An Irish automotive servicing business, Tractamotors, has seen a 60 per cent reduction in losses for the retail arm of its business after the installation of network cameras to its site in Cavan.
Encom installed Axis network cameras and a Milestone XProtect video software, to replace a legacy analogue system to monitor health and safety and reduce shrinkage across the two acre site.
Atul Rajput, Axis’ regional director, northern Europe said: “Tractamotors was suffering from patchy coverage from an antiquated analogue CCTV system. The site consisted of an administrative area, garage, retail hardware store, trade yard and a small agricultural machinery division. Its location on a busy main road toward Dublin meant that it received a lot of customer traffic as well as frequent supplier deliveries, which all required close surveillance monitoring to reduce incidents of theft and vandalism and to protect staff and customers.”
Tractamotors initially looked at an upgrade to its analogue CCTV system but after testing a hybrid digital video recording package, it decided to switch from analogue to digital. Ciaran Murray, IT manager at Tractamotors, said: “We looked at other solutions but, in the end, decided that we wanted something truly digital. Encom’s proposal, using Axis network cameras and Milestone XProtect was the perfect solution.”
More than 40 AXIS M32 Series fixed dome network cameras were installed in the hardware and retail areas of the business, to minimise stock loss and reduce theft. Encom was able to integrate some of the analogue system by using Axis video encoders.
Tractamotor’s shop floor had lots of aisles, obscured by shelving, with no clear field of view. To overcome this, Axis’ Corridor Format was used with the M3204 camera to rotate the video’s aspect ratio to a portrait view.
Coverage in the store was increased from 25pc to 80pc with the new cameras hence losses have been reduced by an average of 60pc. Ciaran Murray added: “The main priority was to reduce pilfering in the store area and increase camera coverage, as our previous system only protected limited high-risk zones. As we were still fairly satisfied with some of the co-axial cameras, we were pleased that they were able to be incorporated into the overall solution.”
Camera count was also increased in other parts of the site to address health and safety in the tyre and refitting areas of the business. Atul Rajput said: “In total, 48 Axis network cameras were installed across the site. All entrances and exits are now closely monitored so that managers can keep an eye on stock deliveries and any unauthorised out-of-hours access – live footage can even be monitored remotely via an iPad.”
Ciaran Murray added: “We are happy with the system. Stock control is much more robust and the overall security of the site has been tightened up considerably. Axis and Encom will be our first port of call for any future solutions.”
Visit: www.axis.com.
