Dispatch system connecting mall security across the USA

Simon Property Group is a global leader in retail ownership and one of the largest retail real-estate investment trusts in the United States. To manage security for the group’s 190+ shopping centres across the United States, the company established a centralised Operational Intelligence Center (OIC) in Indianapolis, Illinois, that oversees critical specialised security operations and communications for all of their shopping centres.

Every day, over 3000 security professionals head to work at a Simon shopping mall prepared to provide security 24/7 in order to create a safe and secure experience for tenants and shoppers alike. Given the scale of the malls property portfolio across nearly 40 US states, including regional malls and premium outlets scattered across the country, it’s not surprising that Simon Property Group relies on a proven dispatch system at its OIC to manage communications — especially in mission-critical scenarios where health and safety of patrons are at risk.

Integration of geographically dispersed MOTOTRBO sites

The organisation required a dispatch system that could easily integrate communications from sites scattered across the United States into the one centralised control. An Omnitronics dispatch solution was selected as a replacement of an existing Omnitronics dispatch system that had been running since 2013.

This upgrade was necessary to expand capacity in support of the new state-of-the-art operations centre, which oversees the security of sites across the country — from Florida to California and everywhere in between. With the expansion to 92 staff at the OIC, which monitors 190+ sites, the increased scale of operations in the centre requires real-time information about the communications network with the ability to balance workload.

“The [190+] sites are scattered all across the country and beyond,” said the OIC’s Executive Director, Brian Burris. “People are really amazed … when we show them the map of our properties that we can talk to all properties across the nation in real time on the radio from our Operational Intelligence Center.”

Real-time analytics and reporting

The upgrade was not only necessary to increase the number of channels/properties, it also gives security additional comprehensive business analytics to, among other metrics, view system and operator workloads in real time. Each site can operate standalone whilst being integrated into the operations centre.

As a variety of different IP links are used for the RoIP traffic, the Omnitronics gateways that interface the MOTOTRBO radios incorporate link quality statistics that can be used to measure the IP performance of each link. Features such as remote MOTOTRBO Channel Change from the operations centre allow operators to communicate with multiple teams.

An impressive set-up

“When we get tours from high-level people from Homeland Security, the FBI, the military [and] police department coming to our facility … watching all those property names [across the country] flash, they are all really amazed at all the different components that we have available to us,” Burris said.

The mall owners, Simon Property Group, and their security provider can thus rest assured that the state-of-the art Omnitronics dispatch system will serve them well in managing communications across the country whilst providing vital business insights to streamline operations.

Image credit: iStock.com/AndreyPopov