Denver Integrator Utilizes Hikvision Surveillance System to Secure Marijuana Grow Facility
A-1 Security used 95 Hikvision security cameras with multiple 32-channel NVRs to achieve 40 days of video storage per camera.
BOULDER, Colo. — Evan Anderson, owner of medical marijuana company 14er Gardens, needed a high-end security solution for his newly retrofitted building, located here, that met all requirements set forth by Colorado’s Marijuana Enforcement Division (MED).
Anderson would turn to Sofia Aguilar, sales manager and partner at A-1 Security Systems in Denver. Aguilar has designed and installed hundreds of Hikvision security systems at growing facilities throughout Colorado since moving from Texas in 2008 to join A-1 as a business partner.
Aguilar worked closely with Anderson and his team to design a custom, high-end Hikvision security system that deployed a total of 95 cameras for indoor and outdoor surveillance and used Hikvision’s Pro Series NVRs for storage.
All of 14er gardens are indoor facilities that meticulously control growth quality of the plants. “Outdoor growing facilities do exist,” says Anderson. “But they don’t deliver the consistent product quality every month of the year. Our approach is more of a manufacturing model, versus an agricultural endeavor.”
Complying With Best Practices
A-1 was tasked with designing a comprehensive security system that met the MED storage requirements for 40 days of on- and off-site recording.
“It’s advantageous for growers to buy or build-out larger facilities to increase production. With that comes the demand for high-end, large-scale security systems with impeccable visual quality,” explains Aguilar.
She says that growers who’ve used low-end systems often experience higher rates of break-ins, and if a camera has poor image quality it means lack of clear facial features in video images to help identify culprits.
Anderson has worked with the MED to establish best practices and guidelines for securing these types of facilities before. Initially, Colorado planned to establish a central monitoring station to link IP cameras from all marijuana growers throughout the state.
However, a third-party consultant was brought in to evaluate that proposal and determined the model would use about 10% of the state’s total bandwidth due to the sheer size of the industry.
Following that assessment, the Colorado regulatory model for security shifted to a requirement that growers keep 40 days of on-site and 40 days of off-site video recordings per camera, although most entities keep more than that on hand, according to Anderson.
Utilizing Hikvision’s Arsenal of Solutions
Aguilar recommended multiple 32-channel Hikvision NVRs that are not at full capacity, in the unlikely event that a hard drive fails the remaining recorders will continue to work. “I can honestly say the Hikvision recorders have never failed,” says Aguilar. “Being a Hikvision Platinum dealer, A-1 offers a five-year warranty. We feel confident in the system we install without concern that we will need to return to a site just to repair a broken recorder.”
A-1 installed the Hikvision Pro Series DS-9632NI-I8 NVRs, a 32-channel model with 48 terabytes (TB) of internal storage, providing increased throughput and larger capacity to meet MED storage requirements.
Aguilar stacks the NVRs and uses an external server, which requires slightly more investment, but offers the client greater bandwidth to stream large amounts of data more quickly. In Anderson’s case, this is critical since the state of Colorado can ask to see recorded footage with little advanced notice.
95 security cameras were used to complete the system, with about half used indoors and the other half placed outside of the facility for perimeter, outdoor entrance and parking lot surveillance.
For indoor coverage, A-1 installed Hikvision’s DS-2CD2135FWD-I 3MP ultra-low light network dome camera to cover all rooms containing product and all exits and entrances, which is an MED requirement. .
Though this dome camera is actually designed as an outdoor model, Aguilar selected it for indoor use because of its vandal-proof rating, weather resistance and clear imagery during day or evening conditions.
“We can turn off the IR feature in the growing area but leave it on in the hallways and other areas where it can help with image quality (trim, drying, packing, vault, etc.),” says Aguilar. “Weather resistance means no need to worry about chemicals, nutrients, misting or watering, and it is a very hot, humid environment. These are live plants that require all these things to survive and thrive like hothouse tomatoes or tropical plants. And the environment is either very brightly lit or pitch black, mimicking an outdoor environment.”
In the grow rooms, lights are placed vertically and each room has rows of product with a three foot space in between for people to walk while tending plants. A-1 placed indoor cameras at the end of product rows and at accessible wall areas to provide 360-degree coverage.
The building exterior was secured using Hikvision’s DS-2CD2T55FWD-I5 outdoor network bullet camera featuring 5MP of resolution, 120 dB Wide Dynamic Range and Digital Noise Reduction. Aguilar “likes the 5MP varifocal models for parking lots. I install them in crisscross fashion to provide blanket coverage with the capability to zoom in on parking lot entrances.”
Surveillance cameras record non-stop, 24 hours a day, seven days a week since MED requirements do not allow motion-activated recording.
To install the system, A-1 had to overcome challenges associated with an older concrete building that was “built like a bunker” with an architectural accent bar along the roof perimeter. The constraint required them to pipe and core drill through exterior concrete and run wires through conduits or O-rings that were hammer-drilled into the seams every four feet.
A Comprehensive Security Solution for a Burgeoning Industry
The entire Boulder facility is run through a mobile platform. Thanks to extensive automation, 14er moved from physical-based labor to web-based controls.
The Hikvision iVMS-4200 platform helps 14er with automation by providing better integration, reduced cost and user-friendly remote viewing. “Older systems were built more for an IT or security systems expert, not for clients to have a convenient system they could easily use,” says Anderson. “Hikvision’s iVMS platform helps us keep impeccable records of everything in the cloud, so when the state of Colorado contacts us for immediate access to recordings, we can easily provide them.”
“Achieving the MED-required 40 days of on-site and off-site recordings is a big deal,” says Aguilar. “With the Hikvision iVMS system they were able to build a platform around Hikvision products, solving the state’s problem of how to record at a reasonable price.”
Hikvision worked with technology partner byRemote to develop software that utilizes Hikvision’s iVMS product to record off-site, according to Aguilar.
Aguilar initially had reservations about marijuana as a vertical focus for A-1 Security Systems, believing it was too high-risk and if grower’s operations were shut down, A-1 would quickly lose its customer base.
Eventually her business partner, Leif Wulforst, convinced her that marijuana was a viable business. Since then, A-1 helped to develop standards for video surveillance and storage that have become industry best practice.
Cultivating a relationship with growers such as Anderson from 14er gardens led to the development of a surveillance system that met strict MED storage regulations while providing ease of viewing for end users and the state regulatory body.
Check out the slideshow above for images of the solution.
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