Graybar Canada installed 13 MOBOTIX cameras at the Markham branch and 12 cameras in Halifax

Customer

Graybar Canada is an employee-owned wholesale distributor of electrical equipment, communications, lighting, automation, utilities, and security in the Canadian marketplace. Headquartered in Halifax, Nova Scotia, the company has more than 30 warehouses across the country packed with large inventories of top-rated products from industry-leading manufacturers. Their warehouse in Markham, Ontario, is the centrepiece of the company’s wire and cable operations.

Graybar Canada is proud to be a "green" company and is committed to reducing its footprint on the environment through continuous evolution of their business operations and has made becoming an industry leader in environmental initiatives a top priority. Their “Green Team” is responsible for developing, monitoring and improving sustainability measures to help provide a healthier future for employees, their families and communities. 

Challenge

Graybar Canada faced a variety of challenges in two different locations. Their headquarters in Halifax was victimised by graffiti, while the warehouse in Markham experienced loss prevention issues and illegal dumping on their property.

Surveillance coverage of a 40,000 square-foot warehouse is no picnic, especially when coupled with the struggle to secure perimeters to protect against vandalism and illegal dumping. In addition, the forward-thinking company needed a system that would allow cameras from Markham and Halifax to send video data to the company’s command centre in Halifax, where an additional camera system that leverages motion detection would record when someone entered the room and then notify all the managers. Their ideal system would also require minimal bandwidth and offer remote access to allow multiple staff members to view video as needed. As authorised distributors for several industry-leading security solutions companies, Graybar Canada has a keen understanding of the current product landscape and was able to easily and quickly select a solution that best fit their needs. 

Solution

The MOBOTIX decentralised concept incorporates a high-speed computer into every camera to reduce network bandwidth

Graybar Canada installed 13 MOBOTIX cameras at the Markham branch, comprised of seven M12 cameras with night-and-day options for perimeter security and six Q24s monitoring the warehouse. An additional 12 cameras were installed in Halifax, 11 of them designated to monitor the perimeter to protect against vandalism and one Q24 set to record in the data room.

The Q24s hemispheric technology, which allows for a 180-degree, panorama field of view with just a single lens, made it possible for Angelo Giancoulas, Technology Solutions Specialist, Graybar Canada to obtain full high-resolution coverage of Graybar Canada’s massive warehouse while significantly reducing the camera count and, therefore, the total cost of the system. “The number one reason why we chose MOBOTIX is the fact that we can take one Q24 and see a view that would normally take four to six cameras to provide. The real estate that you get from just one camera is amazing,” Giancoulas said. “We knew that if we went with the Q24 as our primary device in the warehouse, we would get more coverage for less upfront investment. It’s so discreet that many people assume it is a speaker or smoke detector. What they don’t know is that it is providing a complete bird’s eye view.” 

The DualNight M12 cameras with separate day and night sensors for operation around the clock provides exceptional perimeter coverage and the best image clarity available. One MOBOTIX camera with 3.1 megapixels records 30 times more detail than standard CCTV cameras, making larger image areas possible, decreasing camera counts and reducing immediate and long-term costs.

Furthermore, MOBOTIX’s decentralised concept incorporates a high-speed computer into every camera to reduce network bandwidth because video is processed on the cameras and images do not have to be transferred continuously.

“We know the product well because we sell the product and our IT group was really sold on the minimal bandwidth and storage requirements,” said Sean Fraser, Technology Solutions Specialist, Graybar Canada. “Add in that you can configure each camera separately and your functionality is limitless.”

The IT group sees many benefits to the cameras from their perspective. The scalability of the resolution quality at all times is a key feature because users can watch it live in low quality, but when an event happens that needs to be searched and downloaded, the downloaded material comes out in high quality. This saves a lot of stress on the network. The PoE is beneficial because it saves on traditionally powering the units. The settings are easy to configure with multiple configurations and functionality depending on the needs of the location and the user – whether remote or onsite. The features that email notifications, pictures, alarms, and even hardware failure notices save time from searching through or physically checking each camera regularly.

Graybar Canada found additional cost reduction and utility in MxControlCenter, a professional video management software included with the purchase of MOBOTIX cameras at no additional cost. It includes all of the functions required from a robust security software solution, including simple configuration and installation, layout editor floor plans, a user-friendly interface and allows for an unlimited amount of users so Graybar Canada can quickly and easily grant access to any employees who might need it.

“Managers at both branches have MxCC and we can each pull just the cameras we want to see at either branch,” Giancoulas said. “And just by opening up a web browser we can give people access to individual cameras and playback video because the decentralised concept basically makes each individual camera its own recording studio.” 

Results

With just a half dozen Q24 cameras deployed in the warehouse, Graybar Canada has significantly reduced its loss prevention risk, providing more than enough ROI to justify the investment in MOBOTIX. In addition, the perimeter protection from the M12 cameras has eliminated the branch’s previously constant struggle with illegal dumping.

The M12 cameras at the Halifax branch led to the arrest of a man vandalising the company’s external gate shortly after installation. Fraser believes the system has also served as a deterrent as vandals are aware that cameras are in place. Fraser said the cameras have also helped provide extra peace of mind. “There is a reassurance now that if something did happen we could figure out every detail of the situation,” he said. “But it mainly just helps employees feel a bit better about their cars, especially with the vandals we used to have.”

The company hopes to add even more ROI to their system in the future by using the web browser features with MxCC to help demo the system to potential customers. “We have had a lot of success with MOBOTIX in the last three or four years, both as a distributor and a user,” Fraser said. “From a company perspective, it is a solid business decision to continue to have their products deployed throughout our infrastructure to maximise our operations, reduce loss and control costs.”