星空传媒

Here in the UK, Baxi Potterton (as the company is now known in the wake of a merger with Blue Circle) is the largest central heating and hot water products manufacturer, providing a huge range of systems to satisfy customer needs across a range of sectors. It boasts manufacturing operations in most European countries, and enjoys export sales to over 50 nation states worldwide.

On home shores, the company backs all of this up with a network of highly trained engineers who provide after-sales service to clients all the year round.

Mark Keleghan is Baxi's quality systems and Health and Safety environmental manager. Based at the company's Business Centre hq in Brownedge Road, Preston, Keleghan is tasked with overseeing the implementation and day-to-day running of security provision across four disparate sites.

"In the past, our sites have primarily been secured by way of manned guarding," states Keleghan. "However, given the increasing costs associated with that, we have been looking to facilitate an enhanced means of securing our premises by combining the manned security element with electronic systems."

On top of wanting to provide comprehensive security for the different locations, Keleghan's internal risk assessment exercise highlighted the issue of assisting the implementation of Health and Safety regulations.

He invited a number of companies to discuss possible solutions, finally rounding on Warrington-based Zoom CCTV to assist with the specification and design of a fully-integrated security system.

"Responding to our brief, Zoom drew up plans for the four sites using a fully-equipped mobile demonstration vehicle," adds Keleghan. "This illustrated to me how using the latest technologies would provide the depth of security coverage we needed. A branded product solution was the answer. One that had to be offered within a competitive tender."

Spreading out end user costs
Committing company resources to a value-for-money project was high on Baxi's priority list. In order to meet this requirement head-on, Zoom CCTV proposed a number of procurement options 鈥� as Peter Riley (Zoom's sales executive) explains.

"Paying outright on completion of an installation is one option open to the end user, but we feel that lease rental packages are an equally good idea," urges Riley. "These incorporate the benefits of fixed quarterly payments over the term of a contract."

Riley continues: "Combining the costs of both the security systems' installation and subsequent maintenance over, say, a three to five-year period alleviates the necessity for the end user to release a single lump sum payment". Such an approach can help companies with their long-term budgetary planning, with the added benefit that they're not constrained by having a particular system as security technology inevitably matures.

"Unlike the situation that would arise with an outright purchase," adds Riley, "at the end of a lease rental contract the customer benefits from the added flexibility of being able to either purchase the security systems for an agreed price, or to continue the leasing contract. They can also decide whether or not to have the system upgraded, or to have a completely new one installed. This solution offers complete peace of mind for the end user for what is, after all, an extremely important purchasing decision."

Unlike the situation that would arise with an outright purchase, at the end of a lease rental contract the customer benefits from the added flexibility of being able to either purchase the security systems for an agreed price, or to continue the leasing c

Throughout the north west, Baxi sites cater for the manufacture, storage and distribution of the company's range of products. The Preston Business Centre hq plays host to the operations directors' offices, the main sales and marketing division, the service and technical support Call Centre, IT and research and development sections. In terms of security provision, the Business Centre features a WV-CU360 desktop controller and WJ-HD500 16-channel digital hard disk video recorder to allow local system control and recording.

In support of the HD500's recording mode, any CCTV images that are required for further analyses or evidential use may be downloaded onto an adjacent CD re-writer. Allied to this, a mix of day/night switching, WV-CW860 dome and WV-CP474 fixed Super Dynamic II cameras are linked to Baxi's local area network (LAN) via a WJ-HDB502 network card installed within the recorder. Emphasising the flexibility of the system's design, the site's camera images can also be accessed by key Baxi personnel via a password-protected web browser.

Protecting the major machinery
Located just a few miles down the road from the main Business Centre, Baxi's Club Street Foundry employs the very latest iron casting technology to produce machine castings for heat exchangers, a multitude of related components and a total of 70 different lightweight gas and oil-fired boilers.

Here, the finished product distribution warehouse is watched over by WV-CS850 570 TV line resolution low light cameras, which enable effective CCTV monitoring throughout a diverse range of operating conditions. The on-site Control Room is also used to remotely monitor and control the LAN-linked Business Centre's CCTV system.

The manufacture of copper piping, assembly of boilers and white powder coating of finished casings is carried out by over 400 staff at another Baxi location, this time at Padiham. Here, five high-speed domes and five fixed cameras have been installed for both general security purposes and to observe the product build process. At this Baxi plant, situations may be monitored for internal oil spillages, fire and 鈥� in the case of the adjacent River Calder 鈥� potential flooding risks.

Operating 24 hours per day, the largest of the four Baxi sites is situated to the north east of Preston. Occupying no less than 55,000 square feet in area, the main distribution facility holds over 25,000 different spare parts in stock. "At the Longbridge site we needed to provide Baxi with a solution that would cater for such an extensive operation," adds Peter Riley. "This involved getting the right level of systems integration and balance of security equipment. One that wouldn't impede daily business."

Riley has specified a digital video recorder for the site. A mix of colour dome cameras has been integrated with the site's fire alarms, intruder alarms, access control system and the main automatic entry/exit barriers. To prevent any unauthorised intrusion, the site's perimeter is protected via the use of palisade fencing in conjunction with tower-mounted cameras that boast alarm-activated pre-set positioning capabilities.

The need for remote monitoring
Supporting the round-the-clock working of the Longbridge site, Zoom CCTV has installed a WJ-AV20 Codec unit such that the site may be remotely monitored. Linked via ISDN to Visual Verification's state-of-the-art, BS 5979 and ISO 9002-accredited video monitoring centre in Manchester, this facility can prove to add value to the CCTV systems.

A further benefit of deploying remote monitoring so far as the end user is concerned is that it offers site operators the reassurance of visual confirmation of any triggered alarms. It assists with compliance in terms of ACPO's required standards, and thus helps to protect the end user's 'Police Level 1' response to genuine alarm activations. An all-important factor in maintaining a call-out response from the local Boys in Blue.

With all of the Baxi security installations now up-and-running, the subsequent smooth operation of the electronic security systems can be put down to the close working relationship forged between Baxi security manager Mark Keleghan and the project's security installer.