Liquid assets

A major international brewing group, then, with strong market positions in no less than 14 countries across Europe and Asia and an export business serving 60 different nation states.

S&N operates six breweries across the UK – as well as a lone facility in Ireland – which range from large, high volume sites to those producing comparatively low volumes of traditional, regional and speciality beers.

All facilities have one thing in common, though, in that they combine the very latest systems technology in brewing 'science' with long-term experience in the art of making beer. All of which goes towards the production of well-known brands including John Smith's, Newcastle Brown Ale, Theakston's, Carling Black Label, McEwan's and Kronenbourg 1664.

Reviewing security provision
S&N's corporate philosophy of constantly seeking to improve and secure its operational efficiency recently led the company to carry out a comprehensive review of its existing security measures. Previously, the group's regional security managers had been operating a mixture of varying electronic security systems across its UK sites, but needed to deliver a higher level of surveillance coverage. On top of establishing far more comprehensive security regimes, there was also a strong desire to upgrade day-to-day site management.

"Prior to any investment in new CCTV, S&N sites were predominantly monitored by black and white surveillance systems," said Ken Stephenson, S&N's regional security manager for the North East and Cumbria. "Wishing to improve upon that set-up, we looked to facilitate an enhanced means of securing our premises with solutions that would be tailored to our specific needs, and in particular the multi-functional operation and layouts to be found at each of the S&N sites."

Stephenson added: "As a client, we also wanted to be shown how any supplied solutions would provide us with a cost-effective, high performance combination of electronic security, and how any systems solutions might work towards maximising the effective use of our manpower."

An important point. One that's occupying the minds of many in-house professionals as we approach a licensed manned security sector in which there are less officers on site of better quality and a greater reliance on systems.

To put S&N's plans into action, Stephenson invited a number of installation companies to discuss how their security solutions would be implemented in a bid to address the brewery's specific needs. According to Stephenson, one company stood out from the rest in terms of its levels of professionalism and expertise, and in its approach to applying an understanding of what S&N wanted to achieve. AIS Total Security Ltd of Nottingham – a designated Panasonic Premier Installer – was chosen to deliver the specification for (and the subsequent design of) integrated CCTV, intruder alarm and access control systems that would provide the secure solution demanded by the client.

Supporting its highly competitive tender bid and accompanied by the equipment manufacturer, AIS liaised closely with CCTV solutions specialist Panasonic to arrange an on-site demonstration of the specified equipment by way of a mobile CCTV 'test' vehicle. Carried out at the home of John Smith's beers – namely the Tadcaster brewery near York – this 'hands-on' demonstration clearly showed the client the various possibilities for surveillance coverage tailored to the varying conditions experienced at this typical S&N location, which plays host to over 300 members of staff.

Illustrating how the use of the very latest imaging technologies would provide the depth of surveillance coverage required within the various sites' manufacturing, warehouse and distribution facilities, AIS then progressed an individual risk assessment exercise for each site. Following on from this process, AIS then supplied detailed specifications and plans for each of S&N's 20 sites. Located throughout the UK, the S&N sites to be refurbished included the aforementioned John Smith's brewery, the Berkshire brewery in Reading and all of the company's other existing distribution depots.

Providing the answers
"Taking our Newcastle-upon-Tyne brewery as a typical example of one of the six sites re-engineered by AIS," commented Ken Stephenson, "the £120,000 integrated systems solution applied here was constructed around a site audit whereby we physically walked around the site's 'chain of operation' process. This is the only way we could ensure that every aspect of the facility was effectively covered."

The Newcastle-upon-Tyne brewery's geographical layout had always posed something of a problem when it came to security. Over the years the site has sprawled over an increasingly large area, split as it is into two halves thanks to a dissecting public roadway. "This presented us with the problem of how to provide secure access to lorries arriving for pick-ups of finished product, be that in bottled, keg or bulk liquid format," added Stephenson. "To enter site, lorry drivers are first required to check-in at the site's main security gatehouse. The authorisation process is so tightly managed that drivers will only be admitted at their allocated time slot."

On checking-in to site, each lorry is designated a loading bay arrival time at the 'Cellar Tank' area to which the driver must proceed. Once there, the driver then reports-in at the remotely-operated electronic gates at the specified time, acknowledging their arrival to the security gatehouse via an audio intercom which is linked to camera pre-set activation. Here, WV-CS850 dome cameras are deployed to make sure that the trucks' registration plates tie-in with those logged at the gatehouse.

Upon entry to the undercover 'Cellar Tank' distribution point, tankers are loaded with beer. The whole process is watched over by further dome cameras up to and including the point at which a loaded tanker leaves the site by way of a further electronic roller-shutter gate.

With over 350 on-site vehicular movements to manage and track each and every day, the entire 24-hour brewery operation is comprehensively secured. From the initial materials delivery through to the brewing process itself, bottling, kegging and (finally) storage and distribution, the whole process is monitored via a mixture of low light capable, high resolution static cameras, as well as day/night switching dome cameras.

The intelligent positioning of CCTV camera locations around the site is due to the original audits, whereupon the flexibility of site surveillance coverage to cater for any future expansion (or reduction) requirements was highlighted as an issue to address in accordance with the changing needs of S&N's complex production processes.

The Newcastle-upon-Tyne brewery boasts a desktop CCTV controller and two 16-channel digital hard disk recorders – thereby allowing local system control and recording.

Supporting the hard disk recorder's 31-day recording mode, any selected CCTV footage that may be required for review or evidential purposes may be downloaded onto a dedicated CD re-writer.

Remote car park monitoring
Although site security is of paramount importance in protecting what is highly valuable stock, looking after the Newcastle brewery's 200 staff also means that the site's remote car parks must be covered by the monitoring set-up.

Here, external dome cameras are linked to access controlled electronic gates so that staff are monitored as they pass safely into or out of the complex.

Linked to the Internet via a network card installed within the digital recorder (and emphasising the flexibility inherent in the system's design), in the future the site's camera images will be accessible remotely via a password-protected, built-in web browser. This facility – primarily for use by key Scottish & Newcastle managers who wish to check on the correct deployment of site operations – is already active at a number of other S&N locations.