UGO owns over 80 Freshbars and Salateria shops. They can be found at a majority of the big malls in frequented places. At this very moment, the stylish and modernly open stalls are threatened by the possibility of theft.
Mission
UGO owns over 80 Freshbars and Salateria shops. They can be found at a majority of the big malls in frequented places. The beverages are prepared directly on-site, which requires the full attention of the servers. At this very moment, the stylish and modernly open stalls are threatened by the possibility of theft. The priority of this project was therefore to protect the property of the company and the staff. While there were cameras in the point of sale areas, they were not fully meeting operational requirements. The task was therefore clear. The customer had required a centralized solution allowing access for tens of users, even outside of the company’s network. Moreover, there is a possibility to add more cameras as the shop chain grows.
Solution
The complete solution is built upon
Axis cameras and the VMS system NetRex MONITOR. This means that the cloud solution and remote accesses can be controlled by the customer via a web interface or phone. Thus far, over 60 IP cameras have been connected, with access for workers of individual facilities and their superiors; however, this number is probably not infinite. The system allows to simply integrate additional cameras in case of further growth of customer.
Result
The customer has been very satisfied with the new camera system. While having originally considered utilizing intelligent analytical functions, they did not end up finding a suitable usage for them. The purpose of this installation is purely surveillance aimed at quenching shoplifting attempts and increasing employee safety. While cameras do not intervene with the selling operation in any way, the recording quality is high and at the disposal of the police in case of theft. Because of this, background documentation for further projects and growth are in preparation.
Safety (danger) at the stall
An open stall is attractive for thieves and the company felt a need to protect their property as well as their employees. While some stalls were already equipped with an older camera system or monitored by the mall’s security section, the recording quality was not satisfactory. The cameras would often not be aimed at the required space and the resolution was not sufficient. For this reason, the NetRex experts found a solution within their cloud. All one needs in order to access the cloud is any internet-connected computer or a phone and NetRex. The cameras feature SD cards for high-resolution recording, with each camera sending its video in compressed form to the cloud for the centralized management of all stores. It is then easy to fetch the required HD recording from the camera via the cloud or physically pick up the card itself in case of theft. In this way, the SD card also ensures constant recording, even in the case of an internet connection outage.
Inconspicuous, small, yet very effective
Data volume has become the greatest challenge. In total, 68 IP cameras have been installed, recording 24/7 and constantly streaming the footage to the cloud service. In order to even manage such traffic, the data transfer was limited to 280 kB/s at 360p per camera. AXIS M3044-V Network Cameras then store the data at 720p and 30 fps to their internal SD cards. This camera type was selected for its 82° field of view and the ability to cover one store with a single camera. The customer has also praised the small size and inconspicuous look of the camera. The cloud service further enables the SmartSearch function using the logs of metadata marking the time periods at which any movement has been detected on the camera. When SmartSearch is active, the camera sends information on movement within individual parts of the frame in addition to saving the footage to the related storage. This metadata is in turn used for quick ex-post searching for events in the footage. Thanks to this, it is possible to detect movement around the cash register.
User-selected sections are then easily exported by the administrator via services such as Dropbox, Google Drive or YouTube. As an example, in practice, it might work as follows. If a theft happens at the Freshbar, the police are called immediately. The police start an investigation and request help from the UGO Security Manager. Thanks to SmartSearch, they have all the movement around the cash register highlighted, meaning they don’t have to browse through the entire day of footage searching for one brief moment. Within a half an hour, the required part of the footage is found and the export can be initiated. The camera automatically takes the related part of the footage and exports it over the internet to the pre-defined storage in full quality. The manager then has the option to provide the police with a high-quality photo of the suspect, and by this quick step, can significantly increase the chances for finding the perpetrator.
Future plans
Thanks to the smart data transfer solution and easy integration of new cameras, there are plans for extensions to 80 cameras. Even this number does not necessarily have to be infinite; the number of cameras at the stalls is always up to the customer. The customer can now gain access using any internet-connected device, i.e. a computer, tablet or phone. Each manager has their own access methods and it is easy to limit the view to certain stores. The next step will be to build a complete surveillance center. While traditional computers have thus far been used to monitor the cameras, the new security center will enable the monitoring of many cameras at the same time and to extend the view of a selected camera to a monitor of any size.