Video System Fills Food Distributor’s Appetite for Safety
Security provider Imperial Surveillance upgraded Midwest Foods dated analog system.
The initial project called for Imperial Surveillance to outfit Midwest Foods with nine new IP cameras, along with transitioning 16 existing analog cameras onto the hybrid system. At press time, the security dealer bid and was selected to provide an additional 16-channel NVR and 14 HD cameras, as well as a new access control system (see sidebar) to improve the ad-ministering of entry/egress onto company grounds and throughout the facility.
While the design of the new video system may be fairly straightforward, the installation of the cameras and accompanying infrastructure was anything but a walk in the park. In fact, maneuvering across lengthy stretches of severely confined spaces – chest to the ground – was necessary to complete much of the project.
Techs Brave Confined Space to Conduct Installation
Imperial Surveillance Lead Technician Jason Ruggiero can tell you a thing or two about the realities of army crawling on the job. It was on his shoulders to carry out the installation of cameras, NVRs and necessary cabling. For the majority of the project he was joined by an assisting technician.
Consider their working environs. The cameras were mounted inside the sectioned coolers that house Midwest Foods’ farmed commodities. But the actual work was carried out in the thin recess between the top of the metal box coolers and the roof of the warehouse. A dark place? Try ink black. Tingle describes it thusly: “In between I-beams and the cooler roof is where you run into areas that are about one foot to 14 inches of space. [In some spots] you may have two-and-half-feet. I have had to go through there a couple times. It’s not pleasant.”
Ruggiero and his associate covered tens of thousands of square feet. “I knew it was going to be a tight spot to begin with. I was prepared that I would essentially be army crawling a lot of the time,” he says. “I knew the cooler itself was pretty much the whole length of the warehouse.”
Upon his initial looksee into the void with a lamp, he stepped back down the ladder with a bit of pep talk for the assistant technician: “I was able to see where I needed to go. I told the other installer it was going get dirty and we are going to get it done. It will be a good day. That’s how we prepared for it. We just got to it.”
That might have been an apt rally call at the beginning of each workday. Over the course of about a week, Ruggiero and another technician shoehorned them-selves into the workspace with gloves, an N95 respirator dust mask, headlamp and a heavy-duty helmet. Better to absorb the roofing nails protruding through the warehouse’s corrugated metal rooftop.
Two PoE switches, connected by a run of about 250 feet of Cat-6 cable, were installed above the coolers. Essentially operating on its own network, the system includes a gigabit router and 12TB storage.
The actual NVR boxes, connected to the PoE switches with Cat-6, were installed in a front-office network closet. Cat-5 was used for each camera run to the PoE switches. In his design, DiPietra surmised the more expensive Cat-6 was not justified since it would not have provided much of a difference by way of increased speed. The cameras transfer digital informati
on at about 10/100Mbps and the cable runs were considered small at 250 feet.
Mounting the cameras entailed cutting a hole in the freezer enclosing, which consists of 4-inch-thick Styrofoam-like material sandwiched in between metal sheeting. Ruggiero does a good job describing the work, succinctly: “We take a hole saw and drill through [the enclosing]. That will get your wire and your connections above the cooler into that 2-foot clearance section. Then we use self-tapping screws to actually mount the dome camera to the cooler itself. All the connections sit inside a junction box on top of the cooler in the crawl space. That way it minimizes any wiring showing. It is a cleaner install.”
The techs would later place two fiber-optic runs – front to back across the length of the warehouse – above the coolers to help ease and expedite future expansion of the video system. Ruggiero has a few fundamental tips to offer fellow installers who may one day find themselves in a similar installation predicament. Namely, have a good game plan going in.
“You need to have a clear idea of what you are getting yourself into. In this particular case we knew we would be working in a very tight space. So, we were sup-plied with the proper safety equipment,” he explains. “That planning went a long way for myself personally and for my installer. Game planning and just doing quality work to be proud of.”
DiPietra has high praise for his technicians. “It was brutal. If you are afraid of confined spaces you cannot work in that environment,” he says. “From one hatch to another it could be 100 feet. I person-ally couldn’t do it. My guys are awesome, they could.”
Success Stories Are Adding Up Thanks to IP
The hybrid system at Midwest Foods is a shining example of how an installing security contractor can provide IP video capabilities to an end user, cost effectively. The system also illustrates various new-found capabilities that can be achieved with digital video for small and medium-sized businesses.
Tingle and others at Midwest Foods saw the benefits of their new system immediately. The company is now exponentially better suited to review quality video footage in the event of a workman’s comp claim or criminal act. They are able to now efficiently appraise employee performance expectations, delivery and receiving logistics, and more.
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About the Author
Rodney Bosch, Senior Editor
Although Bosch’s name is quite familiar to those in the security industry, his previous experience has been in daily newspaper journalism. Prior to joining SECURITY SALES & INTEGRATION in 2006, he spent 15 years with the Los Angeles Times, where he performed a wide assortment of editorial responsibilities, including feature and metro department assignments as well as content producing for latimes.com. Bosch is a graduate of California State University, Fresno with a degree in Mass Communication & Journalism. In 2007, he successfully completed the National Burglar and Fire Alarm Association’s National Training School coursework to become a Certified Level I Alarm Technician.
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