Drinks retailer Thresher Group – whose 2,000 outlets include Threshers, Wine Rack, Victoria Wine and Bottoms Up – is trialling an IP security system at a Threshers branch in Brighton.
It meets the requirement of the British Standards Institute DD243:2002 code of practice, for the installation and confirmation of intruder alarm systems, according to the manufacturers. In essence, this means that all new, or reinstated communication systems that require a police URN in England, Wales and Northern Ireland need to conform to the standard, with the aim of the policy being to reduce the number of false alarms from security systems that the police attend.
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What they say
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Chris Berry, of technology designer and manufacturer Initsys, says: ‘Currently the alarm industry uses ‘double knock type’ triggers generated from sensors for the verification of alarms, however this is not totally effective. The best answer has always been CCTV transmission but until now, this has not been cost-effective. Our solution uses Panasonic’s pan and tilt enabled KX-HCM10 and KC-HCM230 IP cameras, with built-in and addressable servers. For the intruder alarm, Initsys designed a digital input module for our Install And Forget (IAF) digital recoding device. The IAF takes in the alarm sensor information along with the Panasonic cameras’ images and then ties them together." In the event of an out of hours break-in, camera images are compiled sequentially with live alarm sensor information and sent remotely, to the Initsys data centre. From there, they are sent to an Alarm Control Room via the Internet, with the whole process from alarm to image arrival taking less than 30 seconds. As the in-store sensors trip, we instruct the cameras to send still images to the database. At the Alarm Control Room, the alarm activity is inserted between the camera images to show the actual scene as it happens. If an alarm centre operator wishes to view the cameras in real-time, he can simply click on the relevant image and the system connects at about 15FPS. In practice, the system is managed day-to-day by itself, images are recorded digitally and in the event of alarm activation, the image transmission is automatic. There are no tapes to change and the database self manages using a First In First Out (FIFO) buffer. The system constantly reports to the alarm centre using an encrypted messaging system. This gives the status of the cameras, system, network and the integrity of the alarm loop.
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Cost, time
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Costing less than a separately installed traditional CCTV system and intruder alarm, the integrated system’s Panasonic KX Series IP cameras make this possible, as they have all the transmission and network technology required, built-in. This means that there is no need for a separate piece of transmission equipment ‘ saving on installation time and money. Each component acts completely autonomously and if a camera fails, the rest of the system stays up. If the link to the remote control room fails, images are still recorded locally and if the on-site IAF fails, cameras can still connect remotely. Since installation in January, the system has generated no false alarms. Shoplifting has reduced dramatically. Sussex Police Det Constable Barrie Southerden says: ‘After a raid at the Thresher premises in May, we were able to use downloaded camera footage taken from the store as prosecution evidence. The quality of the video supplied was instrumental in the conviction of two brothers, who had previously been responsible for 13 other raids along the south coast area. The pair received sentences of 10 and 12 years each.’
