星空传媒

Founded back in 1843, the Unwins Wine Group operates more than 380 stores in southern England, and employs over 2,000 members of staff. The company consists of four interdependent concerns including Unwins Ltd (the retail arm operating under the brand name Unwins).

Necessarily, most of the Group鈥檚 outlets remain open until late at night for customer convenience. The high volume stores are typically designed with a smaller footprint for easy in-and-out access, and will usually be staffed by a single person for extended periods throughout the day. While this arrangement makes it a simple task for customers to select a bottle of wine or some beer very quickly indeed, it also means that security issues must be top of the retailer鈥檚 agenda.

Most of Unwins鈥� locations are equipped with both CCTV and alarm systems. Those branches rated to be at the highest risk are also monitored 24/7 by security provider Bell Managed Information Technologies (Bell MIT), a division of Bell Security.

Assessing the corporate risk

When security professional Mike Anderson joined Unwins as head of corporate risk management early last year, he and his security team inherited a wide range of equipment of varying age and type. It was time for an upgrade, as Anderson duly explains.

鈥淚f you鈥檙e going to upgrade your CCTV system, it鈥檚 obvious that you鈥檒l want to replace existing equipment with the latest technology,鈥� he states. Together with the company鈥檚 IT, marketing and retail directors, Anderson decided to hold discussions with several digital video system vendors about Unwins鈥� requirements. Those discussions ultimately led to a DVR pilot project involving Bell MIT.

鈥淲e already had some specifications put together, but we very much looked upon the pilot as a joint venture,鈥� continues Anderson. 鈥淏ell came up with some good suggestions we hadn鈥檛 thought of and vice versa. In the end, the DVR equipment we started out with proved to be inadequate. Bell then urged us to trial a March Networks DVR, and we鈥檝e been using the systems ever since.鈥�

The problem with the earlier pilot was that it proved very difficult to obtain good quality visual images and audio simultaneously (given the limited 256 Kbps of bandwidth available). March Networks and systems integrator Bell MIT therefore collaborated extensively on fine-tuning the DVRs themselves to ensure the best possible results that would match Unwins鈥� operational and mechanical needs.

Live footage is displayed at three-to-four frames per second and transmitted at 200 Kbps, depending on the level of activity in each store. Images are stored on the individual DVRs for 45 days.

Currently installed in a select number of outlets, Anderson suggests the networked DVRs have reduced incidents of theft quite dramatically. 鈥淭he biggest influence has been where we have used the recorded digital video in a successful prosecution,鈥� he suggests. 鈥淭he word passes around very quickly and, even though these people are not aware of the full functionality of the DVRs, they know full well there鈥檚 a surveillance system in store that is likely to lead to their arrest. Attempted theft then dies down, and similar incidents become a rarity. In turn, shrinkage linked to that type of criminal activity has also declined quite considerably in these stores.鈥�

Anderson claims that the newly-installed DVRs are much more effective than the older analogue equipment in terms of providing high quality video that can be used by police to help identify perpetrators. They are also eliminating any issues related to staff either forgetting to change tapes or properly labelling and storing them.

Additionally, branches throughout the network variously operate set-ups that manage people-counting, fire alarm, locking and building management systems and so on. That being the case, the hardware and software used needs to integrate effectively with all of these systems without any conflict and/or malfunction. There are plans afoot to integrate the DVR equipment with Unwins鈥� own Electronic Point of Sale (EPoS) system in the not-too-distant future.

Benefits of networking

The fact that the networked systems enable authorised staff to view recorded images or video clips over a broadband connection has also proven to be a tremendous benefit. The remote access saves staff time shuttling videotapes back and forth between locations or driving to stores to investigate events, enabling them to deal with issues such as customer complaints or liability claims both quickly and efficiently.

It also provides Bell MIT central monitoring staff with a real-time view of instore events if an alarm is triggered at an Unwins location. 鈥淭he Bell operator can view events from several cameras in the store to see what has triggered the alarm,鈥� explains Mike Anderson.

鈥淚f an incident is underway, the operator concerned can then speak to people in the store using the DVRs鈥� two-way audio feature, and let them know the police have been summoned. Of course, the recorded video and audio would then be available to us after the fact, which is what we wanted.鈥�

Anderson continues: 鈥淪taff know that all they have to do is press a button and someone from the monitoring station will connect-in to see what鈥檚 happening. I think it makes them feel much better psychologically.鈥�

Inevitably, as surveillance and remote management applications have become ever more reliant on computer networks, IT and networks managers are now just as involved in the selection of DVR solutions as their counterparts in security management and loss prevention. Consequently, DVR packages have had to become much more multi-functional, user-friendly, robust and reliable in order to meet the needs of both disciplines.

The Unwins project demonstrated quite early on that starting from a broadly IT standpoint instead of from a purely security-focused perspective allowed for much better usage of the communications infrastructure and, thus, superior systems performance.

Electronic Point of Sale

As part of the next phase of its digital video roll-out, Unwins is now piloting the integration of its new EPoS system with March Networks鈥� own PoS transaction monitoring and investigation software. That software enables loss prevention, audit and other staff to access recorded video footage and associated PoS transaction data based on selected criteria including voided transactions, all transactions over a certain value, merchandise discounts, price changes and no-sale transactions, etc.

鈥淭he key benefit of the DVR systems we鈥檝e used on this project,鈥� adds Anderson, 鈥渋s that you can see what鈥檚 happening at any time, anywhere within your operation. From a security perspective, not only can you identify robbery and theft, etc as it happens, but you also have a much better chance of capturing the culprit and prosecuting them successfully.

鈥淚f you then combine that video evidence with actual transaction and sales information, you鈥檝e created a powerful tool for reducing shrinkage and enhancing the effectiveness of your procedures, store and display presentations and similar operations.鈥�

End user partnering with a seasoned integrator such as Bell MIT is absolutely crucial. At the time of the initial field trials, Bell MIT director Paul Bell was able to work very closely with March Networks in fine-tuning the product under evaluation such that it more accurately met Unwins鈥� requirements.

Put simply, Bell MIT identified a market need in the retail sector where the interface with the public can be difficult.