Italian consumers’ co-operatives, Co-op Italia Società Co-operativa, operate the largest supermarket chain in Italy. Looking to update their in-store CCTV, two pilot stores from the chain have had their coax cable based analogue CCTV systems upgraded to IP, using Network Video Technologies (NVT) Ethernet over Coax (EoC) products.
For many years, Co-op Italia has employed CCTV across its stores, as fitted in its buildings and car parks. However, the analogue systems were lagging behind on image quality, so an upgrade to IP cameras was considered.
Wanting IP cameras, but not to simply discard the coax cable already in place, Co-op turned to Sistemi e Integrazioni Srl and their partner Videoline by Trolese (a brand of Trolese Srl), with experience of more than 15 years working with CCTV, and NVT products.
The two recommended employing IP cameras in the Co-op’s retail stores, to gain from increased resolution and the ability to ‘zoom in’ to the recorded footage of an incident. The higher resolution could prove vital in identifying suspects or the actions of shoppers while in the stores and car parks. Also, the new IP cameras would enable the use of the latest video management software (VMS), and analytics that could be used to identify vehicle registration plates.
Typically, for a new installation, IP cameras would be installed with UTP Cat5 cable to transmit images back to the control and recording equipment. However, in the case of the Co-op upgrades, replacing the coax cable was not a desired option, as this would have caused major disruption to the stores’ daily business while it was being replaced.
Sistemi e Integrazioni Srl suggested a cost saving solution. Marco Zuliani – Technical Manager of Sistemi e Integrazioni Srl says: “Initially, 24 cameras in the Savona store and 16 in the Genova outlet were required to be replaced with new IP models. The Genova store had cameras covering only the car park, but the Savona store had cameras both in the car park and in the store. When we specified the replacement IP cameras, we also suggested the use of NVT EoC transmission technology that would allow 10/100 BaseT Ethernet and PoE+ power to be transmitted using the existing coax cable infrastructure at both sites. This would save valuable installation time, disruption to the daily business operation, and costs.”
Multiple NVT NV-EC1701-KIT4 kits were used, which allowed groups of four cameras to use their coax cable runs back to the control room where they were connected to a single NVT NV-EC1701. This meant product spend was kept to a minimum.
Also, the Savona store had two analogue cameras sending via Cat5 UTP cable. These were also replaced with IP units and images transmitted back to the control room using the NVT Eo2 NV-EC1701U-KIT2. This again meant no change of wiring infrastructure, thanks to the flexibility of the NVT products.
Using the cable infrastructure, images from the new cameras are sent to on-site monitoring rooms within each store. Store managers can access live and recorded footage in their offices. This will assist the managers with overall site management, saving time and increasing operational efficiency by providing an overview of each store and its adjacent car park.
Marco Zuliani says: “Since we finished the installations, Co-op managers have been extremely impressed with the quality of the camera images they are receiving at the various monitor locations. Also, the access to high-quality VMS software the new IP surveillance systems brings is allowing vehicle registration plate recognition and basic analytics to be used. The increase in image quality is such a contrast compared to the old analogue systems, that the Co-op security team is finding it hard to believe that they were still using the existing cabling at the upgraded sites. This is a great compliment and the best result we could have hoped for.”
And Marco Lazzaroni from Videoline By Trolese adds: “The strategy for an upgrade from analogue to IP surveillance has been very successful, and has already simplified and improved site management, health & safety, and security procedures for Co-op staff. Using these installations as a pilot, it is likely that this same format using NVT’s EoC transmission equipment at its heart, will be rolled out at other Co-op stores across Italy.”
About the retailer
Co-op Italia Società Co-operativa operates the largest supermarket chain in Italy, generating an annual revenue of 13.2 billion euros. From a humble beginning, with the first Co-operative shop established in 1854 in Turin, the chain now has 1,444 shops and 56,682 employees.
