IP video management software plus access control system has given BAM Nuttall Highway Services Unit 24-hour monitoring. The benefits the user says stretch beyond physical security to general operational and health and safety-related monitoring and training.
Video requirements
BAM Nuttall Highway Services Unit wanted a surveillance system to cover the new factory and the large yard to the rear of the offices to protect stocks of signs and other equipment. Cameras also were needed internally to cover the entire sign shop, yard and warehouse for health and safety reasons. Remote access to live and recorded video from smart devices was also important to BAM Nuttall because it is a busy site and at times road crews travel in and out throughout the night.
Steve Gee, Highways Engineering Manager at BAM Nuttall Highway Services, says: “In more than one case we’ve been able to investigate why intruder alarms have been triggered – by viewing the video from internal cameras remotely – this has saved call-out fees and provides instant peace of mind for us all.”
Health and safety
The Wirral-based installer NW Systems redeployed cameras from another BAM Nuttall site to the inside of the newly renovated sign shop to monitor the road sign manufacturing process from a health and safety perspective.
Steve Gee says: “We are unusual in some ways because our Highways teams have always used network cameras to support Health & Safety training exercises, so for us it was natural to want to use network cameras to monitor activity in this manufacturing facility to ensure compliance with the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 and other statutory requirements. For example we have mobile cameras facing backwards on the wagons we use to transport and install traffic management equipment. Recently we captured an incident where a car drove into the back of one of our impact protection vehicles. We were able to see that our personnel had been carrying out their work correctly and it was interesting to see how they reacted during the incident.
“As the car driver backed away from our vehicle one of our team stood in between our wagon and the car to tell the car driver to move onto the hard shoulder – the employee had placed himself in a dangerous position. Our managers now use the footage as part of a training exercise on how to deal with emergencies like this. It is our job as a responsible employer to highlight good and poor practise; using such visual aids to improve training can help our people to see how easy it is to become accustomed to risks they encounter every day. We have found that camera recordings are a great tool for affecting behavioural change.”
Site security
The security systems installer and Milestone Certified Partner NW Systems fitted external network cameras covering the front car parks, rear yard and perimeter fencing. More were deployed inside to cover the work shop and loading bay areas. The Power over Ethernet (PoE) high definition network cameras were connected via dedicated CAT5 cabling networked into Milestone XProtect Express as the central IP video management software. XProtect Express was then integrated with Paxton Net2 access control which provides door entry security for the 50 workers.
An external pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) camera covering the front of the building and car park is supported by the installation of white lights fitted with photo-electric cells. They turn on automatically when it gets dark. The new Axis cameras deployed for the rear yard use Axis’ patented Lightfinder technology which enables high quality colour images to be captured down to 0.05 lux without the aid of additional lighting. And video from all the cameras is viewed in real-time in split-screen format on a 30-inch LCD monitor located on a wall within full view of the open-plan office.
Steve Gee of BAM Nuttall Highway Services says: “We put the monitor out in the open because we want to show that there is nothing clandestine about our use of CCTV. It is there for the protection of our employees first and foremost. The other advantage of this approach is that if a camera signal is lost for any reason we see this almost immediately because it shows on the monitor. We never have a fear that the system has gone offline without us knowing about it.
“One significant advantage of using Milestone’s open platform technology is that we are able to use a mixture of serviceable second-hand network cameras that we had used at other locations (different vendor brands) as well as the new Axis ones that NW Systems has added. This saved us a great deal of money at the installation stage. Milestone’s ability to integrate access control with video into one efficient system, so that we can see what is happening at the doors and gates through live viewing alerts and searchable recordings, also proved invaluable.”
More installation savings were made by using BAM Nuttall’s own resources to complete key civil works such as sourcing and erecting poles and lighting units.
Frank Crouwel, Managing Director of NW Systems says: “The fact that BAM handled most of the civil works meant we could focus on optimising the siting and configuration of cameras and fitting new housings for the PTZ models, safe in the knowledge that Milestone XProtect would be able to handle feeds and record from all the different cameras.”
Mobile access on smart phones or tablets to real-time or recorded video via Milestone Mobile lets BAM Nuttall’s managers check in remotely if a major road works team is heading out, to make sure procedures are being followed and the site remains safe and secure during these busy periods.
Steve Gee says: “In this sense the remote mobile access to high quality video gives us genuine operational benefits. We might be able to alert a crew to something we have spotted on a vehicle before they hit the road. It offers an easy and valuable mechanism for double-checking ahead of high value services being delivered to site during the night.”
