Access Control, Video, Location-Based Tracking and Intrusion. UNIFIED.

Century 21 Building a Proactive Retail Security System, One Store at a Time

A legendary New York City retailer with stores in multiple states,

Century 21 has long recognized the importance of having a strong loss

prevention (LP) program that involved video surveillance using the

most advanced, but also proven, security technology.

CASE SUMMARY

Location: Elizabeth, NJ

System Installed:

American Dynamics Illustra 625 IP PTZ Dome Illustra 610 HD IP Mini-Domes VideoEdge VMS with victor Unified Client

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Introduction

Century 21 opened its first store in downtown

Manhattan in 1961 and now operates eight stores

across the New York/New Jersey area. The stores are

focused on high-fashion, low-price apparel for women,

men and children, along with cosmetics, handbags,

shoes, lingerie, housewares, luggage and more.

Merchandise can range from less than $10 to more

than $7,000. The newest Century 21 site, which opened

in April 2013, is at Jersey Gardens: The Outlet Center

in Elizabeth, N.J. The largest outlet mall in the state,

Jersey Gardens is also a major tourist attraction,

drawing approximately 18 million visitors a year from

more than 160 countries.

The company’s loss prevention department is

headquartered at its flagship store in Manhattan,

although each store maintains its own LP department

and staff.

Challenges

With each new store opening, Century 21’s loss

prevention department looks to incorporate the latest

technology to enhance the quality of its LP activities.

The brand new Jersey Gardens store, which opened in

April 2013 in an existing mall storefront, presented

Century 21 with the opportunity to explore the transition

to IP cameras from analog as well as discover

additional features that could further reduce shrink as

part of the company’s proactive LP program.

“We like to think we are a leader in technology and in

pushing the envelope,” said James Betesh, Vice

President Loss Prevention, Century 21 Department

Stores. “As a 25-year customer with American

Dynamics and Sensormatic, we trusted them to provide

cutting-edge technology that would perform to our

standards.”

One specific challenge that Century 21 presented to

Tyco Security Product’s American Dynamics brand of

surveillance solutions, along with its systems integrator,

Tyco Integrated Security, was how the company could

address issues of latency that have been associated

with some IP cameras. Latency is a delay between the

movement of the joystick to command the camera and

the camera’s response to the command.

Like most retailers that employ a team of active

surveillance personnel to monitor their facilities,

Century 21 was averse to delays in camera control that

affected their ability to track and monitor situations in

their stores in real time. After evaluating older IP dome

cameras, Century 21 LP personnel found that the delay

between the joystick command and camera movement

was too long to effectively follow specific individuals

around the store.

Solution

Instead, Century 21 chose 10 Illustra 625 IP PTZ Dome

cameras with very low latency for accurate camera

tracking control, allowing Century 21’s surveillance staff

to actively monitor activity in their stores. With the

Illustra 625, the camera moves to position as fast as

512° per second, allowing for active surveillance and

efficient tracking of suspicious behavior.

“We have very proactive LP policies in place to protect

our inventory and guest experience so we needed the

lowest latency and best quality picture from these

domes as possible,” Betesh said.

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The selection of the Illutra 625 IP PTZ cameras, along

with an additional 34 Illustra 610 HD IP Mini-Domes,

marks a definitive shift for Century 21 from analog to IP-

based surveillance. Along with the IP cameras, the

retailer also implemented the victor video management

system from American Dynamics. Using the victor

unified client, Century 21’s LP staff at Jersey Gardens

is able to view, manage, and control recorded video

from four VideoEdge network video recorders.

Loss Prevention Manager Tyrese Williams, who is the

onsite LP professional at Jersey Gardens, noted that

the IP cameras were an improvement over analog for

several reasons, beginning with the clarity of the

images and the superior zoom-in ability.

“You can access any one of the Illustra cameras we

have installed and still have a crystal clear view,”

explained Williams. Cameras are placed in key

locations so LP staff can actively observe various

activities, such as transactions at the registers

throughout the day. With the new cameras, Williams

said they have the capability to zoom in at the register

“and get the best pictures possible.”

This was the type of activity that was critical in testing

the performance of IP over analog, said Tom Hamlin,

Sales Manager Retail/Manager Professional Services

for Tyco Security Products. "Tests on previous IP PTZ

cameras had not performed to the level that C21

required," he said, "especially with their

uncompromising LP standards." But the i625s, along

with the victor/VideoEdge video management system

(VMS), were able to provide the necessary low latency,

high-quality picture and continuity of image capture that

Century 21 required.

Within the VMS platform, according to Williams, one of

the most appealing features is the speed of the system

for searching recorded video. Video that used to take

as long as four hours to watch can be condensed to just

25 minutes, he said. The VideoEdge metadata

collection and motion search tools are credited with

reducing search and review times. Additionally, the

user friendliness of the system makes it easy to burn

key video onto a CD or DVD, which is an activity

Williams does on a daily basis.

A further advantage of the system is the ability to

access video via an iPad or iPhone, so security

personnel aren’t tied to their desktop or office or even

have to be on-site to monitor and respond to situations.

As part of Century 21’s efforts to continue to innovate

with its LP system, Betesh said they are looking at

analog-to-IP conversions for its other locations,

beginning with the flagship downtown Manhattan site.

That store, which spans more than 200,000 square feet,

also features more than 800 analog cameras.

Store size, layout and design all play a role in the

number and placement of cameras, according to

Betesh. The high ceilings in the Jersey Gardens store

actually allowed for the use of fewer cameras because

each one could cover a wider area.

Converting from analog to IP would certainly be an

investment, acknowledged Betesh, but he sees

opportunities because the system can be used for more

than just loss prevention. “There are a lot of additional

returns on our investment in technology that are

possible, such as tracking shopper behavior that can

improve our guest experience,” he said.

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By using active surveillance to track shopper

movements, store operators can better position

merchandise and displays, and staff their stores for

both sales and security based on time-of-day analytics.

And while on-site staff are making use of this type of

analysis, Betesh said analytics can also be tied into the

POS system and used by fraud analysts to detect

issues at the cash registers.

With all the new features, plus not losing anything in the

analog-to-IP conversion, Betesh said he sees the long-

term value in continuing with an IP surveillance system

such as victor/VideoEdge that allows Century 21 to

maintain the benefits of analog with the possibilities of

IP video. “As long as we maintain what analog provided

for us, everything else is just gravy,” he said.

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