Active Security Solutions has installed an IP video surveillance solution incorporating 30 Synology DiskStation network area storage devices and 265 IP cameras at 26 Coupland’s Bakery stores across New Zealand.
COUPLAND’S Bakeries is one of the largest independently-owned bakery chains in New Zealand. The company operates 26 retail bakeries throughout the South Island, Hamilton, Rotorua, Tauranga and most recently Napier, and two large-scale manufacturing facilities in Christchurch and Hamilton.
To handle its video surveillance requirements, Coupland's Bakeries had an old Windows-based surveillance system that occasionally broke down and was very slow operationally. Aiming to improve customer service and ensure the delivery of high quality products, Coupland's Bakeries requires surveillance to oversee cashier's desks, truck pickups and deliveries, as well as the entire retail stores and factories. Additionally, thefts, errors, and vandalism have to be managed.
The company decided to replace its old surveillance system with a reliable, cost-effective and intuitive IP surveillance solution. After a thorough evaluation of several PC and NAS systems, Lindsay Sutcliffe, CIO of Couplands' Bakeries, decided on Synology surveillance solution and commissioned integrator, Active Security Systems, to deploy more than 30 Synology DiskStations to manage a total of 265 IP cameras in their 26 retail bakeries and 2 large-scale production facilities.
Integrator Active Security Systems has a good understanding of the Synology Surveillance Station software and extensive experience with IP security camera deployment from small to large sites. Active Security Systems integrated the Coupland’s solution so that all DiskStations are centrally managed from the company's head office in Christchurch. Many sites also set up a screen to display a live-view of the images streamed from shop cameras locally.
A challenge of the application was that Coupland's Bakeries numerous retail outlets and production facilities across New Zealand each have a different size and security requirement.
"Synology provides a wide selection of DiskStations, from which we can choose different models that fit the needs of large or small sites,” Sutcliffe said. “Also, Synology DiskStations are designed to scale flexibility to store video streams with high image quality.”
Prior to Synology surveillance solution, Coupland's Bakeries had already deployed several IP cameras in various sites. According to Sutcliffe, switching to Synology surveillance solution does not leave the company’s existing cameras inoperative; instead, all these cameras are still compatible with Synology DiskStations. Furthermore, Synology's camera support continues to add the latest camera models to its compatibility list.
"Synology even managed to support the latest fisheye technologies, giving us the cost-effective solution of using only one VIVOTEK fisheye camera to cover all angles of a location," explained Sutcliffe. "The dewarping feature works really well."
According to Sutcliffe, another advantage to Synology surveillance solution is its reliability. All the DiskStation models run Synology Surveillance Station, and share the same features.
"Surveillance Station is intuitive and easy to use, making it quick for employees to utilize the system," said Sutcliffe. “Because Surveillance Station is entirely web-based, it’s easier for the company to maintain the system than having to installing client software on each computer.”
Surveillance Station offers features designed to help Coupland's Bakeries capture moments of vandalism, theft, errors, and accidents during live feeds and recorded events. A variety of analytic tools, such as motion detection, offer substantial capabilities and send alerts to when suspicious incidents occur. The company was especially impressed by DS cam.
"DS cam allows us to react to incidents while away from the office, providing mobile device access to all sites including live viewing and recorded footage," said Sutcliffe. ♦
