A nationwide retailer has moved to in-house monitoring of intruder alarms in more than 1250 branches – and their use of technology has not stop there. Ian Paton of Travis Perkins writes.
Evolving technological advancements that are changing the face of how we look at security strategy at Travis Perkins and what I certainly consider will be the future within retail. We can change the remaining 460 sites in the future. We achieved this by using the company’s network, and an Internet Protocol, or IP, system, and this is the very hub of what we are now taking on. Advances in technology will allow us to replace the present intruder alarm system through the emerging technology of video analytics. The business intelligence created by video analytics can also be used to serve the operations side of the business and I see loss prevention and security sharing analytics with other business stake-holders.<br><br>Intruder alarms<br><br>When I was fortunate to come on board at Travis Perkins Group it was after a project management role of six months where I had been tasked with switching the intruder alarm monitoring from over 1250 sites to our purpose-built monitoring centre in Northampton. The monitoring centre was already monitoring CCTV in over 570 of the Travis Perkins brand outdoor areas using mainly PIR (passive infra-red) technology. The IT platform was in place and what had to be done was to put in the network points beside the alarm panels to allow to use an IP solution (WebWay) that had to be integrated in the alarm panels, this allowed us to monitor the intruder alarms direct to the monitoring station in Northampton. The back-up of a GPS signal was also included in the new technology to give us two separate paths for the intruder alarm signal. Now, IP intruder alarms have been about for a while but to actually transfer these to in-house monitoring, from scratch, was a logistical achievement and tremendous benefit to the business as a whole, as I will touch on later.<br><br>I think it is always the case with change that some people will either fight against it or not understand it. What I would say is that the IP intruder system is not difficult to understand or in fact integrate into any monitoring station.<br><br>Advantages<br>We instantly saved on the Redcare line costs of around £180 per site per year or £225k per year. There was also the monitoring charges which became far less than any external monitoring option and all we required was a small cost per annum to maintain a sim card for the GPS signal. This also gave us access to our alarm panels. I don’t need to go through all the issues concerning integration of alarm panels to allow remote access but suffice to say that now the issues are ironed out, and these were issues that the previous monitoring partners also had to deal with. We have access remotely to the majority of our alarm panels, and will eventually have access to them all. What does this mean in reality? This means that instead of managers or key-holders finding a fault in their alarm and often waiting hours for an engineer to visit and a possible reset that takes five minutes to perform, we can often give a remote re-set, saving the key-holder a long and wasted wait. It also cuts down on chargeable engineer visits to such alarm calls.<br><br>Access<br>We have full access to the panels at the monitoring station and our partners who maintain these on site for us still call the monitoring station, as they would any monitoring station, to have the panel put on test while they service it. We know who has been in a panel, what codes are in place, the state of each zone whither it is closed or open, 24-hour or not, and can where necessary alter these remotely. From a business perspective, apart from the obvious fantastic cost savings, is that for such a large group we have an exact handle on every piece of alarm equipment in the estate. The stores now have only one point of contact and that is the central monitoring station (CMS) and they handle all calls from stores regarding alarms and CCTV where required arrange for an engineer visit. The same CMS operatives will handle all alarm activations and call the key-holders out where necessary. I honestly can’t find any downside to what we are doing. I will circumvent an obvious question regarding police response and ACPO regulations and URN numbers. I feel that over the last few years ACPO have made it obvious that they are unable to be policing false alarms with Intruder alarms. You only have to read the proposals to cut policing to realise that the police can no longer give the time required to false alarms. What we are doing by in-house monitoring is not just saving on URN numbers costs and having to spend on alarm upgrades to regain police response, but actively working in support of the police forces by being able to cut out many of the false alarms because of our ability to effectively see into the alarm panels, and where we already have CCTV installed that is linked to the monitoring station, are able to give direct information to the police of intruders on site.<br><br>No resistance<br>We have found no resistance to this from the police who are more than willing to attend such calls when we confirm intruders, much in the same way if you phone 999 to say your own home was being burgled. We also have a key-holder response in place with a major partner which allows us to have a uniform guard attend most alarms whither we have remote CCTV access or not. This leaves the key holder in his or her bed unless absolutely necessary. That very nicely brings me onto the technological solution we are in the process of employing. Think back to 2000 when I personally entered the retail security sector. What did we rely upon to protect our retail establishments? Cameras, fences, PIRs. All the accepted and conventional means of securing property and products. However I would ask the question: how have these advanced in the last 11 years? Cameras: have they progressed much? Not really. They look slightly better and smaller and cost about the same. Fences: much the same they still have not got fencing that can’t be either, cut, climbed over or otherwise overcome. PIR alarms: still the same with a few tweaks here and there. Certainly judging by what engineers keep reporting these are still susceptible to spiders and other insects … more on this later. None of these have really advanced much in the last ten years as far as I can see.<br><br>Video analytics<br>The big advancement is technology itself and what that technology can bring to all these systems. That technology as far as I am concerned is called video analytics. And this is what actually makes the video produced by any camera intelligent. I am confident that in the near future all our intruder detection will come through analytic CCTV. Now very quickly let me explain an important difference between what is and what is not video analytics. There are two basic systems out there video motion and video analytics that get confused. Video motion detection is simply put, an alarm that is brought about by changing pixels in the picture. They do not decipher between what is causing the pixel change and this can be anything from a car, a person, an animal or a more static obstacle like a waving branch of a tree caught in the wind. Where the video analytic detection greatly differs is that, while this is also alarmed by pixel change it is more about how these pixels change and the movement of these pixels. In short video analytics makes a dumb camera smart. It makes for intelligent video images simply brought about by analysis of the video image by soft ware.