IP Video Supports Quality Management

Kian Cord Company (KCC) is a private sector manufacturing company located about 400 km south west of Tehran in a suburb of Malayer city in the Hamedan province. The main product of KCC is tire cord fabric, which is supplied to major local and international tire manufacturers. Although KCC's 28 hectare production facilities - far from the city - may be considered as a candidate site for a comprehensive CCTV system, that was not the main reason why the KCC management was convinced to invest in an appropriate CCTV system.

"Quality as top priority!" was the inspiration for the implementation of CCTV. Besides ISO9001, ISO14001 and ISO18001 certificates for quality management, safety and environmental management, the KCC management is very busy with the continuous monitoring and supervision of the whole production process, transportation and warehousing.

In addition, observation of the mandatory safety procedures and detailed investigation of events within the production process were among the other reasons that the KCC management felt the need to use a CCTV system along the process chain and production lines, rather than for security issues such as outdoor/perimeter applications.

Besides that, the remote monitoring capabilities either from the Tehran headquarters of KCC and from any other location in Iran or abroad were a kind of verification for the final decision of the KCC management team. After all, the presentation of live pictures of the production process to KCC‘s clients anywhere in the world was considered as a powerful marketing tool. Finally, the Vida Group, as system integrator for the total security system, was invited to present the best possible solutions to satisfy KCC's requirements.

IP as Best Solution
After a preliminary study of KCC's preconditions, an IP based CCTV system was considered to be the most appropriate. The reasons were firstly to make use of the existing IT backbone at the factory and the availability of IT experts for data transmission to different departments and to the HQ in Tehran.

Secondly, an easy extensibility of the CCTV system within the plant should be possible due to the extension of the production facilities as well as for security issues. Thirdly, there should be remote system management and surveillance capability. Although these points fully justified an IP CCTV system within the plant; the realization of such an idea, however, would require an expert company not only to undertake the installation works but also to provide training, system support and maintenance. The Vida Group, which consists of several specialized companies and organizations, was nominated to manage the whole project.

Selection of Suitable Cameras
The next step was to select the appropriate cameras. They would have to be extremely reliable, to perform at 16 m height in a tough environment with high temperature and electromagnetic radiation and with no physical access while continually providing a crisp picture 24/7. Under such critical conditions, the functionality of full remote adjustment through the local area network would be essential, especially when such functions as auto tracking and motion detection are needed to disburden the local operators from full time monitoring.

In order to minimize the model variation through the wide range of Panasonic cameras, the WV-NS202 PTZ camera with high dynamic range and optional 22x zoom and the WV-NF240 for those areas suitable for fixed camera installation were selected. The POE power supply of the cameras helped to minimize the wiring expenses and time schedule for the extremely complicated long cable routes. The whole CCTV LAN installation (in which both optical fiber and CAT5 cables were applied to support 62 cameras in the first step and up to 200 cameras in total) was completed by the LAN contractor within 2 weeks under Vida's supervision and with their technical support.

PC Solution Favored
Quotes were submitted together with some basic comments and recommendations. One was based on a NVR solution and the other one was a PC-based approach with Seetec software. The management of KCC decided in favor of the PC-based solution because this would minimize range costs by using standard devices. It would also be flexible when coping with future expansions and changes.

In comparison, with an NVR solution, a further NVR device would be necessary in order to add a few more cameras, causing high costs. The German Seetec 5 software provides many features, such as full compatibility with all Panasonic cameras, integrated system management and hierarchical authorization, interfaces to other systems such as the fire alarm, remote monitoring of live and recorded events as well as full management of the whole system via internet. Event capturing from recorded images with data encryption and a timestamp as well as powerful output capabilities of the software like multi-screen viewing, alarm management, SMS, email functionalities, alarm levels and alarm priority management and response are also included.

System Operation
The installed system operates to the customer's utmost satisfaction, even with low bandwidth internet connection, and allows successful 24/7 monitoring. One major improvement for the KCC management is that it doesn't matter if they are in the plant, 400 km away in the Tehran office or at any other place in the world for marketing and sales activities. Wherever internet access is available, they can connect to the surveillance system at their pre-defined authorization level and easily monitor live pictures as well as pre-recorded events, change settings of the whole system and of single cameras and access reports of past events. They also receive alarm data immediately via email and mobile phone and are able to oversee important events in daily business.