Our client’s main concern was theft, vandalism, and people accessing the property without permission. They are responsible for the safety of their customers’ property and want to ensure that nothing is vandalized or stolen while under their care. 

They approached Otm to help create a security solution that would give them greater visibility over their site. 

Because of the size of the lot, they were concerned that just a few cameras wouldn’t be enough to monitor their entire facility. Due to the terrain (they are located partially on a hill), only part of the facility is fenced off.

When they approached Otm Systems, they knew that they needed more visibility to monitor their facility and ensure the safety of their customers’ property, but they didn’t necessarily have the budget for hundreds of cameras or the ability to fence off their entire property. 

As with every project, we started with a detailed needs assessment. This allowed us to understand our client’s specific problems, budget, and which solutions they have tried already.

Part of this process included giving them general recommendations to see their comfort level with different solutions. 

Once we had that high-level feedback, Dan visited the site to take measurements, get the lay of the land, and assess the state of any existing infrastructure. 

Back at the office, we uploaded the site plan into a design tool and prepared a device layout showing cameras and other pieces of equipment.

From this, we determined the optimal placement of cameras, selected the correct type of equipment, and did a material take-off for cables and other pieces required to connect everything together. Because of our client’s specific needs, we ended up building several iterations and were able to present them with multiple options. 

Based on our experience securing large open areas, we knew that simply installing more cameras wouldn’t be enough to address our client’s concerns fully.

We needed to account for visibility at night, control access to the fenced-off areas of the property, expand off of their existing systems and save them time responding to false alarms when cameras were tripped by wildlife or other traffic. 

The first option addressed their main concern (the need for extra visibility over their entire site) with no extras.

We then prepared a middle-ground option that covered their primary concern and a couple of extra recommendations from us.

Finally, we presented a third, comprehensive option that does everything they asked for and protects them from concerns outside of just visibility.

Our client ended up going with the second option. 

We landed on a solution that included several strategically placed cameras in conspicuous locations, a few discrete cameras (including Infrared for nighttime visibility), and video analytics to determine when people or vehicles entered the site during off hours.

With remote monitoring and analytics, the owner only received notifications when suspicious behaviour was detected and didn’t have to respond to numerous false alarms.

We also proposed an electronic access control system at the main gate with an intercom that customers could use to access the fenced-off portion of the property. This went beyond just simple visibility concerns and helped them control access to the site. 

Our client ended up with a solution that gave them greater visibility over their property. They felt that the security of their site was taken seriously, and we were able to build a security solution that met all of their needs and respected their budget.

The controlled access and ability to monitor when people came and went gave them greater comfort and peace of mind.