The USD 170m, 265,000 sq ft arc Center opened in March 2009 and is the UK's newest shopping complex. The Center has 35 shops and restaurants, including the breath-taking curved Debenhams flagship store. As with any retail environment arc has to deal with public safety, criminal activity and anti-social behavior in and around the public areas of the Center. It was therefore paramount to deploy a flexible and high-quality surveillance solution. The design and installation of the system was completed by Essex based GES Security Services, one of IndigoVision's approved Partners.

"We have been delighted with the IP-CCTV system installed at arc Shopping Center," said Center Manager, Paul Haynes. "arc is a major asset within Bury St Edmunds town center and the quality of the system has impressed all stakeholders involved with the scheme."

Door Intercom units located at staff and delivery entrances are interfaced to the IP Video system via a digital input on the IndigoVision 8000 transmitter modules. When an Intercom call is made an alarm is raised in 'Control Center', IndigoVision's Security Management Software, and the nearest camera is automatically panned to a preset position and displayed on the spot monitor. The location of the generated alarm is also highlighted on an interactive map of the Center. The operator can then confirm visual identity and open the door.

"The ability to monitor other systems and equipment using the CCTV workstations has been very helpful," continued Haynes. "We have been alerted instantly to a number of faults with water pumps that are interfaced to the IndigoVision hardware."

The water pumps are connected to IndigoVision's IP Alarm Panel, which allows discrete inputs to be transmitted across the network as data and displayed and logged as events or alarms in 'Control Center'. The Alarm Panel provides 32 opto-isolated and/or supervised tamper-detect alarm inputs and 8 relay outputs, which can be activated remotely over the IP network from 'Control Center'.

The security team use 'Control Center' PC workstations to view live and recorded video from the cameras. Two workstations are located in the main control room, with a third on the Center Manager's desk. As the IP Video system is distributed then any component, including workstations, video recorders and cameras can be located anywhere on the network. This makes the system very flexible and scalable. Continuous recording of all the cameras is achieved with 2 of IndigoVision's standalone fault-tolerant Network Video Recorders (NVRs), which gives the Center a minimum 31 day archive.

"The powerful features of 'Control Center' allow the security team to quickly analyze recorded video in the event of an incident," added Haynes. "When requested we have exported evidential quality video for the police on a number of occasions."

Distributed IP Video systems are becoming very popular with new build projects due to their minimal cabling costs compared to traditional analogue CCTV equipment. Instead of analogue cameras connected to transmitter modules, as used in the arc Center, IP cameras can be used. These combine the camera, compression and network transmission hardware in the camera enclosure. IP cameras also support Power-Over-Ethernet (POE), allowing the cameras to be powered directly from the network, further reducing installation costs.