<br><br>How we gain<br>The other advantage is that, depending on whether you choose a server based system or camera based system you do not need to renew an entire system to use analytics as most present cameras can be utilised, after all it is what the camera sees that is being analysed. The standard of the camera obviously can affect the analysis of the picture, but, depending on the type of analytics you use, you can use existing camera infrastructures. I don’t want to bore you explaining the intricacies and workings of video analytics software, and to be honest I don’t think we, as end users, need to understand everything about how analytics work. What we need to know is that it does work and what we can gain from it. I assure you, from my experience, that is the case. But for the more technically inquisitive it is all about very clever algorithms. Basically mathematical equations that tell you what has come into view. Depending on the analytics chosen it is possible to classify between a vehicle, person, animal etc. It also allows you to set parameters to alarm only for example vehicles or people. <br><br>It is the video analytics’ ability to tell you what has caused the pixel change that is the amazing technological difference. What excites me is this technologies ability to differentiate an animal from a vehicle, from a human, and then allow you to include or exclude any number of these from alarming is what excites me about this technology. As you may have gathered I am an admirer of video analytics and that is because I know it works and have been fortunate to work directly with the research and development aspect of analytics with some of the major players so I have bought into where video analytics can go. For us at Travis Perkins Group, the monitoring station has noticed that false alarms are drastically reduced, saving operator time at the monitoring station and wasted key holder or guard response call outs, and of course it gives us a totally cost effective way of managing our security strategy. Using analytics it is possible to cut costs on, amongst other things;<br><br>- Fence upgrades<br>- Intruder alarm upgrades to ACPO standards to regain police response<br>- Engineer call outs<br><br>It also gives endless possibilities of use: customer not present refunds; loitering customers who could be thieves or customers about to be lost due to non interaction by staff who don’t know where they are; virtual fence lines or trip wires; direction control where customers or vehicles head in directions they are not authorised to be in; remote monitoring of night deliveries or lone workers; and protection of larger or out of the way buildings, distribution centres and stores, releasing spend on guarding in the process. We at Travis Perkins have been working with our partners right through the research and development stage and trialling various forms of analytics to find the right one for our use. I previously mentioned that analytics excited me but what can be more exciting than being in on the early stages of research and development of such an emerging technology and even being able to help to mould the ideal solution? Now I mentioned false alarms in outside areas but imagine the PIR in a conventional intruder alarm system. How often do you get a false alarm and the engineer records it as ‘spider inside the PIR’, or on the PIR? Well, with video analytics you can sense out, so to speak such things and I can’t think of any PIR that would not have been set off by these little pets? We also have the scenario where a bank of CCTV may be monitored. Like most things human fallibility comes into it by either loss of concentration, absence from the monitor, dealing with another incident or simply just missing something. Video analytics cuts down on that measurably. You can lay down a virtual trip wire in a location and is ideal for covering perimeters like fences that can be breached, and certainly far more cost effective than constant strengthening of these fences. The virtual trips can also sense the direction of travel and people or vehicles entering and unauthorised area, and, as we will see later on gives us secondary uses. <br> It could also be utilised for fence cover, store entry and exit, prohibited entry area and is one or both way directional. I am confident that in the not too distant future our only form of intruder detection will be through video analytics. I see great synergies between what security has to gain and how retail in general can benefit. At Travis Perkins Group I have been very fortunate in being encouraged to work not only with analytic suppliers but to actually become involved in the research and development side of the parent companies concerned.<br><br>Why wait?<br>I have never worked with a company and department that has been so forward thinking and eager to embrace and use emerging technology, as Travis Perkins Group is. We are not afraid to trial emerging technology, rather than wait to see the finished product, why should we? Cost effectiveness and value for money are still key words but I believe that working with technology as it evolves and emerges gives you that, and I am not just talking about video analytics here, that refers to all areas of security development. Some of that research we are involved in I can’t discuss, but the future has to be analytics and can you imagine in a few short years how this can be adapted for the likes of;<br><br>- Fire detection<br>- Water leaks in sprinkler systems etc<br>- Analytic profiling of behaviour to identify potential shoplifters?<br><br>So many uses if we think outside the box and make these uses both for security and the operations or marketing or trading side of any business and in turn it will simplify life for us all. Monitoring for fire, smoke or water leakage is surely just a matter of time as analytic further evolves? There is already a system out there that can, within fairly wide parameters tell you the age, sex and ethnic origin of the customer and I know the government is spending vast amounts of resources coming up with a technology far more advanced, but still video analytics, to be able to detect would be suicide bombers and terrorists, simply by analysing the movements of footage they already have of these people and adapting soft ware accordingly. Taking that to a natural conclusion then will we not have video analytical profiling of potential shoplifters in the not too distant future? I certainly think we will. The hub of all we are doing, and will advance further to do, was the installation of a direct IP link between our monitoring station and each branch or site, which gave us that vital network link. I think the sky is the limit for us and the rest of retail to use the technology as it advances, as it will.
