Current video surveillance technologies and monitored intruder alarms give retailers new tools and capabilities for security as well as managerial and marketing purposes.
Current video surveillance technologies and monitored intruder alarms give retailers new tools and capabilities for security as well as managerial and marketing purposes. IKEA is one of the worldˇs top furniture retailers, employing 118,000 workers in 40 countries. The company also has distribution centers and 11 customer distribution centers in 16 countries. In 2006, over 522 million people visited IKEA stores.
In December 2006, planning permission was granted for the IKEA Belfast store.
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Located at the Holywood Exchange on the outskirts of Belfast, this is the first IKEA store located in Ireland. At 29,000 square meters, the IKEA Belfast store spans the equivalent area of five and a half football fields. The two-story development comes with 1,455 parking spaces and includes a multi-storey car park, a 500-seater restaurant, a bistro, and a Swedish shop. The store also stocks the full range of IKEA products, totaling 9,500 items.
A key specification was to source a comprehensive, state-of-the-art system that would be compatible with legacy IKEA systems. Another important requirement was to find a local company that could complete the project on time, would be responsive to project needs, and would be able to increase resources as and when required. Other key drivers were finding a security solution that would provide a high level of coverage. The IKEA site required a system that could quickly alert the security team to what was happening anywhere on the site at any time. Building Protection Systems (BPS) was one of five companies to place a tender and was awarded the contract because of its experience and track record and due to cost savings it could offer. As an experienced security installation company, BPS worked along side pcm management (project managers) and Wallace Whittle (services design consultants).
¨We were very impressed with BPS's knowledge and understanding of what the security installation project required. It demonstrated its strengths well and identified points that had not been considered in the development of the security system. We felt confident in the company's skills and ability to meet the tight deadlines,〃 said Tim Radford, M & E Project Manager of pcm management.
The Honeywell Galaxy G3 intruder alarm system was selected due to store coverage and size. The Galaxy G3 had already been installed in several IKEA stores throughout the U.K. The security provided also included intercom and panic alarm systems.
The final security system consisted of the Galaxy G3 panel, which has the capability to cover up to 520 zones. The system also included 32 smart remote input and output units (RIOs), 16 ordinary boxed RIOs, three keypads, one Ethernet module, 54 Dual Tec motion sensors with MaskAlert, 14 adjustable-range glass break detectors, a number of magnetic contacts, 32 sounders alerting locally at monitored doors, 54 panic buttons and seven long-range Dual Tec sensors with Anti-Mask and range reduction.
¨The Galaxy alarm system was an obvious choice because of its history of reliability and because of the demands and flexibility that a system of this size requires,〃 said Clive Kinnear, Security Sales Manager, BPS.
System programming was carried out using Galaxy G3 Series Remote Servicing Suite software. This allowed programming to be completed in a short time frame. One of the key benefits is functionality with capability to expand number of zones and to connect to a computer to provide real-time display of active zones. This feature, combined with the option of graphical displays, allows site security staff to rapidly assess system information and react quickly when an alarm occurs.