Carrefour transforms ailing legacy CCTV system thanks to input from IDIS

Carrefour Jordan operator Majid Al Futtaim turned to specialist systems integrator Ametrad Technology Services to upgrade the company's video technology as it prepares for growth. The Dubai-based retail pioneer, which first introduced Carrefour to the Middle East back in 1995 and now operates no less than 70 outlets across the region, has ambitious expansion plans and is looking to open new express stores and hypermarkets.

Ametrad Technology Services is deploying video technology built around the IDIS Solution Suite video management software (VMS) for the Majid Al Futtaim security team, whose priorities are to prevent losses, improve safety and security, enhance the customer experience and greatly increase operational efficiencies across Carrefour Jordan's eight existing express stores and hypermarkets.

The IDIS Solution Suite VMS is both modular and scalable in nature, affording Carrefour a cost-effective and centralised monitoring environment with multi-layered failover providing protection against network instability and power outages.

Costly to maintain

The legacy CCTV system was proving costly to maintain and time-intensive to operate, while low bandwidth at some stores was also limiting performance. These problems were being compounded by new requirements to move from 30 to 90 days' worth of storage.

Ametrad Technology Services' managing director Ahmad Shanawani observed: “We have not experienced a single hard disk drive failure, a request for an NVR reset or any gaps in footage due to a power outage. This is tangible evidence of the quality, resilience and failover technology resident within the IDIS Solution Suite.”

All of the hardware is backed by a cost-free warranty and the ability to easily add new stores as they come online – a vital aspect given that Carrefour serves over 200,000 customers every day across the region and is continuing to expand – while also ensuring low total cost of ownership.

Using a phased upgrade approach, 32 2MP domes and bullet cameras already provide coverage at the hypermarket in Irbid City Centre, with a further 64 legacy cameras earmarked for upgrade, while an average of 28 cameras deliver situational awareness across each express store.

The IDIS cameras ensure pin-sharp image capture in varying light conditions, including in darkness up to 30 metres, and cope with varying light and shade thanks to true wide dynamic range.

32-channel NVRs and a user-friendly interface for authorised retail staff at each supermarket provide 370 Mbps throughput and up to 960 ips UHD real-time recording. This ensures high performance live monitoring and forensic video retrieval, while native RAID 1 provides an important additional layer of redundancy.

True plug-and-play

Ametrad Technology Services engineers connected each device in minutes thanks to true plug-and-play IDIS DirectIP technology, while IDIS For Every Network technology allows one-click configuration linking each store to the Control Room. The hierarchical connection structure between IDIS DirectIP devices also guarantees the most efficient method of cabling into the compact Control Room.

The limited bandwidth was solved with IDIS Intelligent Codec, which typically reduces storage and bandwidth requirements by up to 75% when compared to H.264, while dynamic multi-stream control has alleviated latency.

These technologies also allowed Carrefour to double the camera count at each store to provide comprehensive coverage without the need to upgrade networks.

Ametrad Technology Services is also deploying IDIS VA in the Box analytics to provide each store with heatmapping, people counting, queue management and intelligent reporting capabilities, thus helping to improve sales and marketing performance and providing store managers with valuable business and customer behavioural insight.

Live monitoring

ISS control panels provide live monitoring, playback, event search, system health reports and navigation via store layouts, allowing Control Room staff to troubleshoot and manage 100s of video streams and devices across multiple stores. These intuitive functions have reduced the time needed to find and export video clips from hours to minutes.

Carrefour has contracted Ametrad Technology Services to provide maintenance services and is also working with the Ametrad Technology Services team with a view towards adopting new IDIS technologies such as IDIS Deep Learning Analytics.