For retailers, loss prevention (security) is very serious business, as they have to be constantly on guard against losses from theft, whether perpetrated from the outside or the inside. One major retailer recently connected its loss prevention system to its corporate IP network. Not surprisingly, this company discovered by converging video surveillance on their IP network they enhanced the loss prevention group's investigative capabilities, improved the loss prevention staff's productivity and enabled greater operational flexibility to support future investments, including the integration of other systems.

This is becoming a common story. More and more, organizations are discovering that application-level convergence delivers unique capabilities that support vital aspects of their businesses. With this level of convergence, companies are achieving new levels of efficiency, productivity and cost savings that go beyond loss prevention and hold the potential to grow top-line revenue.

Securing the Floor

Like many retailers, the major department store chain described above deployed a system of still security cameras over every point-of-sale (POS) terminal and a system of pan/tilt/zoom (PTZ) cameras over every door. For many years, analog video from both systems was delivered to a central point in each store and converted to a digital format for image storage and retrieval.

After more than a decade, the video recording systems began to fail — and when one recorder failed, it impacted 32 cameras. The video recording systems were not easily repairable and the vendor had moved on to newer products, rendering obsolete the decade-old recorder.

After considering several options, the retailer decided to implement a network-based video surveillance solution, which would cost-effectively extend the capabilities of its existing IP network. This converged network eliminated the redundancy associated with a separate analog system and related infrastructure to perform security surveillance. They were able to manage video, camera and recording connectivity and event correlation on one network, enhancing the reliability of their system while creating the ability to integrate video with other business applications to attack loss prevention in a comprehensive way.