ says fellow Southern Region Security Manager Robbie Hawes.

Although the organization has a long-standing relationship with Dallmeier, „if we thought we could find a similar quality product at a cheaper price we would do so – we are a business. However we haven’t found one.“

Long-Standing Relationship

There are about 400 restaurants in the Southern Region and virtually all have CCTV. About half the restaurants are company owned, with the remainder being franchises. „We use only Dallmeier recorders in the company-owned restaurants in the south,“ says Hawes. So far, almost 80 percent of the region’s restaurants have a Dallmeier product, installed by Complete Security Systems Ltd.

The remainder are still using older analogue units, which are being phased out. „And I believe that the majority of franchises put in a Dallmeier product. They know it’s robust, they know it’s reliable,” he adds. McDonald’s was an early adopter of digital hard disc recorders and the Southern Region’s relationship with Dallmeier dates back to late 1999. “We were looking to move from analogue into digital products – they were just coming onto the market at that point,” says Lane.

The main concern was whether digital images would be allowable as legal evidence. “Dallmeier‘s products already had security features so that the image couldn’t be altered,” he adds.

Safe and Secure

Images are recorded locally whenever a camera detects movement. Some of the Dallmeier recorders are also linked into the company network, which allows any incidents to be reviewed. „We are running alarm monitoring through a number of the systems as well,” adds Lane. „The monitoring station can view the cameras. It’s very good for reducing false activations.“

Other companies regularly submit recorders for testing in an attempt to persuade McDonald’s to make a switch. Security is one of the key concerns because of the links into the company network. The security and information services (IS) departments both try their best to expose weaknesses. „In the last 12 months we’ve probably looked at 10 or 12 different units,“ says Lane. None has passed the tests. The IS department had already spent a good number of weeks trying to ’destroy’ a Dallmeier recorder and was unable to do so. “They were very complimentary and said it was very good.“

Vulnerable digital video recorders could provide an easy entry point into the company network and introduce exposure to viruses or trojans. Another aspect that is checked is the possibility of users getting into the background operating system and downloading material such as films from the Internet. Hawes points out, McDonald’s can put in a standard specification machine and then have it upgraded later with additional hard disc or channel capacity, or extra features such as remote monitoring. ”

A lot of the products we are sent to test are just a box – if you later want it do something extra, you have to buy a new box,” he says. „Technology does move on,“ agrees Lane, “but we know we can continue to use these products into the future.“ The selection of high-quality recorders is matched by attention to the cameras. „If you invest in a decent product to record the images, you need to feed that product with decent images,” says Hawes.

The cameras include Dallmeier models, particularly ‘Cam_inPIX’ domes, which are designed for backlit situations such as looking out to a brightly lit exterior. These have been adopted as the standard solution for front doors in McDonald’s’ Southern Region.

Primary Focus

Staff safety was a prime reason for having a high-quality CCTV system. „We are open to anyone who walks through the front doors,“ points out Lane. But McDonald’s’ investment in highquality CCTV systems brings further benefits. The restaurants’ prime locations mean that local police often turn to McDonald’s for images of crime or disorder in town centers. “The incident often has nothing to do with our restaurant but we may have images that can be of use,” says Lane. „Suspects may have met in one of our restaurants, or have claimed to have met there as some sort of alibi,“ adds Hawes.

Disorder is also very prevalent on a lot of high streets, says Lane, and McDonald’s is a popular meeting place - often the last place that is open at night. „We build up a relationship with the police in the community,” he says. The cameras have helped in the enforcement of Anti-Social Behavior Orders, proving that someone had breached an order to stay out of a particular area.

Obvious Deterrent

Cameras, and sometimes monitors, are positioned overtly so that everyone knows they are being recorded. “There is a deterrent message and we want to encourage that,“ says Hawes. „We want people to know we’ve got CCTV; we want people to know we use it and we want them to know it works so that they will behave better as a result.”

The high-quality CCTV images can be supplied to the police in the event of an assault or break in at the store. “We’ve had considerable success recently where the Dallmeier product has been linked to the alarm and monitored remotely and that has enabled the police to make a number of arrests for very serious crimes,” he adds. One of the culprits appeared to think that there was a simple way of getting rid of the evidence. ”

A machine was attacked and destroyed during one of these incidents,“ says Lane. The attack on the recorder ended with it being thrown into a sink of water. “I took the unit directly to Dallmeier‘s Pucklechurch UK headquarters and the engineers spent some time during the day to get the images off the machine and we gave them to the police the next day.”

The McDonald’s team was impressed by the level of service demonstrated by this incident. “We know that wherever possible they will go out of their way to help,” says Hawes.

Keeping It Simple

A guiding principle of McDonald’s’ security products is that they should be standardized across as many stores as possible. „That cuts down on the training - managers do move areas and between stores,“ says Lane. Many people have access to each Dallmeier recorder and so it is essential to ensure that none can erase recordings or change the mode of operation. „One of the good things with the product is that you can set access levels,“ says Lane. „The stores are on the very minimum level needed to operate the recorders.”

Managers simply need to know how to review images and how to burn them to disc if necessary. „It is so easy with the software that Dallmeier has developed,” says Hawes.

Forward Planning

Mr. Lane welcomes Dallmeier’s willingness to carry out bespoke developments, including cooperating with McDonald’s’ other technology suppliers. One idea under consideration is to link the CCTV to the till systems. Benefits could include confirming that an order is being given to the correct customer at a drive-through restaurant.

Another idea is to use automatic number plate recognition technology to trigger rewards for regular customers. „As you move to digital CCTV, the recorder is effectively a computer. It prompts you to start thinking differently. Why have a machine that’s just recording images when it can do so much more for you?” says Hawes. And when he thinks about security at McDonalds, he can lean back confidently and say „I‘m loving it.“

Contact:

Dallmeier electronic GmbH & Co. KG,
Regensburg, Germany
Tel.: +49 941 8700 0
Fax: +49 941 8700 180
info@dallmeier.com
www.dallmeier.com