"Dalek" CCTV cameras
 

Does anyone remember the CCTV cameras that used to be common in shops from I'm guessing the late 1970s to the early 1990s?

They consisted of an upturned rotating black dome with a number of chrome camera lenses projecting, along with a couple of red lights to show it was in use.

The overall effect was something that the BBC special effects team would make to install in a Dalek base or spaceship.

Does anyone know who made them, & if any have been salvaged by collectors in the last 20 or so years?

Re: "Dalek" CCTV cameras
 

I always thought they were mainly fake, especially with an indicator light.

Re: "Dalek" CCTV cameras
 

I’m sure I remember a thread on here, or possibly VRAT about these cameras, there were photos of ones internals, I think that one of the lenses had a real camera behind it too, unless I dreamt that bit!

Regards
Lloyd

Re: "Dalek" CCTV cameras
 

Definitely had a real camera behind them. In my youth back when I was even more obnoxious and disagreeable I mooned one and got the unwanted attention of the C&A security staff at Wood Green shopping city :D

Re: "Dalek" CCTV cameras
 

I remember them well: always understood that they were what we would these days call "security theatre" (or shoud that be security-pantomime?)

In the same vein: 1980s/1990s fake 'security-cameras' that come with an embedded PP3-battery/LM3909-chip/red-flashing-LED. Real security-cameras don't draw attention to themselves with flashing red LEDs and the real criminals know this.

Re: "Dalek" CCTV cameras
 

Hi all,

Bigclive takes one apart here:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6tv_A1bvCs

It is rather crude inside really.

Cheers
Andy

Re: "Dalek" CCTV cameras
 

The ones I remember in the early 1970's were not like the ones in the youtube clip they were a black sphere with camera lenses poking out at all angles they had the red light and rotated.

They were used in a discount store called Briley's in Peterborough. Frank Briley had a reputation of being a bit of a wide boy, he did lots of publicity stunts involving Walter Cornelius "The birdman of Peterborough". He also had a "fire" from time to time and while the store was being repaired sold his stuff from stalls along the river embankment which was near his shop on the town bridge.
As a kid I remember watching the cameras as they were very Sci-Fi and not seen anywhere else. My dad always said they were fake though as he didn't think Frank Briley would pay for real ones. the shop was a bit run down, you had to watch out for the potholes in the floor...
:thumbsup:
Rich.

Re: "Dalek" CCTV cameras
 

Hi,
I remember seeing them in Lewis's department store in Liverpool as a kid in the 60s. (As well as noticing the unusual twin gang 'Walsall' type mains sockets at the base of each stone column!)
The cameras had five lenses, including one that pointed straight down looking at the floor. They had two red flashing lights and were hemispherical, instead of the later hexagonal shape. OI presume they had something like a 1" vidicon camera within.
They moved round and scanned the area before reversing back again.
Of course, no one knew which was the real camera.
Cheers, Pete.

Re: "Dalek" CCTV cameras
 

Some of the larger stores in Derby -- certainly Debenhams, probably Boots and maybe Woolworths or Littlewoods had them.

The real camera was not even aimed out of one of the lenses (which were all dummies), but through a part-silvered mirror strip.

Re: "Dalek" CCTV cameras
 

I think the type mentioned is the 'Photo-Scan' See brief video clip here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqAKhmpzDU8

I have a vague recollection of a similar-looking device where the dome is static and presumably all but one of the lenses are dummies. The name 'Scan-Dome' comes to mind, however searching for that name only finds modern items.

Re: "Dalek" CCTV cameras
 

I remember the Boots in Stockport had them in the 1980s, & some of the bigger shops in Manchester too.

I can't remember the last time I saw one in operation, I think the WH Smiths in either Leicester or Nottingham had them in the mid 1990s.

Re: "Dalek" CCTV cameras
 

https://www.ft.com/content/883642aa-...1-00000e2511c8

I think the local Debenhams still has a Dalek-camera over the cosmetics counters.

Re: "Dalek" CCTV cameras
 

I'd forgotton about those!, the black rotating ones, rather than Big Clives version, used to be in the Woolco store in the Hampshire Centre (now Castlepoint, for locals) in Bournemouth in the 1970's

Re: "Dalek" CCTV cameras
 

That link only seems to be of any use if you sign up :thumbsup

Cheers

Mike T

Re: "Dalek" CCTV cameras
 

I can mainly remember them in Woolworths.
One branch had an in store monitor and they did rotate.
One lens was a fish eye so that they could see down as well. It was more obvious if the one shown on the in store monitor was rotated.

Re: "Dalek" CCTV cameras
 

Lewis's in Hanley also had the dalek ones. I'm sure at one time they had a couple of suspended monitors over one of the entrances showing the output. I always thought they were pretty real.

Edit: found this article from a trade journal.

Re: "Dalek" CCTV cameras
 

I remember seeing them in Woolies, C&A, and W.H. Smith, along with the tired old monitor that would be placed up high over the entrances. They were pretty much phased out by the late nineties. Found a pic:

Re: "Dalek" CCTV cameras
 

Lewis's and C&A in Leicester had the black hemispherical type when I first visited these shops around 1970. Lewis's still had them in 1981 / 82 when I had a Saturday job there.

John

Re: "Dalek" CCTV cameras
 

Pretty sure Selfridge's in Oxford had them when I was at college .

Re: "Dalek" CCTV cameras
 

I wouldn't be surprised if the ones used in Boots were the same inside as the type that bigclive takes apart.
Anyway, they do remind me of this:-
https://www.starwars.com/databank/interrogation-droid

Going back to my earlier comment about being crude inside. Well yes clearly the rotating mechanism is well made, I mean look at the lovely laced cable-form in bigclive's video. However, as I child I always imagined that an operator could turn it at will to track an individual. It never occurred to me that it simply rotated a small amount at regular intervals.
Of course a camera that rotates every so often is not that useful in practice. Fixed cameras directed at points of interest such as the doors, the tills and aisles by high ticket items are of much more use, but perhaps less of a deterrent.

Cheers
Andy