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August 5, 2013

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State of Physical Access Trend Report 2024

Detecting the Difference Between a Customer & a Thief

Find out how Xtralis’s IntrusionTrace system can intelligently protect car dealerships and other businesses by identifying potential thieves.

A car dealership is actually a market, not just for someone looking for a new car, but also for a thief looking to cash in with a five-finger discount.

Many car dealers face a problem. They want to have an open area where customers are free to enter and look at vehicles whenever they choose, but they must keep those vehicles secure.

Audi’s largest German dealership, in Berlin, for instance, has over 300 used cars on its forecourts alone. Fencing such a large number of vehicles is not an option for the dealer’s director of sales, Ronald Hess, who describes fences as “barriers for customers.”

Instead, Hess opted for a “special security concept,” developed by Secontec using Xtralis technology, which features the intelligent video analysis system IntrusionTrace, backed up with FastTrace for local recording and event-control transmission of high-resolution video.

Secontec selected and installed the Xtralis system at Volkswagen and Audi dealerships, according to CEO Romuald Kowalik, “because of its superior intrusion detection performance, ability for talk-down to the person of interest from the central monitoring station, and the scalability of the systems to thousands of sites.”

Kowalik also explained how such an installation is particularly challenging because car dealers need a “very sophisticated system to distinguish human intruders from environmental nuisances and animals, but also provide intelligent remote visualisation to determine if the intruder is a customer or a thief.”

Insurance reduction

Once IntrusionTrace has detected a potential interloper, control centre operators are notified and provide a visual verification. They will then remotely issue an audio warning to the person or people who are attempting a burglary. If they do not react, then the local police are notified and given access to the facility.

The benefits of such a system include a reduction in theft, better insurance premiums for businesses, and a significantly increased level of peace of mind for business owners.

Olaf Salomon, VW dealership owner in Leipzig, said, “We feel safe because the whole area is monitored by cameras. A potential burglar is immediately addressed. This provides us with a high level of prevention.”

Michael Albertsmeyer, an Audi dealer also hailed the remote accessibility of his system. “Now I can sleep a bit easier, especially because one can now take a look by himself using modern technology like iPads, where I can watch live footage. That gives me a complete, secure, feeling.

To find out more about how IntrusionTrace’s detection analytics can significantly reduce false alarms, and also be remotely configured within minutes, visit the Xtralis IntrusionTrace website.

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batye
batye
August 6, 2013 1:06 pm

thank you, Rob interesting point about silver lining… as Co. try to keep customers happy at the same time keeping shrink under control… and a lot of the time it is a very thine line…

Rob Ratcliff
Rob Ratcliff
August 9, 2013 7:56 am
Reply to  batye

Very thin, indeed, batye. But if surveillance can achieve a better shopping experience then it helps pay for itself beyond just reducing loss.

batye
batye
August 10, 2013 12:40 am
Reply to  Rob Ratcliff

yes, Rob you are right…

Robert Grossman
Robert Grossman
August 31, 2013 4:42 pm
Reply to  Rob Ratcliff

And the deterrant value of all of those cameras no doubt increases the effectiveness. Coupled with a disembodied voice warning people off, it is likely that would-be thieves will just take their “business” elsewhere. 

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