Typical project · Quebec and Ontario
Replacing the analogue cameras of a group of stores with an IP system
These are typical projects, described from the kind of work we do. They do not describe a named client or a specific building.
The pictures are too blurred to recognise a face, each store has its own recorder with its own password, and loss prevention has to drive to a store to look at an incident. This is how the upgrade is planned across several stores that stay open.
The situation: old cameras, one recorder per store and no view from head office
The client is a retail company with several stores. Each one received its cameras when it opened, from whichever installer was available at the time. The systems are analogue, the pictures lack detail, and at night the parking lot is a grey rectangle.
When something happens, a theft at a till, a fall in an aisle or a disputed return, the store manager looks for the footage on a recorder in the back office, if someone remembers the password and if the recording has not already been overwritten. The person in charge of loss prevention at head office sees nothing without asking for a copy.
What the first visit to two of the stores finds
- Coaxial cable in good condition, but not everywhereMuch of the existing cable is sound and reaches the right places. Some runs were spliced, and others stop where a wall was moved.
- Cameras that look from too far awaySeveral cameras give a wide view of the sales floor. None shows the hands at a till or a face at the door.
- Recorders that nobody looks afterOne recorder has a failed drive and has kept nothing for weeks. Another can be reached from the internet with the password it was delivered with.
- A store network shared with the tillsEach store has one small network for the payment terminals, the office computer and the customers' Wi-Fi. Cameras cannot simply be added to it.
What is designed, and why
One standard design for every store, adjusted to each floor plan, so that head office finds the same views under the same names everywhere.
- A list of views before a list of camerasFor each store the views are named by what they must show: a face at each entrance, the hands and the screen at each till, the receiving door, the stockroom, the parking lot. The camera and the lens follow from the view.
- New cable where it counts, existing cable where it is soundEntrances and tills get network cable and cameras with the detail they need. Where a coaxial run is sound and hard to replace, it is reused with adapters that carry an IP camera, and the drawing says so.
- Recording kept in the store, viewing from head officeEach store records on its own recorder, sized for the number of days the company asks for. Head office reviews any store from one application, with an account per person and a log of who looked at what.
- Cameras on their own networkThe cameras and the recorder sit on a network separate from the payment terminals and from the customers' Wi-Fi, and remote viewing goes through a secured connection, never through an open port.
- Analytics only where they answer a questionCounting at the entrance, or an alert on the receiving door after closing, is added where the company has a use for it.
How the work is sequenced, one store at a time
No store closes and no store spends a night without recording. The first store serves as the model for the others.
- A pilot store
One store is done first, from the cable to the accounts. The company reviews the views on a screen and corrects the standard before it is repeated.
- Cable and network at the hours the manager chooses
Work above the tills and the entrances is scheduled with the store manager for the hours when it disturbs customers least.
- New beside old
The new cameras and the new recorder are installed and recording before the old system is switched off, so that no night goes without footage.
- Views checked by day and by night
Each view is adjusted with the store lit, then with the store closed, and the parking lot is checked after dark.
- Head office connected last
Once a store is complete it is added to the central application, and the old recorder is removed when its footage has reached the end of the retention period or has been exported.
What is handed over
- The camera plan of each store, with the views named the same way everywhere
- An account per person for the store managers and for head office, with their rights
- The recording settings: days kept, quality, and what is recorded on motion
- A procedure for finding, exporting and handing over the footage of an incident
- The network diagram of a store and the list of equipment, with its labels
- The list of reused cable runs, store by store
Services involved
Industry
Other typical projects
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- A network put back in order after a security incident
- An old alarm system replaced in a store with offices and a stockroom
A project like this starts with the floor plans of two or three stores
Tell us how many stores you run, what is installed today and what you can no longer see. We visit a sample of stores, propose a standard list of views, then quote a pilot store and the roll-out. We reply in English or French.