Southeast Asia’s diverse mall scene offers unique shopping experiences for tourists as well as locals, with high-end boutiques to one-of-a-kind night markets.
Southeast Asia’s diverse mall scene offers unique shopping experiences for tourists as well as locals, with high-end boutiques to one-of-a-kind night markets. Megabangna Shopping Centre (the “Centre”), located in Bangkok, is one of Thailand’s largest retail complexes. With 4 million square feet of space, over 840 retail shops, and parking for 10,000 vehicles, the Centre is the first shopping mall of its kind in the region—creating a unique security need.
With the motto “Everything Under One Roof,” the Centre quickly earned a reputation as the perfect place to spend the weekend with friends and family, or to pick up everyday household needs. As a result, excessive crowds pack the walkways and the mall’s 10,000 parking spots are regularly filled.
Security needs for a cultural hub
Given the complexity of the Centre facility, and the high foot and vehicle traffic acquired onsite, the security solutions in place needed to be reassessed. Commonly reported incidents at the mall included cars being vandalized or broken into while parked in on-site structures, and busy shoppers losing personal items throughout the mall grounds during their visit.
The safety and security of customers—along with ensuring a great customer experience for every visit—are top priorities for the Centre. Implementing a comprehensive security system was also an important part of the Centre’s loss prevention strategy to save the company time and money.
Mega mall, big solutions
To enhance safety, the Centre, in partnership with security systems integrator Entech, deployed a complete
Avigilon surveillance solution, including 500 cameras, which were installed throughout the mall and the parking lot to provide full coverage of open areas. Chosen camera models included
Avigilon HD Multisensor, H4 Bullet and H4 Dome cameras.
H4 Dome and H4 Bullet cameras provide exceptional image quality in a range of different settings, while the HD Multisensor camera has up to four cameras that cover up to 360 degrees of viewing range. These combined camera solutions help minimize blind spots, which allows the Centre’s security team to monitor important activity throughout the premises, both indoors and outside.
The cameras are only half the solution for the Centre. The hub of the security solution is the Avigilon Control Centre (ACC) video management software. With advanced and fast video search features, the software enables security operators to quickly find and review surveillance footage, helping the Centre security team resolve thefts and similar claims at a higher rate than with the legacy solution.
Benefitting security professionals and shoppers
The installation of Avigilon solutions took half the estimated length of time, making the transition easy for the Centre’s team from the start.
Once installation was complete, ACC software further simplified things for the security team by allowing them to identify problematic situations with powerful and efficient software.
“Security operators are expected to turn around footage necessary to address a problem within 10 minutes,” says Miss Paphitchaya Suwandee, Megabangna Shopping Centre’s President.
Since deploying ACC software, the Centre has shortened a process that at times could take hours or days — Avigilon’s easy-to-use software helps them search footage in under 10 minutes, while saving effort and money during an investigation.
Given this measurable success, the Centre recently expanded the use of Avigilon solutions into an additional parking structure. Today, the Avigilon solutions implemented help make the mall security team’s jobs easier and keep patrons safe.