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Meeting the needs of today’s retail surveillance requirements

Today’s retail security and management requirements call for a surveillance system that caters for three key areas, protection against external risks, protection against internal risks and remote management.

TeleEye’s surveillance systems provide the ultimate solution for modern retail security and management requirements. By providing a BS:8418 compliant video alarm verification system, point-of-sale integration and exceptional remote monitoring capabilities. TeleEye IP surveillance products coupled with popular data services such as wired and wireless broadband offerings including ADSL, Wi-Max, leased lines and mobile data networks, are deployed for the protection and monitoring of retail stores to ensure convenient, effective and centralised security and management from remote and on-site locations.

Retail storeowners are faced with increasing threats from burglaries, forced entries, armed robberies, internal theft, collusion and shoplifting. TeleEye products provide a means for store owners to control these risks by subscribing to remote video alarm verification services.

TeleEye BS8418 compliant video recording servers are deployed to provide a sophisticated event management system, used to monitor external detectors, existing alarm equipment, internal detectors and sensors, panic devices, RF tagging systems and point-of-sale systems. Upon a pre-defined event or activation, the TeleEye server initiates a connection via TCP/IP to a remote video response centre (RVRC), alerting an operator to the situation by means of live video captured by the associated surveillance cameras.

Upon receiving an incoming alarm, the RVRC operator can then assess the live video and verify the threat, taking the appropriate action with the use of remote audio challenge features to broadcast announcements to the intruders via PA horns and speakers located at the store. Secondary measures such as non-lethal pepper spray systems deployed at safes and high value storage areas, and smoke systems deployed in larger indoor storage areas can also be remotely activated to deter and hamper the intruder’s actions.

Additional benefits that can be derived are the ability of remote operators to verify internal alarms that are often considered false because a responding security officer has no capability to view inside the stores, in particular locked offices, safes and storage areas. Another advantage is that the safety of the security officers can be increased by providing them live updates on the type of threat they face when responding to calls.

In the case of armed robberies, particularly where customers are present, retail owners may prefer to take a passive approach with little or no remote intervention. RVRC operators can provide security and law enforcement officers with up-to-date live information regarding the situation, personal and vehicle descriptions, directions of travel, etc, so that the perpetrators can be apprehended and identified away from the scene. In the event that the recorded footage is stolen or compromised at the site, a remote recording will be available which is stored at the RVRC when an event occurs.

By placing sensors, detectors and contacts in critical areas where cash or high value goods are stored, the owner can choose to have the RVRC instantly alerted to activity in these areas. The event database also provides remote operators or management the ability to easily identify these events in the recording log and interrogate these recordings at any stage.

Apart from security applications, another area of great benefit to retail companies is the ability to view live and recorded video remotely to better utilise management resources. Management has the ability to view their sites from their own remote video management centre, PCs, laptops and mobile phones. Remote users have the ability to view and control remote PTZ cameras, broadcast audio announcements and control devices such as lights connected to remote switches.

With point-of-sale integration, should a customer query arise, management can now search by invoice number and view the associated footage relating to a specific transaction. The DVD quality recordings can easily be extracted to CD or DVD and played back on PCs for staff training purposes.

The remote management functionality of TeleEye can significantly help organisations reduce management overheads and improve customer satisfaction.

A key requirement when choosing retail surveillance systems is the ability to provide effective remote video performance for management requirements over affordable data mediums, without hampering the critical operation of the RVRC and local in-store operators.

TeleEye SMAC-M, multi stream video codec, ensures unmatched remote performance whilst providing DVD quality onsite recordings. By providing separate recording and transmission streams, remote operators view high quality images with fast frame rates, whilst retaining DVD quality onsite recordings. SMAC-M provides the ability for controlled network IP data transmission, by providing four separate controllable data streams for LAN users, broadband, narrowband and mobile phone viewing. Each data stream can be administrator controlled to provide the allowed throughput for network users.

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