ADT Security has installed major Sensormatic brand Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS) retail security systems at multiple sites in 4 major airports around Australia for duty free retailer, the Nuance Group. The installation incorporates Sensormatic's new Floor-Max under floor / concealed EAS system, and represents the first time EAS has been used in such a large application in an air side at airports.

RETAIL security is a major challenge for end users and integrators. A successful retail environment is built around giving customers a powerful retail experience - that means a close encounter with the items they want to purchase. But by its very nature security applications are restrictive. The typical layered security system if taken to its natural end would lock retail items inside displays protected by electronic detection and surveillance systems. The merchandise would be safe but there would be no sales.

What all this means is that any EAS application is a search for balance in the clash between accessible retail display and the principles of security. But there's more to this story than that. These Nuance Group stores carry a range of portable high value items including fragrances, alcohol, cigarettes, electronics and other luxury goods - all of these are prime targets for thieves.

Making things more challenging still, the Nuance Group's duty free stores aren't bundled up on Main St with a ceiling, 4 walls and restricted access points lending themselves perfectly to typical EAS applications. Instead these stores are in major Australian airports - and they're not all in classic retail environments. The biggest of them sprawls across hundreds of square metres of open terminal smack in the entry and exit thoroughfares of Australia's largest airport. It has no ceilings, no walls and no single entry and exit points.

Logically at airports, passenger thoroughfare is the central function and the Nuance Group's retail security needs take second place to the airports' demand for efficient passenger movement. And we're not talking about just a few passengers. At major Australian airports multiple large aircraft arrive at the same time. In all, around 15,000 passengers pass through Sydney Airport each day and all must go through the Nuance Group's stores. If you can visualise 200 or 300 shoppers pouring through a retail environment simultaneously in a stream constantly replenished by the arrival of new flights then you're starting to get the picture.

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