Unox, a leading company in the production of professional ovens, recently relocated and expanded its offices and production plant. The new facilities needed a suitable video surveillance system to ensure security, especially during the night when personnel would not be on site. The system had to meet certain quality requirements for video images and provide a good return on investment.

Established in 1990, Unox is a leader in the production of professional ovens, a dynamic company that has become a major supplier to the hotel, retail chain, fast-food multinational, patisserie and frozen food producer sectors. Despite the crisis, Unox is growing rapidly both in Italy and abroad, so much so that in the last four years it has doubled sales and increased staff. The headquarters and plant were recently relocated to Cadoneghe, in the Province of Padua, and expanded, adding a further 150,000 sq. ft. (13,935 m²) to give a total of over 320,000 sq. ft. (29,730 m²) as well as being provided with a highly advanced and reliable IT infrastructure.

Given the importance it has in a company that has made innovation and R&D the main ingredients of its business, the setting up of an IT infrastructure was given the utmost attention right from the design phase. The existence of network cabling facilitated the choice of IP cameras, with preference going to those designed by Axis, already known to the client for their reliability and effectiveness. A total of thirty indoor and outdoor network cameras were installed, fully assigned to perimeter surveillance and with all video streams being managed by Axis Camera Station software.

Intelligent Eyes

An IP-based video surveillance system was set up for plant security using cameras linked to Axis Camera Station video management software, optimizing the investment in infrastructure. Altogether thirty cameras were installed, comprising twenty fixed-dome outdoor and ten indoor units, including three Axis P5534 PTZ network cameras. The latter, in addition to panning 360° via the so-called Auto-flip function, which allows the camera to simulate continuous panning beyond the mechanical stop, also incorporates the advanced gatekeeper function that automatically pans, tilts and zooms in when a movement is detected, and then automatically zooms out again after a preset time.

All of the cameras are assigned to perimeter surveillance during the night when personnel are not in attendance; they are timer activated and enable high-quality images to be captured even in poor lighting conditions. The monitoring of the video streams, currently handled by company personnel, will shortly be handed over to a private security company that, in the event of an alarm, will promptly take action to check the situation on the spot.

Unox believed in the potential of virtual environments right from the beginning and this has allowed the system integrator, Lan & Wan Solutions, to develop specific systemic services on both the data center front and that of networking infrastructure, also for video surveillance support. The system fully meets the client's requirements. In addition to significant cost savings derived from optimization of the existing IT infrastructure, Axis network cameras provide excellent image quality and automatic video software updates that continually improve their functionality. Andrea Bettiato, IT network manager at Unox, said "We are completely satisfied with the installed system. We already knew about the quality and effectiveness of Axis network cameras from those we had previously used in other plants and we can confirm that they fully meet our needs, in addition to the fact that we have never had any problems with them."

Added Functionality

In the near future, the surveillance system might be extended with additional Axis cameras to monitor the loading bay and to track outgoing goods. By taking a snapshot when a truck passes by, the camera will allow retrospective checking of possible loading errors.

"It's rare to find a client's technical staff so well trained and qualified. In this specific project, more than anything else, our support was in pre-sales consultancy and identifying which products to use, with the client carrying out the installation in complete autonomy after delivery of the equipment", stated Luigi Pedrotta, General Manager, Lan & Wan Solutions.