Zada Technology - Experts & Thought Leaders

Using Predator Hybrid cameras, The Oracle security team can view all aspects of the shopping centre Looking to move to a totally IP surveillance camera network in the future but wanting to upgrade their current analogue cameras now, The Oracle shopping centre, Reading, is fulfilling both criteria—by installing the innovative Predator Hybrid camera from CCTV design and manufacturing company, 360 Vision Technology. Network cameras Opened in September 1999, the first phase of The Oracle was followed in November of that year by The Riverside, a stylish choice of restaurants, pubs, and cinema. The final phase completed the development in May 2000, which was officially opened by the Princess Royal. Along with The Riverside’s 22 restaurants, cafés, and bars, The Oracle’s 90 stores and shops increases Reading's retail outlet footage by thirty-three percent. Visitors to the centre can utilise its two large car parks, which provide 2,300 vehicle spaces. Securing such a vast retail space presents a challenge for the on-site security team at The Oracle. The team consists of a mixture of guards in public areas of the centre, and highly skilled operators working in the CCTV control room, from where they can view a network of over 300 static, covert, PTZ, and dome cameras.Visitor safety “As our security consultant of choice for many years, we have enjoyed a successful relationship with Zada Technology Ltd, in which time we have built a working relationship that has seen the installation of further cameras to our system,” explains Andy Salmon, Security Manager at The Oracle. “For the latest upgrade, we had some concerns about investing in analogue cameras, only to be faced with them becoming obsolete and having to replace them in the future when we upgrade our control to IP, which will happen in the next round of planned rolling upgrade programme.” Predator Hybrid camera “High-definition images from the Predator Hybrid cameras mean we don’t have to deploy our guards to every situation” “We specified the 360 Vision Technology Predator Hybrid to provide both analogue and HD functionality in a single PTZ camera,” explains Adam Parsonson-Smith, Technical Director at shopping centre security specialist Zada Technology Ltd. “It’s the perfect choice for use at The Oracle. This patent-pending technology means that when their installation moves to HD infrastructure, the Hybrid camera’s standard analogue 4:3 images can be replaced with a full HD 1080p output—at the flick of a camera switch and with no additional equipment required.”Predator Hybrid also features ONVIF compliant or 360SDK protocols for fast set-up and IP68 certification to ensure continued performance in the harshest of environments—all backed by 360 Vision Technology’s comprehensive 3-year warranty, and their design and manufacturing base in the UK.Identifying suspicious behaviour Using the new Predator Hybrid cameras, the Oracle security team can view all aspects of the shopping centre’s malls and its vast car parks, in HD quality. These high-definition images are a great improvement on the original images and assist the control room team to easily identify suspicious and anti-social behaviour. Better quality images also ensure that known offenders can be identified as soon as they enter the centre, and their behaviour monitored and recorded whilst they are on-site. This new, unparalleled HD overview of the entire centre allows security, management, and health & safety decisions to be made swiftly—based on a comprehensive visual summary of monitored situations. If a situation or incident requires one of the security team to attend, effective resources can be directed to the location via radio link from the control room. “High-definition images from the Predator Hybrid cameras mean we don’t have to deploy our guards to every situation,” explains Andy. “Using the new cameras we can monitor the situation and only deploy our manned guarding team if necessary—this frees them to perform other tasks and helps me as manager use the resources at my disposal for best effect and in the most economical way.” “The Hybrid camera’s standard analogue 4:3 images can be replaced with a full HD 1080p output” Cost-effective solution “Predator Hybrid’s designed-in seamless integration and simple set-up meant minimal installation time and therefore minimal disruption to The Oracle’s business trading during camera installation,” adds Adam. “This provided The Oracle management with the assurance and satisfaction derived from a quick camera changeover procedure and minimal downtime while the work was carried out.”The Oracle management team is now enjoying a future-proofed and cost-effective surveillance solution that is set to provide many years of continual service. The new 360 Vision Technology Predator Hybrid cameras are providing a highly-effective security and management tool—affording peace of mind to the millions of customers who visit The Oracle shopping centre each year.

