Barox Promotes the Development of Video for Retail

The New Normal and Beyond

To maximize their operational efficiency, retailers must consider long-term integrated investments that provide them with a competitive advantage. A solution for modern retail stores will increasingly involve 24/7 control centers where video from multiple stores is centrally monitored. Cameras and video recordings will be the eyes of the monitoring center, where analytical tools integrate security, management, health, safety, and marketing to optimize operations and costs. Monitored topics could include “shopper profiles” for market research purposes, or “people not adhering to Covid-19 rules” and much more.

 

Cloud technologies, their application, and their benefits will drive the video industry in the coming years. On the hardware side, sensors and IoT will impact data acquisition and thus also the role of VMS. Milestone offers XProtect, an “Open Platform” product that is important for these changes. And powerful, reliable, and secure barox video transmission will play a crucial role. Indeed, “XProtect cannot function without hardware,” explains Soraya Heristchian, Milestone Community Manager, Northern Europe. “To enable easy integration and better customer experiences, Milestone offers its “Device Driver Pack Strategy” for cameras and other devices, as well as the “System Builder Program.” With the barox Switch, you can configure and visually monitor ports and data traffic from your Smart Client, and Switch alarms and events can, in turn, also trigger alarms in XProtect.”

 

The process of Industrial Revolution 4.0 is rapidly advancing in Europe and has already been implemented by some organizations in Europe. The company barox sees itself as part of Industrial Revolution 4.0, as this ongoing change enables the cross-device collection and analysis of data, allowing for more flexible, efficient, and faster processes. This ultimately leads to higher service and product quality for the provider, combined with greater cost efficiency – and thus a significant competitive advantage.

 

Challenges within logistics that could be solved with Industry 4.0 include effective shipment tracking, theft prevention, and the management of efficient deliveries/loading and unloading (and the avoidance of delays). In logistics, this includes verifying whether a truck is at the correct loading dock, locating lost trucks, and directing trucks to the right loading dock (on average, about 7% of trucks are misplaced annually). All of this supports a more profitable business.

 

To avoid crowds, traffic, including pedestrians, is monitored within transport hubs. In retail stores, observation is helpful for alerting when stores are overcrowded or when crowded areas are detected. Enormous cost savings are achieved by linking with IT-supported back-office functions for ordering and restocking inventory. In safe cities, crowd control and “social distancing” can also be implemented more effectively.

 

The use of an “Open Platform,” a future-proof technology, as well as data protection and privacy, are fundamental for increasing efficiency. Therefore, choosing a powerful video/data Switch is crucial for the secure implementation of these new solutions. “The “Open Platform” IP video management software can offer more than just security by helping retailers reduce costs,” says Soraya. “By providing a secure environment for customers and employees, it also offers owners the opportunity to integrate business systems to achieve greater efficiency in their operational processes, prevent (goods) losses, and provide important business information for the management of retail operations.”

 

“To enable these efficiencies, a prerequisite is the use of highly developed video Switches such as the barox RY-28 series (Managed Ethernet Switch),” says Rudolf Rohr, co-founder and managing partner of barox. “With its advanced firewall functionality, cybersecurity, and integrated diagnostic functionality, it is the perfect solution. These Switches will connect via VPN (via an external router) and provide power for IP cameras and displays, while simultaneously ensuring that attacks from local IoTs are thwarted (as a first line of defense). They will also save service costs and downtime through the automatic restart of cameras and other devices and distribute valuable data statistics via a high-quality, cyber-secure video network to the host. The future of video transmission and integrated cloud services looks very promising for those ready for the next step.”