Background

Melter S.A. de C.V. (Corporation) located in Monterrey, México manufactures water cooled components for the steel industry. Founded in 1990, Melter has quickly grown as an international exporter of water cooled components, heat exchangers, pressure vessels, formed heads and heat recuperators. Over 60% of Melter’s production is exported to the USA, Canada, Central America, the Caribbean and South America. Along with many other companies with business operations within the United States, Melter viewed Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) certification as critical to their continuing success. C-TPAT is a voluntary government-business initiative to build cooperative relationships that strengthen and improve overall international supply chain and U.S. border security. Through this initiative, U.S. Customs and Border Protection requires businesses to ensure the integrity of their security practices and communicate and verify the security guidelines of their business partners within the supply chain. To become C-TPAT certified, participating companies must have a video surveillance system covering sensitive security areas.

Mission

With an infrastructure adding to a total of over 635,000 square feet of office space, covered bays, warehouses and open yards, Melter required a sophisticated video surveillance solution for areas in and around their three facilities in order to obtain C-TPAT certification. Novalan Computadoras y Redes, VIVOTEK’s highly esteemed system integrator partner in Monterrey, México, worked closely with Melter to come up with a comprehensive solution to install a total of 50 pieces of VIVOTEK network cameras. Prior to the installation, there were only a few analog cameras set up on one of the many floors in the building to monitor the facility. The corporation was then seeking a better, more effective security structure. The skilled, knowledgeable staff members of Novalan in turn verified the feasibility of implementing network-based surveillance systems and studied how to go about executing such deployment, while at the same time meeting C-TPAT requirements. The main access to each of the factories and shipping zones were the priorities, along with other areas such as main entrances and so on. To the end-user, the ability for them to receive and access high-definition video footage was an absolute must. Among many other competing cameras, in total of 50 pieces of high-performance network cameras from VIVOTEK were selected.

Solution

A number of VIVOTEK IP7142 was installed in three separate buildings covering areas where high contrast lighting conditions were the most demanding. The Wide Dynamic Range (WDR) CMOS sensor enables the device to easily adapt to challenging lighting conditions. The IP7142 also comes with the IP66-rated weather-resistant housing, a vari-focal lens of 3.3 to 12 mm, with a built-in removable IR-cut filter and IR illuminators with coverage for up to 15 meters. With all the advanced features mentioned previously, the IP7142 is capable of resolving potential issues resulting from the environment and its surrounding field and guarantees to provide exceptional performances. Another model, the IP7361, is a high-performance bullet camera which carries several innovative technologies in a single package. It boasts high resolution and a combination of outdoor-specific features, such as concealed wiring, an IP67-rated weather-resistant housing, a removable IR-cut filter, IR illuminators and a 2-Megapixel sensor. The device was chosen for its high image quality and excellent outdoor performance —features ideally suited to cover Melter’s open yards and building entrances (areas considered of highest importance in gaining C-TPAT certification).

VIVOTEK IP8362, a bullet camera designed for outdoor applications, were installed in areas where the customer expected the solution to provide both functionality of high definition resolution and WDR enhancement technology to ensure exceptional image quality and details in extremely bright and dark environments. Speed domes are a vital solution to many outdoor projects and was no exception in this case. For the Melter project, a number of units of the high performance SD7313 with integrated 35x zoom lenses were placed around the building perimeters to ensure complete coverage of over 635,000 square feet. With its zoom capability, the SD7313 offers close-up images of distant objects in sharp detail and is designed for areas where high reliability and weatherproofing are required. VIVOTEK‘s own in-house VS7100, a professional single channel video server, and ST7501, a recording software designed for diverse surveillance applications, were installed to convert the analog signal of existing preinstalled camera systems, integrating them into the new network surveillance solution.

Customer Feedback

With the installation of VIVOTEK‘s solution, Melter successfully fulfilled the C-TPAT certification requirements. Gerardo Espinoza, Product Manager of Novalan, was happy with the cameras and their performances, "Fortunately, the camera system fulfilled the C-TPAT requirements, it even exceeded expectations in terms of image quality, real-time monitoring and easy operation from different devices."

Special Thanks

• Novalan
• Melter SA de CV