Hikvision IP Cameras Point To The Future For South Africa’s Shopping Malls

The scenic splendor of South Africa’s Western Cape Province has long attracted visitors. Millions of tourists flock to visit Table Mountain, the Cape of Good Hope, Robben Island where the late Nelson Mandela was incarcerated – and enjoy the Cape Winelands and the beautiful coastline. But, as the fourth largest of South Africa’s nine provinces with a population of almost 6 million, visitors with business in mind are also plentiful in the capital, Cape Town.

The town of Somerset West on the outskirts of Cape Town is ideally situated for commuters and visitors. Lying in the Helderberg basin with a view across the bay to Simon’s Town and Cape Point, and overlooked by the Hottentots-Holland mountain range, approximately 55,000 people call it home and welcome tourists to the beachfront and numerous golf courses. Both can also take advantage of Western Cape’s third-largest shopping center – Somerset Mall.

Bigger challenges

Parking management

Parking is extensive, with a total of 4,500 parking bays of which approximately 700 are undercover

First opened in 1993, Somerset Mall is on the N2 Freeway that connects Cape Town to Port Elizabeth and Durban. It’s an ideal position to attract visitors and since its first opening, the mall has seen numbers continue to climb.

Two separate expansion phases have taken place and Somerset Mall also houses 204 stores extending over more than 1.3 km, all with single-level access. Parking is also similarly extensive, with a total of 4,500 parking bays of which approximately 700 are undercover.

CCTV and visitor management

Alongside the stores, the most recent expansion of Somerset Mall has also seen it expand to encompass an Adventure Arena. This is dominated by a spectacular double climbing wall with views of the Helderburg mountains but the Adventure Arena also includes a 10-pin bowling alley, a games arcade, and an 8-screen movie complex.

As a result, the successful complex also attracts an average of 200,000 visitors per week. However, the CCTV security system had not kept pace with the growing numbers of visitors and shoppers and the mall’s management realized that enhancing the level of security was vital. They turned to systems-integrator SSC Infrasek for a solution.

Solution

Surveillance system 

Increasing levels of surveillance in the pedestrian areas and the extensive car parks was a priority"

According to Mario Groenewald, technical manager at SSC Infrasek, “When we looked at the entirety of the security challenges facing the Mall, we quickly realized that simply supplementing the existing analog system was not going to work."

"The expansion of the shopping precinct to 1.3 km of storefronts together with the new Arena and extensive car parks had stretched the old system almost to its limits. Increasing levels of surveillance in the pedestrian areas and the extensive car parks was a priority and we were also conscious that the mall is very innovative and successful in attracting visitors to its unique blend of attractions."

130 Hikvision network cameras

"Therefore, further expansion of the site is quite likely and any proposed CCTV system would have to be capable of coping with this expansion."

"Having been tasked with implementing a comprehensive CCTV system to maintain security throughout the whole complex, we decided that the only realistic solution was to replace the whole of the existing analog system with a fully IP CCTV system, based upon 130 Hikvision network cameras supplied through their local distributor, Sensor Limited.”

Cost-effective, HD images 

We used Hikvision products and found them to be robust and reliable, delivering very high-quality images"

According to Mario, the choice of Hikvision technology was based on several factors. “The wide range of cameras and options available to us meant that we could select the right camera for the job without compromising the design objectives."

"We had also used Hikvision products in other projects and found them to be robust and reliable, delivering very high-quality images while remaining cost-effective. Finally, Hikvision has successfully delivered many similar projects around the world and offered us great support from system design through to implementation.”

Results