There are many factors that can make a security project particularly challenging—the size, the timeline, the special needs of the client, just to name a few. When lifestyle and fitness shoe giant Skechers unveiled plans for its new 1.8-million-square-foot distribution warehouse in Rancho Belago, Calif., size was certainly an issue to be dealt with. The new facility was replacing five smaller, existing warehouses and was being built with long-term usage and future expansion in mind.
But the distribution warehouse also bears the designation as a foreign trade zone (FTZ), and that in and of itself required some creative planning from a security standpoint. Without a doubt, operating as a foreign trade zone requires additional security functionality since it is subject to U.S. Customs Service supervision and security requirements. Product in an FTZ requires continuous tracking as it comes and goes, for the purpose of determining delayed or reduced duty payments, as well as for logistical and tax benefits.
With so much activity both inside and outside the warehouse requiring the supervision of security staff, Skechers’ loss prevention team needed a solution that provided an intuitive, user friendly interface along with the ability to instantly replay recorded video in the event of an incident.
Greg Drivas, Director of Loss Prevention for Skechers USA, and his integrator, Select Systems Technology, selected the American Dynamics’ victor video management system as the backbone of the distribution center’s digital video recording solution. Through victor, Drivas and his staff can view, manage and control recorded video from the five VideoEdge network video recorders that capture video from more than 100 cameras both inside and outside of the facility. victor is also tied in with the building’s access control system, so if someone exits through the wrong door, a video of the mishap is instantly brought up on the screen.
Employing a highly responsive, highly functional video management software platform, at the level victor provides, keeps Skechers in synch with its Compliance Department to meet specific foreign trade zone security requirements. But it also has provided side benefits by allowing Skechers’ management to tap into the video for internal studies on productivity and product movement.
Video management has proven to be a powerful tool to help handle large volumes of live, streaming video. At the same time, it’s imperative for a video management system to still be easy enough to use for even the least technical security officer to set up views and archive video.
Security practitioners have recognized the many security and operational benefits made possible by video management systems. Regardless of whether the project is large-scale, such as Skechers’ 1.8-million square foot facility, or a local grocery store with a handful of cameras, today’s video management systems provide end users with scalable, customizable solutions that are easy to use and can meet current as well as future needs.
Find out more about how Skechers secured its massive new distribution facility and derived operational benefits out of its video surveillance system by reading the complete Sketchers case study.
What features of a VMS do you find most useful, let us know in the comments section below.
As security professionals, our goal is to make sure our clients are up-to-date on not only the latest technology, but also have the tools to understand what supporting systems they can use to make everything work.
