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| The Next Evolution in Retail Security: IP Video Convergence |
| By: Scott Thomas, Director of Market Development for Retail North America, Genetec, sthomas@genetec.com | Posted: June 17, 2008 |
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| As we sat in the lobby, the regional loss prevention manager had just achieved his goal of connecting to the wireless network of the hotel. “That was the easy part,” he said, as he clicked away at his laptop. I watched as he opened up the programs, messages and applications he used to see the 80 stores he was assigned to protect.
Up first was the report from the alarm central station, with the daily open/close report. Why was the Wichita location arming their system 15 minutes late? The notes just said “manager cleaning crew.” What did that mean?
He scrolled through his BlackBerry until he found the supervisor’s cell phone number and put in a call to verify. A few minutes later he hung up, satisfied with the answer he’d been given.
After that, the next step was verifying that all entrances into the cash offices that day had been made with the proper pin codes. I couldn’t help but wonder how that data sheet really verified that the person who was assigned that code was in fact the one to actually push the numbered buttons.
When he’d finished with the call report, the next job was to peruse the data mining flags, alerts and indicators. I was amazed that 80 stores would generate over 200 suspicious transactions in a single day. “We cast a wide net,” he said, as he began refining the search criteria. When he had finished, 15 transactions remained. The majority was returns without receipts, but a large voided transaction and the purchase of a $200 gift card also caught his eye. “Maybe you should go on to dinner,” he said. “This is going to take a while.”
Assuring him that my stomach could hold out, I watched as he pulled up the graphic user interface for his digital video recorder. He found the first store, and after several minutes, was able to locate the register and time frame for the voided transaction. Almost 10 minutes later, 60 seconds of video was ready to view.
As we watched a 4” wide screen of the customer service counter, I strained to see the detail of the customer returning a $110 comforter. Was this a fraudulent return? Had she hit this store before? Maybe this was part of an organized retail theft gang? “I just wanted to make sure there was actually a customer there,” he shrugged, as he logged off and proceeded to search for the next event.
Every day, or night, a similar scene is repeated thousands of times as retail loss prevention professionals utilize a vast array of technology attempting to do their jobs. In addition to alarm reports, access control logs, POS exceptions and data mining, there are tools that will tell them when their receiving doors opened, how many times their EAS systems alarmed or who opened their safes. But what can all this data tell them if they can’t really see what has happened?
Since its retail debut in the 1970’s, closed circuit television has been the most utilized technology in the fight against all forms of retail theft. With the advent of the VCR technology, the ability to forensically investigate became a reality. Watching the crime happen live no longer became a necessity. In the 90’s, the VCR gave way to the DVR which removed the need for employees to change VHS cassettes on a daily basis. The DVR also allowed loss prevention to access video from remote locations. It wasn’t necessary to drive (or fly) to a store, or wait for a video tape to arrive by mail to begin an investigation. As the technology developed, new challenges arose. The DVR, by design, had a finite amount of cameras and storage capacity.
Asset protection professionals began thinking of camera deployments in numerical sequences of 16, 9 and 4. Budget constraints scaled back the number of cameras that could adequately cover a store to the number of inputs on the DVR. Worse still were the constraints set by storage capacity limitations. The total days of video that could be saved dictated the recording quality (image size, resolution and frames per second). For retail, 30 days of storage was the absolute minimum needed. This resulted in low quality images, often recorded at one frame per second with proprietary formatting. Various work-arounds were also implemented, including recording on motion, in order to maximize available hard drive space. Proprietary DVR formats also played havoc on store networks when they were connected in an attempt to gain outside access. In some cases, the entire store network would crash, taking the store’s POS and credit card terminals down with it. For this reason, many retail IT departments would not allow DVRs to reside on the store’s network. Some loss prevention departments began to experiment with installing consumer grade DSL lines to access stored video. Though it was a monthly expense, an ROI vs. travel budget could be achieved. But accessing the store, searching for the video, waiting on the download, and the quality of the imagery still remain a cumbersome and time consuming process.
Video technology has now begun its next evolution. IP video technology offers superior imagery, scalability, integrations and remote accessibility. From a video quality standpoint, networked cameras offer resolution up 16 times traditional analog. The ability to view these images without pixilation is an absolute necessity in gathering evidence and making identifications. IP cameras also capture motion far better than their analog counterparts. With progressive scanning, actionable data is recorded, rather than blurred images.
Most importantly, IP video also offers unlimited scalability. By using off-the-shelf components for storage, today’s retailers can build the exact system that fits their requirements. This means installing the right number of cameras for a given store, as opposed to cutting cameras due to the necessity of adding another DVR. Storage capacity can also be scaled so limitless archives can be saved at sizes, frame rates and resolutions that meet the needs of the retailers.
Remote accessibility, even over the existing store network, also becomes possible due to the ability to manage the video streams as low as 8 Kbps. And true integration also becomes a reality. Imagine opening a single application with access to any office, store or receiving area within the enterprise. Within that same console a listing of all intrusion, fire, access control or EAS alarms as set forth in your company business rules. All POS exceptions or events are also listed, with ready viewing only a single mouse click away.
What provides the ability to converge all these technologies together? The video management system (VMS). The VMS is the most important component of the IP video system. It integrates the IP cameras, the video storage, the fire and intrusion alarms, POS exception reporting and manages the remote accessibility. It controls the flow of all video information and contributes to the ease of protected access. Simply put, the VMS is the operating system of all video and data.
To manage this data effectively, the VMS must have an open architecture, meaning security officials are free to work with any preferred hardware or software. The VMS must integrate legacy analog components when budget capital is unavailable for immediate large scale IP replacement. The VMS must support superior video analytics, which hold potential to improve operational flow, merchandising and assist loss prevention investigations.
Finally, the open architecture VMS is future proof, since it is software that drives every device and application. No matter how hardware and software evolve, the video management system will converge and support best-of-breed technologies as the foundation for building the next generation of video surveillance. In other words, this new technology is a lasting investment that loss prevention officials need to look into and seriously consider for the most effective protection of their assets, employees and customers.
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