Based in Arizona, Great Days Design & Development is a construction and full service design firm that works with clients on everything from consulting on initial design ideas through all aspects of construction to the final interior design, colorization and custom furniture. The company offers customers one-stop service, focusing on custom homes for the residential market, as well as commercial buildings. With six full-time employees, the company had a hard time keeping an eye on multiple construction sites, monitoring vendors and contractors, maintaining security and watching for onsite damage. To deal with these issues, the company installed video cameras and DVRs at each construction site. While the DVRs recorded video for playback, they had no ability to transmit live video to a mobile device. And while there were a number of webcam viewers on the market, none of them provided the ability to integrate with the company’s existing DVRs.
Based in Arizona, Great Days Design & Development is a construction and full service design firm that works with clients on everything from consulting on initial design ideas through all aspects of construction to the final interior design, colorization and custom furniture. The company offers customers one-stop service, focusing on custom homes for the residential market, as well as commercial buildings. With six full-time employees, the company had a hard time keeping an eye on multiple construction sites, monitoring vendors and contractors, maintaining security and watching for onsite damage. To deal with these issues, the company installed video cameras and DVRs at each construction site. While the DVRs recorded video for playback, they had no ability to transmit live video to a mobile device. And while there were a number of webcam viewers on the market, none of them provided the ability to integrate with the company's existing DVRs.
Although employees could access the video through a PC, this wasn't always convenient or timely. And often, by the time they were able to view the video, it would be too late to react to the situation in a timely manner. “It never failed that when we needed to look at something, we weren't sitting at a computer,” said Robb Corwin, Principal of Great Days. “I'd get an E-mail with an image of an intrusion, but then I'd have to get to a computer, log in and see if I could find out what was going on.”
Great Days Design & Development wanted a mobile monitoring solution for its construction sites, but it wasn't sure whether a product of that kind was even available on the market. The company turned to its service provider, Southwest Access and Video, which recommended the mobile viewer from mobiDEOS.
Initially the solution only allowed users to view one or two cameras at a time, but Great Days worked with mobiDEOS to create an enterprise application that would fit its requirements. The solution allows the company to access all of its DVRs and cameras at all of its construction sites and lists each camera by name instead of number for easy identification. The cameras are triggered by motion detection, so if an unauthorized person enters a gate or door, a photo is taken and E-mailed to the appropriate staff member.
The company's employees gained the added ability of viewing any camera at any site remotely and accessing live video motion detection. When Corwin gets an E-mail with a snapshot of a potential intrusion, he can access live video on his smart phone and take whatever action is required. “In one case, I was alerted to an intrusion, and by watching the video I could tell the intruder was walking on all fours,” Corwin said. “It turned out to be a bear throwing stuff around looking for food.”
But the solution has extended beyond security considerations. For example, if a contractor is looking for a leak in the roof, Corwin can pull up the cameras on his smart phone while he's offsite and direct the contractor to the leak. “The solution has PTZ capabilities, so I can move with the person while I'm on my phone.”
Great Days Design Development chose to build upon the solution because of the security functionality it offers, as well as what they see as the reliability of the hardware and software. “We wanted a device that was business-driven, yet was secure in how it's configured,” Corwin said.