Background

Video Surveillance to Support an Ambitious American Growth Strategy

Bucherer is an iconic watchmaker founded in Switzerland in 1888 when Carl-Friedrich Bucherer opened the world’s first specialist watch and jewelry store in Lucerne. This laid the foundations for the family-owned business to forge partnerships with some of the most world famous watch brands. Today, Bucherer has expanded to become a global leading watch and jewelry retailer, steeped in tradition with breathtaking and opulent stores. It offers an international clientele the most extensive range of luxury timepieces and in-house crafted jewelry designed with rare, colored diamonds, gemstones, and sought-after pearls.

In 2020, the U.S. experienced an uptick in gun violence, robberies, organized crime, fraud, and insider threats, the luxury retail sector was one of the fastest sectors to react. As the post-COVID high-end market boomed, luxury retailers upgraded security and safety measures to protect high-value assets, staff, customers, shop fronts and high-end interiors as well as brand reputations.

Challenges

Enhanced Security While Ensuring the Ultimate Customer Experience

Following the acquisition of Tourneau in 2018, Bucherer was already ahead of the curve. With multi-million dollar store fit outs underway, Bucherer was set for highly anticipated 2021 U.S. grand openings from Boston to Hawaii, with stores designed to offer discerning customers’ the ultimate luxury shopping experience. To ensure the secure and safe operation of its stores, the company needed to implement comprehensive video surveillance, which would guarantee the best protection against increasing threats, theft, and support its growth ambitions across the United States.

Bucherer sought the expertise of Intellis Security Group, specializing in jewelry retail security and trusted partner to luxury brands across the world. Intellis offers a range of consulting and loss prevention services including system design and specification of state-of-the art technology. The new surveillance system needed to meet several key requirements:

• Comprehensive, ultra-high-definition (UHD) image capture without blind spots across multiple floors; timepiece and jewelry counters; lounge and bar areas.
• Reliable and robust multiple-mode edge, on-prem and cloud storage.
• Safe and secure jewelry sales best practice, compliance with insurance requirements, and the assurance of NDAA-compliant surveillance equipment.
• Highly accurate AI-powered video analytics enabling a preventive approach to security, staff safety, and analytics tools to ensure a luxury customer experience.
• Smooth installation with minimal cabling and disruption to store fit outs.
• Futureproof scalability combined with a low total cost of ownership

"I presented our security consultant Chris Kim (CEO of Intellis) with a challenge. How can I utilize a CCTV system to proactively make our sites safer for our employees?
By utilizing the event monitoring tool in conjunction with remote virtual monitoring. A live operator is alerted the minute anyone or a vehicle breaks our designated geo fence. This is made possible by our ability to stream multiple feeds out along with two- way communication."

Mr. Samuel Diaz,
Director of Security Bucherer USA

Solution

The Intellis design of the system was crucial to winning the project. Led by CEO, Chris Kim, Intellis specified an IDIS end-to-end solution encompassing a range of high-end, IR, UHD cameras providing complete internal and external domain awareness in all lighting conditions with the ability to capture crisp, clear images, so security personnel and store staff could easily distinguish individual gems, jewelry, and timepieces.

Intellis deployed IDIS’ high-performance, enterprise NVRs featuring impressive recording of up to 1,024Mbps; native dual power supply and RAID 1, 5, 6 to ensure robust and reliable storage; rack mount chassis and hot swappable disks for simple and fast maintenance; and pre-installed enterprise-level IDIS Solution Suite VMS and IDIS Deep Learning Analytics.

Key to the design was IDIS’ unique ability to simultaneously record video on SD cards on board cameras, on premise NVRs as well as to the cloud. IDIS Critical Failover would also protect against a range of fault conditions, including network instability, dropout, and power outages, providing Bucherer with the assurance of multi-layered redundancy.

Mutual authentication of IDIS DirectIP® plug-and-play of cameras, NVRs and AI devices meant seamless compatibility and strengthened cybersecurity. The hierarchical connection structure between IDIS devices, including built in PoE switches and power source equipment, also guaranteed the most efficient method of cabling to ensure each store was completed on time and budget.

Intellis recommended 24/7 monitoring using IDIS Solution Suite with its intuitive interface and feature rich functionality, ensuring a smooth, multi-task surveillance experience for operators. IDIS Intelligent Code also provides advanced compression of UHD video images, so operators experience no visible latency to quickly identify and verify suspicious behavior and rapidly respond in accordance with SOPs for each store. Deep learning powered analytics that generate highly accurate detection alerts to any suspicious activity and speed up investigations. This allows operators to take a proactive approach by relaying video or automating push notifications to security personnel on the ground via client software or the IDIS Mobile Plus App. Out-of-hours suspects are issued automated or manual audio warnings with law enforcement called upon as and when required.

Results and Benefits

Intellis and IDIS Put a Timely Sparkle into Bucherer’s Security Operations

The proactive solution means Bucherer’s security team works collaboratively with Intellis and its virtual guarding partner to monitor each store efficiently and effectively, identifying suspicious activity in and around each store. In the event of an employee error or criminal activity taking place, the team can rapidly retrieve crystal-clear video evidence.

Intellis and IDIS delivered Bucherer a single source solution for all cameras, recording, video management software, AI-powered security, safety, and business intelligence analytics providing a single point of contact for all their security and technical support needs. The solution also provides a broad range of security, safety, and retail intelligence advantages:

• A preventive approach to protecting staff, customers, assets, property, and a brand reputation built over more than a century.
• Situational awareness of every store and external perimeter with complete UHD coverage without any blind spots.
• Centralized real-time monitoring using highly accurate AI-powered alerts and push notifications allowing rapid intervention before losses occur or incidents escalate.
• Robust and reliable hybrid video storage to retrieve crystal-clear video evidence for the authorities and insurance companies.
• Actionable insight into in-store activity to increase brand loyalty, enhance the customer experience and boost profitability by turning browsing into purchasing.
• Extended hardware warranties, a low maintenance burden, no ongoing license fees or device connection costs combining to ensure an industry-best low total cost of ownership (TCO).

"IDIS America offered everything we needed to deliver Bucherer a high-performance surveillance and AI solution. The IDIS team were outstanding throughout each store deployment, from pre-sales and technical support through to commissioning and after care."

Chris Kim,
CEO, Intellis Security Group

"The level of service and timely response from IDIS is always amazing, from design to delivery. I strongly recommend IDIS solutions for anyone who’s looking to do more than just record video."

Mr. Samuel Diaz,
Director of Security Bucherer USA