When it comes to the surveillance monitoring of a fast-moving service station environment which typically has to cater for hundreds of customers every day, as well as deliveries of gasoline and other operational issues, owners and managers across the U.S. are looking at ways to keep a watchful eye on their businesses when they are out of the office, at home or visiting other sites.
When it comes to the surveillance monitoring of a fast-moving service station environment which typically has to cater for hundreds of customers every day, as well as deliveries of gasoline and other operational issues, owners and managers across the U.S. are looking at ways to keep a watchful eye on their businesses when they are out of the office, at home or visiting other sites.
One approach increasingly finding favor to support informed management decisions on the move is the adoption of specialized cell phone applications such as phone image viewer from mobiDEOS to call up “live” video in concert with the installed surveillance infrastructure.
An example is the experience of service station owner Robert Oyster. Oyster, who is responsible for three Shell and Chevron gas stations in the Bay Area east of San Francisco, decided recently to start using the application to monitor his daily business operations via his iPhone from traffic flow to employee performance. This move to adopt the mobiDEOS solution followed the installation of three Dedicated Micros DVRs and 44 surveillance cameras, across his service stations and was driven by a recommendation from local integrator PSS Electronics who suggested that he look at using the software for remote monitoring to enhance the potential of his new surveillance systems.
"I am delighted with the performance of the solution which only took a matter of minutes to set up on my iPhone. This application has proven to be a real time-saver when it comes to running my business as I am on the road much of the time and it is not always convenient, or desirable, to bring a laptop with me,” Oyster said. “Now by simply touching the screen I can readily view and select video from my service stations on the phone and, if there is an incident, make an informed decision as to whether I actually need to go there and take care of the situation in person or whether my time is best used elsewhere.
"This ability to see what is going on, literally as it happens and even zoom in for more detail, was brought into sharp focus in a recent incident where a driver drove through the front window of one of our stations,” Oyster said. “Having been informed of the incident I was immediately able to take out my iPhone and in seconds see the situation ‘live' from the viewpoint of the on-site cameras and speak to my employees before making the hour-long journey to the scene."
The application has allowed Oyster to maximize the benefits of the surveillance cameras and Dedicated Micros DVRs installed at his service stations. "I have found with solution that I am accessing the surveillance camera footage even more than I did before so enhancing the return on my initial investment to upgrade our surveillance infrastructure,” he said.