Exceeded all expectations
"I am a businessman at heart - and that's why I like to get down to business!" Just one look at Franz Schreyer will have you convinced. After all, with all his hard work, his innovative nature and his entrepreneurial spirit, this businessman has managed to build up a very respectable corporate group in just about 30 years.
In 1977, he first founded Schreyer Haustechnik GmbH Markt Indersdorf, just 30 km south-east of Munich, population 10,000. Ten years later, Franz Schreyer went with his ‘gut feeling' and started up a car wash. Quite a big project at that time. The experts predicted that such a small town would draw only about 24,000 car washes a year. In reality, more than 50,000 to 60,000 customers visit the car wash annually exceeding even the most daring expectations.
Fill and wash
In 1992, Schreyer began to think that many of the cars that used his car wash everyday also needed to fill up with gas. At that time, however, the franchising offers from the large filling station chains were not very attractive, so Schreyer decided to develop his own gas station concept, which allowed for plenty of room at the pumps, for example. The following February, in 1993, the elegant filling station was opened with the most modern technology and a functional shop. Quite unique and a real eye catcher is the sloping glass design of the roof that lets a lot of daylight into the area around the pumps. The truck and bus pumps as well as the truck wash, which was installed in 1996, proved particularly effective and attracted even more customers.
The Schreyer Corporate Group also includes a bathroom studio with an attached store and a real estate division. The Group currently has more than 50 employees in total. To protect the filling station and the shops as well as to improve staff security, the company has installed 12 MOBOTIX cameras. Further installations are in the planning.
Safety first
"With the few tank-and-run incidents that occur in the countryside in Bavaria, we don't really need camera surveillance," said Franz Schreyer. "But it does increase the security for our staff considerably. And that's the main reason for me. Particularly because we just had an armed robbery not too long ago." Up until then, there was only one alarm button for security in the filling station. This prompted the owner to begin searching for the ideal solution.
Surprising results
"I talked to a number of well-known suppliers of video technology and found out some surprising things," reported Franz Schreyer. "All of the manufacturers offered me analogue technology. The first sales rep promised me the moon. Later their technician showed up and listed me all the problems involved. I also found out that analogue technology is much too complicated. For one thing, you have to look a long time until you find the pictures you want to have." Franz Schreyer also had a hard time understanding why he was told that he needed a total of eight cameras for four gas pumps.
Nothing you can't pay for
"All of the large suppliers advised me against network cameras; they said they were much too expensive. But this was exactly the technology that I was interested in," remembered Schreyer. After that, he paid a visit to the MOBOTIX booth at Systems in Munich in the fall of 2005, where the helpful staff explained exactly how the network cameras work. "The MOBOTIX staff took away my fear of getting into costs that were over my limit. And they were also able to directly refer me to a Secure Partner."
Willi Fischer, electrician and owner of Netzwerkservice-Fischer, was put in contact with Schreyer. "The man is a solution-oriented tradesman and technician first - and a salesman second," commented Franz Schreyer. As a technician, Willi Fischer soon realised that a total of four MOBOTIX cameras would do more than an adequate job of surveying the gas pumps. Another camera was added to monitor the entrance of Schreyer Haustechnik GmbH.
The total overview
Of course, the relatively large shop at the filling station also had to be monitored by the cameras - first, to provide greater security for the staff, but also to curb shoplifting. That was why the camera images were not only displayed via the network on the screens at the shopping checkout and in the office of the filling station manager, but also in Franz Schreyer's office, which was located nearby.
For the shop and the storeroom, Willi Fischer recommended five MOBOTIX D10-FixDome cameras, which are not only inconspicuous in their design and excellent in image quality, but they can also be configured in a variety of ways. Each camera can be equipped with any two lenses. The advantage: The five FixDomes installed generate 10 informative images. One camera with two standard lenses, for example, watches over the two checkout areas. Another camera is equipped with two fisheye lenses and can monitor the entire newspaper and magazine area. A third camera with a fisheye lens provides a good view of the entire shop and uses the other (standard) lens to keep a watchful eye over the entrance area.
"Outstanding image quality"
With a resolution of up to 2560x 60 pixels, the FixDome camera delivers incredibly sharp images that include a lot of detail. "The image quality is absolutely excellent, and another important reason why I decided to go with MOBOTIX," commented Franz Schreyer. To record the images, the system is equipped with a server that has a more-than-ample storage capacity of 500 GB. Recorded events and the corresponding pre- and post-alarm images are either triggered by the previously defined motion fields or, as in the entrance area, by passive infrared sensors to avoid any interference from light reflections.
Good combination
The combination of a network camera system with an attractive price and outstanding image quality has convinced Franz Schreyer to equip the truck wash and the do-it-yourself washing stalls with MOBOTIX cameras in the near future as well. And as another advantage, he commented, "I'm on the road a lot, so it's great to be able to take a look at the company now and then when I'm not there." No problem for MOBOTIX technology. All the owner needs on the road is a laptop, Internet access, a standard web browser and the right passwords.
