John Lewis Department Stores, have invested in IndigoVision's complete end-to-end IP Video technology for its CCTV surveillance. IndigoVision has been working with John Lewis over the last year to migrate 9 of its existing stores from analog CCTV to a digital IP solution. IndigoVision has now been chosen to provide the CCTV surveillance for the first 3 of the planned 10 new stores, including the recently opened branch in Liverpool, its largest store outside of central London.

As with any large retail operation John Lewis faces a myriad of security issues including theft, staff protection, wastage and health & safety. It is vitally important therefore, to have a surveillance system with the very highest-quality video and tools to provide fast search and analysis of recorded footage in the event of an incident.

"IndigoVision's IP Video system provides us with excellent quality video, which can be delivered with minimum impact on our IT network," said Paul Newbury, John Lewis' development manager for Business Protection. "IP Video gives us a scalable, future-proof, CCTV strategy that has already been field proven in a number of our existing stores."

The 240,000 sq ft Liverpool building is one of the first in the ‘next generation' of John Lewis department stores with new-concept fittings creating a superb retail environment. It was therefore important for John Lewis, as it is with many retailers, to ensure that any CCTV cameras are small, unobtrusive and aesthetically pleasing. This was achieved in part by using IndigoVision's compact high-performance fixed and PTZ IP domes for the majority of the cameras installed. All cameras are recorded for 31 days on a single 1 TB standalone fault-tolerant IndigoVision Network Video Recorder (NVR). This low storage requirement is achieved through split recording rates (12 fps for fixed cameras and 25 fps for PTZs), efficient compression technology and the use of advanced features such Activity Controlled Framerate (ACF). Built into the IP cameras and transmitter modules, ACF reduces the amount of digital video that is transmitted and stored when the camera scene is inactive. As soon as motion is detected video is instantaneously streamed at the full configured framerate.

The CCTV operators use ‘Control Center' workstations to view and analyze live and recorded video from any camera. ‘Control Center' workstations can be located at any point on the IP network, providing maximum flexibility for the system designer and user. ‘Control Center' software is license-free, so workstations can be deployed for no more than the cost of a PC. "The features in ‘Control Center' are very powerful, we particularly like the playback and search tools and the snapshot feature that allows us to capture and print off pictures of suspects in the store," adds Paul Newbury. "We can also export high-quality evidential video for use by the police if necessary."