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Auto surveillance

Axis puts Lazarus Motor Company in the driver’s seat.

Lazarus Motor Company has a long history in the motor industry. Founded in 1957 as a family business, it now boasts six brands, a car hire division, as well as vehicle insurance and financing facilities.

An out-dated analogue system featuring 115 CCTV cameras was beginning to prove expensive, unreliable and substandard in terms of image quality. Lazarus Motor Company, situated next to the N1 highway in Centurion, Gauteng, covers approximately 31 000-square-metres under roof. This considerable area consists of six separate motor dealerships, immense workshop facilities with the capacity to service 300 vehicles per day, a parts department and administrative offices.

The six dealerships comprising Ford, Mazda, Land Rover, Jaguar, Volvo and Kia are each contained in their own buildings and present a challenging layout for effective surveillance. Another difficulty is the problematic matter of satisfactory access control. The reactive monitoring offered by the previous analogue solution did not provide adequate coverage for the entire compound and Lazarus Motors experienced several security incidents as a result of system limitations.

The importance of first-rate surveillance

“With up to R200 million worth of vehicles on the premises at any time, security is of utmost concern,” says Francois Maartens, head of security at Lazarus Motor Company. “24-hour proactive monitoring is an excellent way to drastically reduce our risk.”

Lazarus’s security provider since 2008, Shop4Security, demonstrated to management that a digital system was the simplest and most effective surveillance option.

Shop4Security recognised that high-resolution images of vehicles and number plates were essential. “Security personal need to be able to identify everything from specific vehicle details down to individual facial features from fairly significant distances,” remarks Shop4Security’s Retief Bezuidenhout. “With the Axis solution, we are no longer relying on fuzzy, indistinct images.”

Axis network cameras offering full HD video quality, extensive support, ease of installation and advanced video analytics features clinched the network video decision. Shop4Security oversaw the implementation of a fibre infrastructure in order to ensure improved bandwidth capacity to carry the video over extended distances with no interference from external noise such as computers, flourescent lights, power lines or lightning.

Distributed intelligence

Shop4Security deployed 138 Axis fixed network cameras and six Axis PTZ dome network cameras, all featuring HDTV video quality, at various strategic positions throughout the premises.

The compact and unobtrusive design of the AXIS P3304 network camera, chosen for indoor surveillance, allows for discreet monitoring without compromise on image quality or intelligent video capabilities.

The entire exterior of Lazarus Motors is monitored using a combination of Axis PTZ dome network cameras. The AXIS P5534 PTZ dome network camera, with its IP51-rated protection against dust and dripping water, HDTV-quality video and high PoE midspan, takes surveillance to the next level, providing high image quality even in low light conditions.

The effectiveness of the AXIS P5534 was inadvertently tested when an accident occurred on the busy N1 highway that runs past the Lazarus buildings. The entire incident was captured by the PTZ network camera and the footage was given to the authorities to confirm the cause and sequence of events of the collision.

Advanced observation

All work processes, operational areas, entrances and exits are monitored around the clock from a centralised control room. The risk of running 80% of analogue cameras without backup power has now been eliminated. The full HD image quality allows security personal to react immediately to suspicious behaviour that was difficult to observe from the blurry footage previously available.

“Eight 42-inch HD LCD Matrix Monitors provide a proactive and complete overview of the customers entire operation, no person or object can get in or out of here without being caught on camera,” says Bezuidenhout. “Massive data storage facilities store these recordings for as long as they may be necessary.”

The surveillance system is supported by NUUO recording software, ensuring professional functionality in a user-friendly environment.

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