Zada was called in to evaluate the system and identify underlying issues with the network at The Mall Blackburn The Mall Blackburn is benefitting from a fully upgraded CCTV camera and recording solution as well as a dedicated fibre optic cable network thanks to its ongoing relationship with shopping centre security specialist Zada Technology. Need for safety and security The Mall Blackburn is home to 100 retail tenants in 600,000 square feet of shopping space, including big names like Debenhams, Primark, Argos, H&M, Topshop and Next. It attracts 13.1 million visitors a year, with each visitor spending an average of 56 minutes at the centre. As well as the retail shop spaces, The Mall Blackburn features a market, and parking spaces for 1,300 vehicles. With that many people coming through its doors every day, safety and security is of paramount importance. When The Mall Corporation took over the former Blackburn Shopping Centre, it inherited a CCTV system with some serious issues. Zada was called in to evaluate the system and identified underlying issues with the network. System upgrade strategy Together, The Mall Blackburn's management and Zada agreed a maintenance contract and five-year plan for the system's upgrade. At the centre of Zada and The Mall's collaborative strategy was a plan to install a fibre optic cable network throughout the shopping centre. This would be the main 'highway' for any data traffic. "It's a flexible, dedicated high-speed transmissionsystem that allows us to add to the network as needed" "With the fibre optic network, it doesn't matter if it's used for CCTV, intercoms, access control, EMS or whatever else - it's theirs," Zada's Adam Parsonson-Smith says. "It's a flexible, dedicated high-speed transmission system that allows us to add to the network as needed." The fibre optic equipment was provided by networking specialists AMG Systems, and included its managed network switches. Upgrading analogue portion of existing system The next step in the process was to upgrade the analogue portion of the existing system, which constituted around 60 percent of the cameras, to HD networked models from Hikvision. These included static cameras, pan-tilt-zoom cameras, and Darkfighter low light models. The interior mall spaces were migrated to HD camera coverage in the first year, the external service yard areas and back of house facilities in the second year, and The Mall's extensive car parks were upgraded in year three. The recording system has also been expanded with an extra two Nuuo Crystal Titan CT-8000 network video recorders. These each include 24 terabytes of storage, bringing the total system storage to 120TB. Innovative cutting edge technology The Mall Blackburn General Manager Loraine Jones says the relationship with Zada continues to go from strength to strength. "With a professional and dedicated team the company proactively works with The Mall to enhance and improve the CCTV and associated technical equipment on an ongoing basis," Jones says. "Since we started working with Zada we have increased the number of CCTV cameras from 40 to more than 140 and the company has been extremely proactive in identifying and trialling innovative cutting edge technology. All the improvements have helped The Mall's security team and the police to detect and deter crime. Their staff are committed, professional and extremely knowledgeable and we know we can count on them to provide reliable, round the clock assistance." Save

AMG helped Zada to find the best solution and the most appropriate route Zada, which specialises in security and surveillance solutions for high footfall places such as shopping centres, has completed the refurbishment and upgrade of the security and surveillance solution at The Oracle, Reading. Adam Parsonson-Smith, Technical Director of Zada said, “AMG installed the original transmission solution in The Oracle in 1999 and Zada has enjoyed an excellent relationship with AMG over the years. Their support of The Oracle has been flawless, with very quick turnaround time on repairs, and it bears testament to the quality of AMG’s equipment that the original solution has worked incredibly well for the past 13 years. When we embarked on the refurbishment project, it was evident that the AMG transmission solution had passed ‘the longevity test’, and an upgrade would be in order. I can emphatically state, that we have been very happy with our working relationship with AMG throughout the upgrade project. They’ve been on the ball with everything, from quotations, to supplying, and answering any technical queries. AMG also helped us find the best solution, and the most appropriate route, for doing the upgrade with minimum down time. In fact, we’re so happy with AMG’s products, that Zada habitually offer our clients 5 year business plans with a maintenance contract which also covers the AMG transmission equipment – as is the case with The Oracle.” Dr. Alan Hayes, Founder and MD of AMG Group, commented, “I was part of the AMG team involved with the original implementation of CCTV, at The Oracle in 1999. It’s a project we have always been very proud of, and we’ve featured it on our website as a major reference site ever since. The fact that Zada asked us to supply the equipment for the refurbishment, has given us the opportunity to upgrade the solution to the latest AMG technology, and further proof that this was a great solution in the first place.” The Oracle has 3 core fibre optic rooms; river-side car park, north-sat room and south-sat room, bringing all of the analogue pictures to three central points. From there, the images are brought back to the control room. Currently the solution has 188 cameras. Zada also took the opportunity to design a fibre optic back bone for the Site, to future proof for any future HD network cameras on the shopping centre entry doors. It took only 2 days to upgrade the system, due to Zada and AMG working closely together and deciding how the upgrade could best be facilitated.