Across Europe, retail parks and mixed-use complexes are facing increasing pressure from escalating energy costs, more stringent ESG regulations, and evolving customer expectations. Scenera’s cloud-based occupancy intelligence system, MAIstro, presents a compelling proposition for retail landlords and operators seeking to transform properties into fully integrated smart buildings. BlindEye, a privacy-maximising camera sensor, bolsters this proposition.
Why Climate and Operational Pressures Make Smart Buildings Essential
- Energy consumption and CO2 emissions are now under regulatory scrutiny. MAIstro’s real-time energy monitoring and actionable optimisation can deliver up to 20% reductions, supporting ESG compliance and cost savings.
- Equipment maintenance, particularly HVAC, lighting, and escalators, benefits from predictive analytics that minimise downtime and repair costs by identifying issues before they occur.
- Customer behaviour analytics enable owners to tailor their spaces with data-informed decisions on footfall patterns, dwell time, tenant performance, and turnover trends.
What Sets Scenera Apart: Unique Retail Features
1. Privacy-First Occupancy Intelligence: BlindEye
BlindEye provides floor-plan level occupancy insights, such as fall detection, hygiene compliance, security alerts, and real-time footfall heatmaps, whilst keeping all imagery anonymous and secure. Ideal for public retail spaces, it adheres to GDPR and privacy standards.
2. Edge-Focused AI Topology Manager
MAIstro runs video AI primarily at the edge, and can be configured to only send anonymised AI analytics data to the cloud, or securely store video in case of security incidents. MAIstro’s ability to manage the AI footprint depending on requirements reduces bandwidth needs and cost, while maximising privacy and AI accuracy.
3. Shop-Level Return-on-Investment Tracking
Scenera presents analytics in “Scenes”, bundling energy, maintenance, tenancy, and occupancy data into dashboards that estimate the return on investment of specific actions (e.g. adjusting HVAC in corridor zones, scheduling cleaning based on actual traffic), critical for retail operators focused on measuring investment outcomes.
4. Customise MAIstro and Query your Data with Microsoft Copilot
Scenera recently integrated Microsoft Copilot into MAIstro, making it easy for teams to configure the system by uploading company policy, operating procedure documents, and schedules. It also allows teams to maximise the value of data, enabling posing plain-language questions (“Is the food court energy usage rising?”, “When is washroom cleaning required?”, etc.) and receiving intelligent, operational responses and recommendations.
How Retail Property Teams Benefit
|
Challenge |
Scenera Value |
|
High energy usage and CO2 targets |
Real-time optimisation and actionable dashboards improve efficiency and support up to 20% savings. |
|
Maintenance delays cost money and |
Predictive insights reduce reactive maintenance and costs by forecasting faults. |
|
Over-cleaning or under-cleaning |
BlindEye occupancy triggers ensure cleaning is precisely when needed. |
|
Tenant dissatisfaction with static |
Real-time behavioural insights allow adaptive lighting, HVAC, and space layouts. |
|
Complex compliance and |
Privacy-first sensing model satisfies GDPR and public trust needs. |
Real-Life Impact
In South Korea, Scenera and its partner S&I implemented MAIstro across retail chains and office buildings, achieving approximately 10% energy savings and a 17% reduction in maintenance costs. The solution was scalable and integrated with existing camera infrastructure, ensuring straightforward deployment without major retrofits.
Collaborations with Sony Semiconductor Solutions have enabled real-time event detection and safety monitoring across retail and public-facing environments, as demonstrated widely at MWC and CREtech showcases.
Why Now for European Retail Property Managers?
- European retail parks and districts are under mounting pressure to deliver ESG results, enhance tenant experience, and reduce costs.
- Upgrading to a smart building platform helps operators monetise data through savings, service improvements, and competitive positioning.
- Scenera's flexible integration, with camera-agnostic architecture and occupancy privacy, allows retrofitting without heavy capital expenditure.
“Scenera offers an unprecedented combination of AI technologies to help retail operators understand customer behaviour, ensure safety, without compromising on privacy. The Scenera platform is the easiest and most cost-effective way to run cameras based on Sony’s IMX500 sensor, ensuring optimal vision AI accuracy and timely spatial intelligence.” Patryk Laurent, CEO, Scenera
For European real estate leaders aiming to convert retail centres into agile, data-driven smart properties, Scenera’s combination of MAIstro, Copilot AI, and BlindEye offers a powerful toolkit, bridging energy efficiency, maintenance savings, proactive customer insights, and regulatory compliance.
Discover More
Explore how Scenera is helping reshape retail real estate operations: www.scenera.net
