How many cameras does a medium restaurant need?

A restaurant with a floor, a kitchen and a handover point usually needs between 8 and 14 points: a camera per till, the kitchen, the handover shelf, the entrance, the floor, the store and the back door. The final count follows a survey that accounts for the area and the number of exits.

Is a camera in the kitchen permitted?

Yes, and in practice it is needed for food safety and for settling disputes. But it is aimed at the work areas rather than at staff rest areas, and the employees are told it is there.

The kitchen camera fails quickly — what is the answer?

Steam and grease are the cause. A camera with a suitable protection rating is chosen, placed away from the direct steam path, and its cleaning goes into the periodic maintenance visits rather than waiting for the problem to appear.

How do I prove the courier collected the complete order?

With a dedicated camera on the handover shelf showing the bag, the order number and the courier’s hand, and the camera clock synchronised with the ordering system so you can go straight to it by order number.

CCTV for Restaurants and Cafés

Name: مؤسسة ألفا بيتا لتقنية المعلومات
Address: القطيف, المنطقة الشرقية, SA
Telephone: +966549662018
Price range: $$

CCTV for restaurants and cafés.

A restaurant’s problem is not theft but proof: who took the order, when it left, and what happened at the till. This page is about the positions that settle disputes, built on what we have seen in Eastern Province restaurants rather than on a device catalogue.

Core system areas

Six positions — and the first settles the rest

The till

The drawer and the hand

The kitchen

Safety and proof

Order handover

Delivery disputes

Floor and entrance

Complaints and incidents

Store and chillers

Stock count and loss

The car park

Vehicle damage

The till — where exactly is the camera aimed?

The common mistake is aiming the camera at the employee’s face. The face proves who it was, but what you need to prove is what happened. So the camera is aimed at the drawer and the hand together.

The best position is above the till, angled at about 45 degrees — so the open drawer shows, the hand as it takes or returns, and the receipt on the screen in the same frame.

The kitchen — three reasons, not one

Food safety: on any complaint or inspection visit, the recording proves the procedures were followed — or reveals a lapse to you before somebody else reveals it.

Operational proof: “the order was late” and “an item was missing” are settled by the recording instead of an argument with an employee or a delivery app.

But take care: steam, heat and grease shorten a camera’s life. It is placed away from the direct steam path, chosen with a suitable protection rating, and its cleaning goes into the maintenance visits rather than waiting for the problem.

The order handover point — the most forgotten

As delivery has grown, most disputes now happen here: “the courier collected an incomplete order” or “never collected it at all”. The floor camera does not show that.

A dedicated camera on the handover shelf, angled to show the bag, the order number and the courier’s hand, settles the dispute in seconds and protects your rating on the apps.

Better still, synchronise the camera clock with the ordering system so you can go straight to the moment by order number.

The network — why does the ordering system slow down at peak?

Because point-of-sale, the delivery apps, the cameras and the guest Wi-Fi are all on one router. At peak everything competes for the same capacity.

The correct arrangement separates the paths: a PoE switch for the cameras, an independent network for point-of-sale, and an isolated guest network that sees neither.

Guest Wi-Fi is not a luxury in a café — but it must not be the same network your takings run on.

Retention — why are 30 days sometimes not enough?

A health complaint or a delivery dispute can arrive weeks later. If your retention is 15 days and the complaint comes on day 20, you have nothing to prove it with.

We recommend 30 days as a minimum, and 45 for restaurants that rely heavily on delivery. Eight cameras at 30 days need a disk of between 6 and 8 terabytes.

The practical summary

A camera for each till — aimed at the drawer and the hand, not the face
A dedicated camera on the handover shelf showing the bag and the order number
The kitchen camera away from the steam path, with cleaning written into the contract
Separate the point-of-sale network from the cameras and from guest Wi-Fi
Thirty days retention as a minimum, 45 if delivery is heavy
Synchronise the camera clock with the ordering system