The 240,000 square foot Movianto UK logistics hub at Bedford operates around the clock five days a week, storing and managing the distribution of healthcare products each day and handling 40% of all the UK’s domestic pharmaceutical products.
In late 2010, Movianto’s operations director, Robin Edwards, made the decision to update and extend the surveillance of the logistics hub. The new security system needed to be able to track all vehicles at the barriers and moving around the site, as well as secure loading bays and rear fire exits which were seen as key areas of vulnerability.
During the previous eight years, Movianto had relied on two analogue CCTV systems which had been commissioned when the two adjacent warehouse buildings were built in 2002. The systems were beginning to show their age. They included a total of 23 cameras streaming 420 TV Line black and white images to two different DVR systems. The main concerns were that the old system provided poor quality images and inadequate surveillance coverage at the rear of the site. Movianto called in local security integrator Centra Security Systems (UK) to define its options for upgrading and improving the system.
Centra conducted a thorough site survey and used this as a basis for a full system upgrade proposal. Centra found that the existing cameras that were fixed on the buildings themselves no longer offered adequate surveillance. It recommended that higher quality networked cameras should be sited on eight metre high poles right around the site’s perimeter and fixed to face in towards the entrances, bays and fire exits of the buildings – thus affording much better surveillance coverage of vulnerable entrances and exits.
Solution
Centra recommended a system based on Milestone XProtect Professional video management software (VMS) to manage, view, archive and export from the latest multi-megapixel HD quality IP cameras from Axis and Mobotix.
Milestone XProtect Professional version 8 with Smart Client version 7 IP video management software provides viewing, recording and analysis of high resolution, HD-quality images, configured for Movianto at up to 18 frames per second from a total of 40 cameras.
The combined system on the Milestone platform records, stores and enables viewing and management of video images with archiving set for 30 days.
Internal coverage
A range of internal cameras from Axis and Mobotix were fitted on vertical columns which support the roof of the warehouse. Discreet network cameras – including the AXIS M3014 – were also fitted in some high traffic areas like the staff canteen and in some corridors for health and safety reasons.
Milestone XProtect Enterprise provides Movianto UK with a future-proof IP surveillance system which will be able to offer additional security functionality as the company’s facilities management and security team decide to invest in more. The fibre optic infrastructure combined with the open platform Milestone VMS forms the bedrock of a security system which will be able to grow and extend its functionality as Movianto places increased demands on it.
ANPR integration
Following completion of the main warehousing buildings Centra made recommendations for tightening security at the entrance to the site. Two more fixed IP cameras were fitted on 2.5 metre poles and configured to pick up the number plates of vehicles as they enter and leave the site. Milestone’s Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) software module now enables Movianto to log all number plates and potentially check these off against a known database of registrations automatically. This now provides a greater level of protection against unauthorised vehicles entering the site.
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