Based in Newark, Notts, Laurens Patisseries Limited is the largest fresh cream cake manufacturer in the UK, producing chilled cream cakes for many of the country’s leading supermarkets.

The challenge

With a 100,000 square foot site operating on a 8 acre site, Laurens required a sophisticated IP (Internet Protocol) CCTV solution that would help them monitor and control movement across a very large site.

They also wanted to be able to use the recorded footage to assist with staff training and improve operational efficiencies.

The company appointed Oxford-based Chris Lewis Security to specify and install a system for them.

Says the company’s MD Chris Lewis: “Because of the size of the site and the complexity of the job, we needed to install 45 analogue CCTV cameras across the perimeter fence, loading bays, car parks, production lines and offices to give us the total coverage our client wanted.

“While such a comprehensive system will provide a highly detailed picture of movements into and out of the premises, it also poses its own problem: monitoring.”

To handle this side of the job, Chris Lewis Security chose an Eventys Digital Video Monitoring System and an Eventys RMC (Remote Monitoring Centre) – both manufactured by Bewator.

The Eventys Digital Video Monitoring System (DVMS) is an advanced digital and audio recorder/server - effectively a hard disk recorder - and this was connected to support the cameras, capturing images from each of the 45 installed for future reference.

It has enormous storage capacity (900Gb) and offers outstanding search facilities that enable the user to graphically search events to pinpoint an incident. It is even possible to synchronise all the cameras to the time of an incident and view the relevant footage and then watch an incident unfold.

The Eventys RMC (Remote Monitoring Centre) is a highly flexible and easy to operate software solution. At the Newark installation, it provides Laurens with exceptional operational functionality - including the ability to view real time and recorded footage simultaneously.

As one of the most advanced digital recording solutions on the market, Bewator Eventys is able to support traditional analogue cameras as well as IP cameras. This enabled Laurens to create a hybrid system that utilises analogue cameras, whilst still providing a highly intuitive security system with superior motion detection and advanced search facilities.

In effect, if motion is detected by a camera, those images are prioritised.

Security staff at the factory are now able to keep close scrutiny on every part of the plant, knowing that they are recording each camera’s footage while focussing on key security areas and - if the occasion occurs – have their attention drawn immediately to any activity.

Training staff can also view footage at their leisure - speeding up the images to save time.

The dynamic Eventys technology also enables Laurens to control which members of staff can access footage from specific cameras by restricting viewing rights.

“This is a very intelligent system,” concludes Chris Lewis, “that really gives blanket coverage of a very large and complex site. Furthermore, it can easily be enhanced or upgraded at any time in the future   - for instance allowing images to be viewed remotely through the web.

“What’s more, it’s now working extremely well.”