Case Studies5 min readSeptember 28, 2026

Case Study: Replacing 11 Retail Locations' Analogue CCTV With a Unified IP Camera System

Northgate Retail Group was running outdated analogue cameras with significant blind spots across 11 locations. Here's how we replaced the entire system in six weeks.

Northgate Retail Group operates 11 retail locations across Mississauga and Brampton. When they came to us, their security camera situation was a liability: outdated analogue CCTV systems with significant blind spots in stockrooms and loading docks, footage quality too poor to be useful in loss-prevention investigations, and no remote monitoring capability for their security team. Two locations had cameras that had been non-functional for over a year.

The Challenge

Replacing camera systems across 11 active retail locations is a coordination challenge as much as a technical one. Retail environments operate long hours, and installation work that disrupts customers or staff is unacceptable. We needed to complete each location with minimal disruption to operations — ideally overnight or during off-hours.

The second challenge was standardization. Northgate's security team needed to be able to manage all 11 locations from a single platform. That meant every location needed to run the same camera hardware and the same NVR (network video recorder) platform, configured consistently.

Our Approach

We started with a coverage mapping exercise at each location. Working with Northgate's loss prevention team, we identified every blind spot in the existing system and designed new camera placements to eliminate them. Particular attention went to stockrooms, POS areas, and loading docks — the areas with the highest shrinkage.

We specified 4K dome and bullet cameras throughout, with PoE switches feeding into a centralized NVR setup at each location. All cabling was run concealed where possible and labelled throughout. Remote access was configured for the Northgate security team with role-based permissions — the security director can see everything, while store managers can only see their own location.

The project was completed across all 11 locations within a six-week window, with each location done in a single overnight shift.

The Result

Shrinkage at the pilot locations dropped by 34% in the first quarter post-installation. The security team can now monitor all 11 locations from a single dashboard with 30-day footage retention. Within the first three months, two insurance claims were successfully supported with high-resolution footage that would have been unusable under the old system.

What This Means for Your Business

If you're operating multiple locations with inconsistent or outdated camera systems, the risk isn't just shrinkage — it's the inability to respond effectively when something goes wrong. A unified, modern IP camera system changes that.