Hanwha Techwin America, a global supplier of IP and analog video surveillance solutions, announced that home décor retailer, Kirkland’s, chose Hanwha security cameras to improve security and business operations across hundreds of U.S. stores.
Protecting assets and people is always a top priority for Kirkland’s. With more than 400 stores in 37 states, Kirkland’s is a go-to spot for a broad selection of distinctive merchandise: art, mirrors, candles, lamps, frames, accent rugs, furniture and more. When Kirkland's evaluated its security solutions, it determined that it had to upgrade the analog video surveillance systems in use at its existing locations and plan for new stores.
Saraya Charlton, Kirkland’s loss-prevention investigator, says the analog video surveillance cameras the stores had in place were acceptable, but the company desired cameras that had wider coverage and better resolution. The amount of time it took to investigate incidents for loss prevention and personal-injury claims also was frustrating. Each time Charlton’s department was called to investigate an incident – vandalism, theft, employee misconduct, a slip and fall or a cut from broken merchandise – each individual store had to extract the footage from the analog digital video recorder (DVR) at that location and send it to loss prevention at Kirkland’s headquarters.
Charlton says Kirkland’s sought an IP-based solution that could be accessed remotely, which would make the loss-prevention investigation process more efficient and provide additional benefits. Management wanted a camera that provided a clear picture while minimizing bandwidth use and had analytics capability.
Working with several systems integrators, Kirkland’s chose to deploy an IP video surveillance solution consisting of Hanwha video surveillance cameras managed by Salient Enterprise Video Management Software (VMS).
The first phase of the security upgrade included the deployment of 1,800 Hanwha Wisenet X series XNV-6011 2-megapixel HD dome cameras and Wisenet Lite vandal-resistant dome cameras at 200 Kirkland’s locations, as well as the company’s distribution center and the e-commerce building. As new stores are built, they also will include the Hanwha-Salient security solution. Kirkland’s expects to have a full migration to IP at all locations by 2021.
Each Kirkland’s location is outfitted with about eight cameras, positioned to capture the entrance, the sales floor and back-of-house operations. Charlton says Hanwha’s cameras provide the most comprehensive view of the store possible.
“The wide-angle capability, as well as the quality of the camera, is really what sold us on Hanwha,” Charlton says. “We are getting the best views possible, and they are allowing us to see the entire sales floor, which is exactly what we wanted and needed.”
Hanwha’s Wisenet X series of cameras is a perfect fit for the retail environment. The wide-angle 2.8 mm lens captures a 112-degree horizontal field of view. For a retailer, that means doing more with less.
Charlton says the Hanwha cameras are particularly useful at store entrances, because, thanks to the WDR feature, video images aren't affected by the bright sunlight that often shines through windows, and faces still can be seen clearly. And because many of Hanwha’s cameras provide license-free analytics, Kirkland’s will begin to explore that capability to gain information on people counting, heat mapping and dwell time.
The Hanwha-Salient solution has improved Kirkland’s loss-prevention investigation efficiency, because the team is able to pull recorded video from any camera via the Salient VMS rather than wait for information to be extracted from an analog DVR. The loss-prevention team also appreciates being able to use Hanwha’s Device Manager to troubleshoot and resolve any camera issues remotely rather than unnecessarily send out a service technician.
In addition to providing quality images, improved field of view and more-efficient operations, the Hanwha solution also helped Kirkland’s conserve valuable bandwidth through Hanwha WiseStream II compression technology, Charlton says. WiseStream II dynamically controls encoding, balancing quality and compression according to the movement of the image. Combined with H.265 compression, bandwidth efficiency can be improved by up to 75 percent compared with current H.264 technology.
“We share our video surveillance and security bandwidth with our Point of Sale system and we don’t ever want to take away from the bandwidth of POS transactions or impact the speed at which they go through,” Charlton says. “Hanwha’s WiseStream compression technology fits our business model and along with Salient helps preserve and efficiently manage bandwidth. It’s really helpful to have a camera that’s smart enough to be able to tweak and regulate itself.”
