Processing Security

Canadian metals firm deploys thermal imagers and HD cameras

• By Suzi Abell
• Sep 01, 2018

Dominion Nickel Alloys Ltd. operates on a global scale. As one of North America’s leading scrap metal recycling facilities with experienced staff and the latest in machinery, Dominion specializes in the purchasing, sorting, processing, and marketing of a broad range of high temperature and specialty nickel-based alloys.

Dominion’s operations, on the outskirts of Toronto, are based at an 20-acre facility where different merchants bring all manner of high-value scrap metal for processing. The biggest risk for Dominion is someone making it into the yard undetected and making off with tens, even hundreds of thousands of dollars of metal.

The surveillance technology initially installed at the site was triggered by outdoor motion sensors that activated any one of several PTZ cameras for verification—unfortunately this set-up generated far too many false alarms to be effective.

Deploying new 3xLOGIC thermal technology was an upgrade intended to eliminate the challenges from outdoor motion sensor technology.

Ed Bodbyl and his team at Sonitrol designed a video surveillance system for Dominion comprised of 14 thermal imagers, each paired with a high definition three megapixel bullet camera for verification. Cameras were set to record to an NVR located on site.

There are some benefits for the company; for example, the entire yard is covered with this 14 thermal imager/14 HD camera deployment, offering crisp HD images during the day, and 36-degree thermal images at night, backed by HD video. The original motion-based PTZ deployment resulted in high false alarm levels and limited detection range. The combination of thermal technology and HD cameras, paired with live Sonitrol monitoring, brought the number of false alarms way down. All this significantly reduced false alarms, effectively cutting down on operator fatigue and potentially costly mistakes.

All video images are monitored by the Sonitrol central station and the operator will take action on alarm to either summon a private guard service or request that law enforcement be dispatched to the scene. Camera views are dictated by what areas need to be monitored for intrusion detection, and the end user has access to these images for operational use and incident review.

The VERA thermal imager allows the end user to see where they never could see before. When using high-contrast thermal imaging the results are a dramatic reduction in false alarms. Unlike standard thermal imagers VERA provides the advantage of verification and detection in an all-in-one device.

“With this image technology and the Sonitrol monitoring, our security is seamless to me,” said Howie Fleisher, vice president of Dominion Nickel. “The new thermals give us the images we need— with the old system, we had too many false alarms and after a while operators become immune to responding to so many false alarms.”

The three megapixel IP camera provides dual-streaming highdefinition video at a full 2048 by 1536 pixels for video surveillance applications requiring superior clarity and detail.

The servers are fully-integrated intelligent video appliances. Pre-configured with VIGIL VMS software, these high-performance servers represent a cost-effective, flexible solution that allows users to address their current needs with the ability to scale to meet tomorrow’s demands.

This article originally appeared in the September 2018 issue of Security Today.