Morrisons on the Right Track Smart Track

Morrisons, retailer of the Year for 2008, is the UKs fourth largest supermarket chain. As part of its plan to take on its competitors and to increase its market share, currently around 12% of the UK grocery market, it is opening approximately 40 new stores mostly in the South East of England. In order to service a large number of these new stores it has recently opened a new 1 million sq ft (92,900 sq m) Distribution Centre at G.Park in Sittingbourne, Kent close to the M2 motorway.

Distribution warehouses can be difficult environments for achieving effective security with high storage racking and multiple loading bays, and a warehouse of this size employing around1000 staff presented a significant challenge for both security and health and safety issues. The use of CCTV plays an important part in supporting the role of the security department, as well as providing critical evidential footage when investigating accidents or potential breaches of health and safety procedures in the warehouse. Morrisons recognized that deploying a traditional CCTV system along with the necessary infrastructure to provide effective coverage of such a large site would prove cost prohibitive and unwieldy to manage. They turned to security providers Intrepid Security for a solution. Intrepid already has a well established reputation in the logistics sector with a number of major retailers for providing a fit for purpose, reliable and cost effective CCTV system through its mobile Smart Track technology.     

Developed by SentryVision in the United States, SmartTrack is the only travelling camera system offering the option of both one and two pan, tilt and zoom  (PTZ) camera carriages that travel along a ceiling or wall mounted aluminum rail.  The Smart Tack camera system is particularly suited for the distribution warehouse environment and provides excellent coverage of large areas because it offers unobstructed, continuous tracking of people and events, with a capability to provide flexible coverage of picking aisles and loading bays. With a camera range of up to 200 metres, a single track can achieve what would otherwise require a large number of fixed or independent positioned PTZs.

SmartTrack also offers software features including programmable inputs to direct the camera to respond to open doors, as well as other vulnerable areas linked to motion detectors, or burglar and fire alarms. Some users have also employed Smart Track to monitor areas where staff work alongside potentially dangerous machinery to ensure there is compliance with on-site safety rules. The versatile system can be programmed with up to 6 automatic tours and 60 carriage presets per tour. There is an added bonus in that because of its unique opaque housing the coverage and flexibility achieved when employing SmartTrack can save the cost of installing temporary covert cameras for later identified problem areas.

SmartTrack operates either as a stand alone system or integrated with other CCTV products including conventional PTZ and fixed cameras.  Sentry software engineers have built interfaces to integrate SmartTrack with most of the world's leading CCTV brands, and it can be operated using a conventional CCTV joy stick console, a wireless PDA, and monitored remotely over the internet

Alison Hudson, Head of Security at Morrisons says Sittingbourne is our largest distribution centre to date and required a different approach to that in our existing sites. Such a large site was always going to be difficult for CCTV coverage, but with the track camera solution we have been able to overcome this problem and we are particularly pleased with the quality of the system and its versatility. The Smart Track CCTV technology has enabled us to implement our desired security arrangements at a significant cost saving to a conventional system.

Noel Verbruggen, Managing Director of Intrepid Security Our customers have found that Smart Track simplifies their CCTV requirements in warehouse environments that are often difficult for traditional to achieve without installing significant numbers of independent CCTV cameras and all the extras of wiring, mountings and multiple monitors. We have been installing Smart Track systems for a number of years and its flexibility and reliability is well established. The system features provide a range of benefits that are especially useful in warehouses and larger store formats. We are delighted to welcome Morrisons to our list of valued customers

Morrisons joins ASDA, Sainsburys, Tesco and Boots amongst others in acknowledging that the Smart Track solution delivers better functionality and value for money than conventional CCTV systems when equipping large format stores or warehouses. To learn more go to intrepidsecurity.com where you can view a demonstration of the Smart Track system, or contact Intrepid Security on 020 8893 9922