MOBOTIX M22 cameras provide visual package tracking for transport company

MOBOTIX M22 cameras provide visual package tracking for transport company

Integra2 is a transport company for industrial and commercial package handling under controlled room temperatures

Integra2 is a transport company for industrial and commercial package handling under controlled room temperatures (between +2° and 8°C) with branch offices in Spain, Andorra and Portugal. The company belongs to the Grupo Logista, the largest provider of total logistics services in Spain and Portugal as well as in Europe. In 2003, Integra2 handled more than 4.5 million shipments in total, and today the company has 3 million m of warehouse space.

After more than 20 years of experience in the industry - and always with positive results - the company achieved a turnover of more than 187.3 million Euros in 2003. In 2004, the consultancy firm DBK produced its eighth study on the package handling industry in Spain. In this study, Integra2 earned the third place in the ranking. The five largest companies achieved a total of 46.1% of the turnover.

Total customer satisfaction

The service of Integra2 is focused on providing total customer satisfaction. The customer should be able to track and locate his package at any given time. Driven by this philosophy, the company has installed various high-tech systems and developed its own solutions to monitor the entire process of parcel accepting, shipping and delivering goods. In the last two years, the company has therefore, invested over €300,000 in recording and surveillance systems. "We require a suitable technology to visually monitor goods that are entering our automatic sorting plant," explains Juan Carlos Sánchez, Managing Director of Integra2 in Barcelona. At the beginning of 2007, Scati Labs, a partner of MOBOTIX AG, installed a video surveillance system based on IP cameras. The system was intended to improve the traceability of products, thus offering customers a value-added service.

"This provides us with an effective tool to visually check whether a parcel has passed through our plant or not. Even if the company possesses enough package reader machines to guarantee total traceability for all shipments, visual recording offers increased security. This is an enormous help in finding out how, where and why something unforeseen has taken place: maybe a technical problem has occurred, or the goods have been incorrectly allocated on the shipping route, or perhaps something has been stolen from the plant", says Sánchez.

Progressive technology

In this project, which took over four months in total, 35 M22secure cameras from MOBOTIX were installed in the Integra2 plant in Santa Andreu de la Barca (Barcelona). With approximately 18,000 square meters, this is one of the customer's largest plants in Spain.

The cameras enable visual tracking of the packages' movements through the entire plant

"The cameras were installed in the entire plant. They enable packages to be visually tracked from the moment when they enter the sorter, all the way until they drop from the appropriate ramp," comments Juan Carlos Sánchez. He further remarks that the investments made will immediately guarantee a high level of monitoring and control. Apart from this project, Integra2 is currently looking into possibly implementing the same systems for goods that are not automatically sorted.

Thanks to the use of the most comprehensive IP video surveillance technology currently to be found on the market, the MOBOTIX cameras contributed to significant cost savings for Integra2.

Cost savings with cutting-edge technology

Thanks to the special features of MOBOTIX cameras, companies get high-resolution images at a very low cost, meaning that their investment quickly pays off. With the in-built high-resolution sensors, these devices provide a resolution of 960 lines at the highest playback quality while offering the opportunity to monitor a room using only one single camera installed in a corner.

Praising high image quality

Scati Labs came to the conclusion that the M22 Secure camera model from MOBOTIX was best suited to this project since "the most important requirement for the customer was the image quality. The megapixel solution, the PoE support and the robust design, which are ideal for use in industrial environments, were the primary factors in favour of choosing these cameras." The robust housing and the lack of moving parts guarantee a long life cycle for the cameras. They are suited to any environmental conditions since their housing and design allows them to withstand temperatures between +60°C and -30°C (-22°F to +140°F).

Scati Labs emphasises that the Integra2 employees also have access to a digital zoom feature with which they can differentiate between the type of packaging, labelling, and type of packaging tape. If a problem is discovered, the application developed by Scati Labs can be used to optically record the origin and recipient of a sought-after package.

Simple Integration into other systems

The project also demonstrated how well the MOBOTIX systems can be integrated into other platforms and software types. Scati Labs has used a web application to develop customer-specific software that searches for packages according to

"The megapixel solution, the PoE support and the robust design are ideal for use in industrial environments"

the various filter parameters. This software makes it possible to use a MOBOTIX came a to record a high-resolution digital video linked to the package. Part of the project also involved integrating the package sorting machine in order to monitor the entire shipping process.

Maximum range

The 35 installed cameras are currently monitoring all entrances to and exits from the sorting machine. They are installed at a height of 12 meters and are powered via PoE switches. One of the features of the MOBOTIX cameras is their low energy consumption of only 3 Watts, which is supplied to the system via PoE. Depending on the specific requirements of the individual locations, 43 mm, 65 mm and 135 mm lenses were installed.

Surveillance software

Scati Labs utilises a team of logistics experts so that they have the knowledge available to solve problems that companies in this industry experience. According to Alfonso Mata, Commercial Manager of the logistics division, the primary demand arises from companies in the distribution and logistics industry with theft within the plant itself, especially of very valuable small freight items and packages (digital cameras, laptops, etc.). Mata adds that additional requirements involve tracking the goods in the plants, monitoring the sorting procedure and visual support for the disturbance management. In certain situations, video surveillance is being used even in the preparation of the orders. This allows customers to access the picking service images from the preparation process - an added value to the Internet tracking options this company offers its customers.

Together with the video recording devices and the management software from Scati Labs, MOBOTIX cameras represent the perfect combination for high-performance video surveillance solutions. The demands made on security technology are growing every day, especially in the logistics sector. The monitoring and tracking solution from MOBOTIX and Scati Labs is being greeted with great enthusiasm on the market.