The customer
With a history spanning over 100 years, Bowker have a proud Lancastrian history dating back to 1919 as a logistics operator. Bowker Motor Group was established in 1984 and today has motor dealerships in Preston and Blackburn representing prestige brands of Porsche, BMW, MINI, INEOS Grenadier, BMW Motorrad; and a Ribble Valley site retailing all makes of performance and sports cars with a full-Service Centre.
The challenge
With such high-value vehicles, as well as technology and tools, at each site, Bowker required a full-service security system, that could monitor all sites at once.
The security system also needed to accommodate the movements of staff without compromising the overall security status.
The solution
Gough & Kelly upgraded the existing security and camera systems with state-of-the-art AVADA Connect software, as well as installing new PTZ cameras integrated with Axis Radar.
Axis radar is a network-based device that uses advanced radar technology to offer extensive 180° area monitoring 24/7 and a low false alarm rate. The system also defines objects as human, vehicular or unknown to prevent false detections and tracking of random objects such as lighting and environmental changes, trees, and plant movement.
AVADA Connect is cutting-edge technology that allows for remote monitoring of multiple sites through integration with security cameras. Its key features include inbuilt person classification and detection, smart search, and scheduled alerts for out-of-hours detections.
The age of the existing cameras on the Bowker sites meant that analytics support was not possible previously, however, the Avada Connect built-in Person classification and detection method allowed for additional functionality on these cameras. The chosen detections now remove false positives and allow cause and effect to be triggered back to the Gough & Kelly command and monitoring centre when criteria are met.
The AVADA system also facilitates analytics that optimise staff experience. The integration of analytics with access control means that when employees swipe onto site using their access control card, the system's automated analytics response alerts are silenced, to prevent unwanted alarms. This is particularly useful for preventing false alarms if members of staff come in early or make unexpected visits.
The future
Gough & Kelly continues to work with Bowker and provides 24/7 support from our control room.