Café Soo enhances store safety and customer experience with Axis solution

Café Soo is a small coffee shop and cultural space that offers regular photography exhibitions and tarot card readings. Located in the middle of a residential area, the store has security concerns as there are not many people around at night after operating hours. When opened last May, Café Soo sought the introduction of a monitoring system for the security and safety of the store. It wanted a system capable of monitoring each section of the store without a blind spot and watching inside and outside of the store through a mobile device after opening hours including early morning when the supplies are delivered. All equipment should have an elegant design that can blend in with the store’s interior design that looks like a gallery, and the number of cameras in the store should be minimal to avoid psychological discomfort customers might feel. However, the store has a unique difficulty in the layout as the ceiling is lower than that of a general commercial facility.

Café Soo was able to ensure safety at the store at all times and create a comfortable environment by installing the all-in-one system consisting of an Axis network camera, network speaker, and AXIS Companion video management software. A small number of cameras monitor every section of the store day and night thanks to their wide-angle view and high-quality image. The compact size and beautiful design blend in with interior design of the gallery-type store, and customers barely notice the existence of the cameras. Although the café initially planned to install a Bluetooth speaker for background music in addition to the system, it is now playing music only with the Axis network speaker since it is satisfied with the excellent sound quality.

Café Soo plays music provided by a music streaming service (Melon) with an AXIS C2005 Network Speaker by connecting to AXIS C8033 Network Audio Bridge and MacBook Air. The background music creates a store atmosphere suitable for a certain day’s mood, the weather, and operating hours to ensure happy customers.

The ceiling-mount AXIS C2005 speaker does not require a power amplifier (amp) or digital signal processor (DSP) and can always play background music in clear and clean sound quality as well as broadcast pre-recorded voice messages. The AXIS C8033 is a convenient solution that connects and integrates analog equipment and a network audio system. Since all Axis audio equipment can be connected to the standard network, it does not require a special audio cable, so equipment installation is simple, which significantly reduces costs.

Shin TaeSoo, the owner of Café Soo explained, “Thanks to the camera’s high image quality and wide-angle view, we are able to monitor all sections of the store in detail with the three cameras. The speaker’s sound quality creates a nice store atmosphere, so we didn’t need to add an additional audio device.” He added, “I feel attached to my café because I participated in most of the interior design from the ground up. There are photos I took while traveling to different parts of the world displayed at the store, and I’m so glad the Axis equipment blends in with the store’s interior design. I’m definitely planning to install an Axis product at the second branch.”