More security is provided at this site by watchmen, at gatehouses on the large industrial estate. BAM Nuttall has also been able to sign up a rapid TXT-based service for estate tenants. The service delivers messages from neighbouring companies and local police when security threats are detected or suspicious activity is spotted by other subscribers. All the watchmen are subscribers to the service and often make intelligence contributions.
After hours, Alarm Receiving Centre (ARC) provider Sonitec Systems picks up intruder alarm alerts, normally triggered by motion inside the building. The ARC operative then makes contact with BAM’s designated on-duty security manager who is able to view video from relevant cameras via Milestone Mobile to gain visual verification of what has triggered the alarm.
Scalability
NW Systems selected the Milestone XProtect platform for its ability to scale and expand as the site demands it. For example to add to security, BAM Nuttall plans to install an automatic gate at the side of the building for access to the rear yard. An intercom will be integrated with cameras so that visual verification in the Milestone software can be carried out at reception before the gates are opened by authorised staff after positive identification of drivers and vehicles.
Frank Crouwel of NW Systems adds: “There are no other VMS offerings out there better suited to providing robust yet scalable centralised video management and display than Milestone XProtect. The fact that we had a range of existing and new network cameras from three different manufacturers and also required full two-way integration of Paxton access control alerts, made Milestone’s open platform VMS the perfect fit.”
Technical specifications
Milestone XProtect Express sits on a S1 GVD server with Intel CORE i3-2100 processor and 1TB of storage capacity which is linked to a 30 inch LG LCD screen which provides a split-screen XProtect Smart Client view of live video above the reception desk in the office. Live and recorded video images are also displayed on a second S1 GVD PC with Intel Core i5-2500. The video is collected at 25 frames per second and held on the server for 30 days. Archived images are kept on the PC for use in training exercises or for reference only. Real-time viewing of the video in Milestone XProtect Express is also delivered via the Milestone Smart Client as well as to authorised Android and Apple smart phones and tablets via Milestone Mobile.
Two new AXIS P3364-VE fixed network cameras were installed – the first was fixed onto the side of the main building to cover vehicle entrance and gate, and the second was positioned on the back of the main building to monitor the rear yard. Two new AXIS P1354-E network cameras were also installed on eight metre poles – the first positioned to provide additional perimeter protection in an exposed part of the site, while the second provided coverage of the 50-bay car park at the front of the building. One existing Sony™ SNC-RX550P PTZ camera was positioned on an eight metre pole at the perimeter of the yard providing coverage of the rear fence line, surrounding fields and all stock stored against the rear fence.
Two existing Mobotix M24-D22 three-megapixel wide-angle cameras were redeployed inside the sign shop providing coverage of the factory itself. All were networked back into the Milestone XProtect Express VMS. Milestone XProtect Smart Client is used to view the video shown via the split-screen view on the 30-inch LCD screen above reception and on authorised laptop computers.
Paxton Net2 Professional access control software was installed to support 353-100 Paxton 353-110 Proximity readers and 50x 695-644 Paxton Net2 Proximity Key Fobs, as well as 514-326 Paxton Net2 Desktop Readers.
About
About BAM Nuttall Highway Services
BAM Nuttall Highway Services is a division of the construction and engineering giant BAM Nuttall Limited and focuses on four core areas: Sign manufacturing, Highway Maintenance, Street Lighting and the installation and repair of Vehicle Restraint Systems (i.e. motorway crash barriers). They support internal and external clients on some of the largest civil engineering contracts in the UK. Employees here also use CAD to design traffic management layouts. The sign shop designs and manufactures a wide range of signs including permanent and temporary road signs, information signs and bespoke signs. The site also stores and deploys road signage to major UK road works. The unit anticipates winning several Local Highways Authority and Highways Agency contracts over the next few years.
About Royal BAM Group
Royal BAM Group ranks amongst the largest construction companies in Europe. BAM is the market leader on home turf in the Netherlands and is strongly placed in all its key markets which are the UK, Ireland, Belgium and Germany. In the UK it employs more than 6,000 employees, has turnover of Euros 2.2 billion and is a Top 3 player in construction, property and civil engineering. As such it designs and builds some of the UK’s largest and most high-profile construction projects.
Websites
www.nwsystemsgroup.com , www.paxton.co.uk, www.milestonesys.com www.bamnuttall.co.uk
