General Trading Company is a private wholesale food distribution company that has been in business for more than 65 years. The full-service grocery and dairy distributor, wholesaler and exporter carry more than 10,000 grocery and 2,000 dairy items. In addition to brand name products, General Trading Company's private labels are the “Parade” and “Better Valu” brands. Its 350,000 square foot distrib...
General Trading Company is a private wholesale food distribution company that has been in business for more than 65 years. The full-service grocery and dairy distributor, wholesaler and exporter carry more than 10,000 grocery and 2,000 dairy items. In addition to brand name products, General Trading Company's private labels are the “Parade” and “Better Valu” brands. Its 350,000 square foot distribution center in Carlstadt, NJ, includes both dry and refrigerated areas.
Previously, surveillance of the General Trading Company distribution center was provided by analog cameras. However, Frank Covello, Director of Security at General Trading Company, sought to expand coverage of the facility. Specifically, the company needed a system that could provide an overview of employee performance and productivity, the ability to review inbound and outbound shipments for quality control, and the capability to review door access control events using video.
Megapixel IP cameras provide better picture quality, and IP connectivity lends itself more to an enterprise network video recorder (NVR) system – all cameras can be viewed from the same program rather than operators having to go to separate analog servers to view live video and history. General Trading Company chose Arecont Vision cameras in part because of their H.264 compression, which minimizes bandwidth and storage needs while providing quality comparable to motion JPEG, according to Gene Kowalski, Network Engineer. In addition to better image quality, the IP system allowed the company to store 30 days of video centrally using IP-based storage. The company also realized it could install a single megapixel panoramic-view camera instead of four individual cameras.
An Arecont Vision camera provides quality assurance in the pallet reconciliation area at General Trading Company. The camera is an H.264 dual mode 10MP/1080p camera that combines the resolution of a 10 megapixel camera and a full HD (1080p at 30 frames per second) camera into one system. Merging the functionality of two cameras, it provides the unique ability to operate in either full HD mode or at 10 megapixel resolution (3,648 x 2,752 pixels), offering 33 times the resolution of standard-definition cameras.
For situational awareness in the warehouse loading docks and parking and truck lots, General Trading Company uses Arecont Vision 8 megapixel panoramic view camera that offers 180-degree images using four 2 megapixel sensors. Enclosed in a 6 inch dome on an IP66-rated environmental chassis, the camera can be surface-mounted, pendant-mounted or installed in a ceiling. The camera provides up to 6,400 x 1,200 pixel images at 5.5fps or can be set for lower resolutions at higher frame speeds, such as 1,600 x 1,200 pixel images at 22fps or 800 x 600 pixel images at 88fps.
Arecont Vision's camera is used in the warehouse aisles and on the loading docks to provide detail of pick selection and pallets leaving through truck doors. The 5 megapixel camera provides 2,592 x 1,944 pixel images at 9fps. Also ensuring pick selection in the warehouse aisle are Arecont Vision cameras, supplying 2,048 x 1,536 pixel images at 15fps.