ID Intact Appoints new Chief Executive

May 2008

ID Intact, the new specialist Alarms Company of ID Technology Group has appointed Graham Campbell as its new Chief Executive.

Graham, who is bringing a wealth of experience and expertise having previously worked as a Senior National Account Manager at Chubb for over a decade; has joined to spearhead growth for the business as well as support the existing national customer accounts of ID Technology Group for all alarm services.

Graham comments "I am delighted to have joined an exciting company such as ID Technology Group, and the opportunity to develop a company in its infancy was too good to miss."

"It is a great challenge, and we are determined to make ID Intact one of the UK's largest alarm and security solution providers, and a recognised name both within the industry and on the high street."

"ID Technology Group has a fantastic portfolio of customers and I very much look forward to working with the team".

The existing management team of ID Intact will remain in place, with Graham reporting to the ID Support Services Holdings Ltd board of directors.

Top Banana

April 2008

Banana Republic, GAP’s upmarket trading chain and an American Fashion giant opened its flagship European store on London’s Regent Street in March, and ID Technology Group were on site to ensure that the store was safe and secure by designing and installing a fully integrated CCTV system.

The store, which offers high end men and women’s fashion is set to take the UK by storm and fits in perfectly with the UK’s affinity for great fashion and luxury products. With such a high profile store, Banana Republic needed a CCTV to ensure that staff felt secure and the alarm and EAS system were encapsulated within the system.

As ID currently installs and maintains all CCTV to the GAP estate across the UK and Ireland, and therefore was their natural choice to undertake such an important project for Banana Republic.

A 29 camera CCTV system, incorporating 12 Pan Tilt & Zoom (PTZ) 360 Vision Speed dome 22:1 colour cameras that gives 100% coverage to the 18,050 sq ft retail floor was installed. Two 1.6 terabyte Cathexis DVR’s giving perfect picture quality and instant data retrieval were used to control the CCTV system.

Integrated with the stores EAS system and alarm system, suspect buttons were also installed under the counters, whereby staff can instantly notify security and management of potential anti-social instances and the cameras instantly records to a high resolution pre-set location, recording many angles of the incident to ensure maximum coverage.

Matt Allen, sales director at ID Technology Group commented: “This is one of the most anticipated store openings of 2008 to the UK retail sector. Banana Republic needed a CCTV and security system that not only protected the products, but fitted in perfectly with the high specification of the store.

The last thing Banana Republic would want trouble with come opening day is the CCTV system as there was a massive customer footfall expected. ID has demonstrated to Banana Republic an excellent partnership approach, and we look forward to this continuing with this in the future.”

TK Maxx's HomeSense Stores Moves into the UK

April 2008

HomeSense is the latest home furnishings and fashion store to hit the UK. Filled to the brim with top quality and branded homeware, home décor and kitchenware to unique accessories from around the world, HomeSense opened its doors to the UK in Spring 2008 with its first store located in Poole, Dorset.

As part of the new store format, Homsense went to electronic security provider ID Technology Group and its specialist subsidiary company ID Intact to design and install a complete CCTV and Intruder Alarm solution to protect both the store and staff.

Matt Allen sales director at ID commented "ID Technology Group and ID Intact has worked in partnership with TK Maxx since 2003, and in that time have provided electronic security solutions in line with TK Maxx’s rapid expansion throughout the UK and Eire.

With such an important move for HomeSense to enter the UK market, and an aggressive store opening plan, ID had to ensure that both the alarm and CCTV system was operational come opening day".

HomeSense store manager, Raegan Dawson comments: “HomeSense is all about unique finds at irresistible prices. Thousands of new items will arrive every week at this store, so we can offer customers a truly exciting and continually changing shopping experience. Anyone seeking inspiration for their home should discover what they are looking for at HomeSense.”

HomeSense is part of the TJX Companies Inc which already operates over 60 HomeSense stores in Canada, and over 210 TK Maxx stores in the UK.

HomeSense opens its second store in Cardiff (1st May) and continues its roll out in Bristol (15th May), Northampton and Manchester (22nd May) and Gloucester (29th May).

ID chooses NVT products to deliver first class CCTV systens to Sainsbury's dstribution

February 2008

Trading through hundreds of stores across the UK under the brands Sainsbury's Supermarkets, Sainsbury's Local, Bells Stores, Jackson’s Stores and JB Beaumont; leading food retailer J.Sainsbury plc strives to provide great products at fair prices. To meet the continual demand of supplying its stores with fresh products, Sainsbury’s utilizes a national network of supply chain distribution centres.

The security at each of its distribution centres had been operated using security solutions such as CCTV and access control systems that were due for a complete refurbishment and upgrade programme. To remedy the situation, Sainsbury’s turned to ID Technology Group to supply an integrated, cost-efficient solution that would improve their operational surveillance capabilities to their supply chain distribution centres across the UK.

ID Technology Group consulted Sainsbury’s logistics management, to identify their security, health and safety and operational concerns for each site. The system specifications had to be flexible enough to meet the needs of individual facilities, whilst cost effective for Sainbury’s so that it the solution can be used on multiple locations. Because of such criteria, the use of a Network Video Technologies (NVT) Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP) camera video transmission network was used for large scale distribution centres.

Terry Baker, technical director at ID Technology Group explains the system: “With over 200 cameras at some of Sainsbury’s larger sites such as the new Haydock installation that incorporates 225 cameras and 23km of cabling, the scale of each system means using an NVT UTP cable infrastructure brings real performance and cost advantages. Using a ‘Campus Style’ system, we installed separate ‘pods’ of cameras that are connected into a main UTP cable infrastructure. This gives Sainsbury’s management greater scalability with the option to tap into the multi-pair cabling to easily add more cameras in the future, without the need or cost of installing complete lengths of extra cabling. This UTP based scaleable solution can provide the customer with massive cost savings over its lifetime.”

Each camera’s real-time video output is transmitted via NVT NV-214AM video transceivers to NV-862R and NV-1662R Active Receiver hubs located at the control room. “We liaised heavily with Sainsbury’s management around what they felt were their biggest issues at each site,” explains Terry: “From there, we used our technical expertise and experience to supply the best solution utilising the best equipment. Sainsbury’s management are very technically aware and knew exactly what they wanted from the specification of each CCTV system.”

Camera locations at the recent Allington depot installation are typical of each system specification, covering all internal and external loading bays, multiple gate houses, fuelling areas, bailing areas, site access/entry points, car parks, high value stock areas, plus lorry turning points and manoeuvring areas. These predetermined camera placements coupled to NVT UTP video transmission allows depot management to view high quality images of these areas from the on-site control suite, affording them an instant health and safety as well as a security overview. With some of the camera to control cable distances up to 750m, the crystal clear pictures delivered for monitoring means possible issues can be highlighted and resolved instantly. Terry explained: “Sainsbury’s believe CCTV is an essential part of an effective Health & Safety program which is the driving force behind a large number of the camera locations within the distribution centres. They also utilise a powerful tool to ensure correct health and safety procedures are being adhered to in the workplace, and find it beneficial to include CCTV video footage in regular staff training sessions.”