Security systems in retail & business parks

Security opportunities in business parks and retail shops

Video transcripts:

Hi, my name is Buzz Coates, Security Solutions Specialist at Norbain

and today in our second video of our Norbain Market Opportunities.

Today we're going to concentrate on retail and business parks.

In the last 15 to 20 years, we've seen a growing trend

of popping up retail and business parks on old industrial sites.

These are often placed on the edge of towns or cities.

Very often we see that security is an afterthought.

Crime then picks up in the area and then security is thought about.

And the trouble is we'll often only have lighting poles

or lighting columns to use.

This results mainly in wireless being used

because the cost of civils to dig up and put ducting in

specifically for security data cables would be very, very expensive.

So to cover the security issues that may occur from mindless vandalism,

or people just turning up in their cars and using the area as a ‘donut ring’.

We typically see cameras being installed on lamp posts, maybe 10 to 12.

And it may well be that we have some form of audio system in that as well

to try and tell people that if they carry on with their behaviour,

the police will be called.

So, at the locations on a lamp post you may well see

one camera, two cameras, maybe three cameras, who knows,

sometimes it could well be a panoramic camera

giving a nice 180 or 360 degree view.

The security equipment will then be probably powered by a PoE switch.

This must be industrial because you've got to remember, this is outside.

So it's going to have to be something a bit better

than just your normal commercial network switch.

This in turn then will feed into a wireless transmitter,

which then will be then transmitted back to a wireless receiver

and then probably into the control of a NVR environment.

When choosing products for this environment,

there are a number of things that must be taken into account.

One thing to remember is lighting.

From the point of view of the Council or the parish council’s lighting,

it could well be street light is there.

However, the question that needs to be asked is,

is the lighting always going to be on?

Is it white light?

are they going to turn it off between 11 and five o'clock at night?

If the street lighting needs to be turned off,

we then have to factor in the cameras are going to need

some form of lighting.

So in that case, we might use infrared lighting.

The only trouble is infrared - great - it gives you nice good images,

but it's just black and white.

If you want colour, it may be a good reason to consider using hybrid lighting

whereby IR is on for much of the time, but under an activation,

it turns to white light, giving you the best of both worlds.

Another important factor when choosing the camera,

is you really must consider using image stabilisation in the camera

because lampposts are not designed to stay static under a slight wind.

Maybe 15 to 20 mile an hour winds, you are going to get movement.

Now if you're using analytics, or wanting to capture number plates,

that's going to be no good.

You really need to consider image stabilisation

as part of your camera specification.

So, when using wireless, obvious things apply.

Line of Sight is imperative.

If you haven't got that we can get around it,

but it is best to have always line of sight.

Another consideration that we must think about when wireless

is how congested is the area for wireless.

Is there other stuff being used on the same frequency,

because 5.3 to 5.9 gigahertz is getting fairly congested.

Other solutions that might be considered is the use of ANPR,

not only to capture number plates of repeat offenders,

but also it may well be you have overstay issues with parking.

So it might well be that you introduce a third party to monitor that.

So an ANPR camera could be a good choice to stop people

parking there all day rather than paying charges in the town or city.

And on some retail parks we also see that people are using barriers

for entrances to the rear of the buildings

so that when visitors or delivery drivers are delivering their goods,

they have to go through an intercom system.

So often on these sites,

the individual users will still have their own CCTV, access control

or intruder system.

And typically what they will use as well is some form of perimeter system

on the edge of their rear building.

Maybe use radar, maybe use PIRs or beams

in order to deter anybody coming near their particular building.

So if you'd like to find out more,

give us a shout,

or head over to Norbain TV on YouTube.