Resolve Security Issues With Recorded Images

Belmont Park is a year-round entertainment attraction located in Mission Beach, CA. Founded in 1925, the park offers amusement rides, artificial wave pools, live music, multiple food venues, and retail shops. The city of San Diego owns Belmont Park, but Wave House Belmont Park maintains the master lease for the property. Many companies lease space from Wave House Belmont Park. Multiple Belmont Park-owned businesses and tenants, as well as a high volume of daily foot traffic, resulted in countless security problems at the park.

Since 2002, Belmont Park's operations staff has employed security guards to monitor the park's extensive grounds. "The guards patrolled the grounds, but they weren't able to prevent, control, or solve many of the issues we face, such as theft, break-ins, and an increase in trespassers," says Bob Puetz, VP of operations at Belmont Park. For instance, the operations staff suspected Belmont Park employees of stealing money from POS stations at the park's bars, restaurants, commissaries, and cash counting rooms, as well as inventory from storage rooms. Security guards monitored the grounds on foot, and therefore, they could deal with a limited number of problems. "We always felt we needed to implement some sort of integrated surveillance system," says Puetz.
 
Cover Widespread Areas With Video Surveillance
Belmont Park had to survey a wide range of high-traffic areas in a challenging architectural layout. In 2008, ongoing concerns about profit protection, public safety, and tenant satisfaction led the operations staff to research several IP video surveillance systems providers. The staff chose a 50-camera IP video surveillance network from GigaKOM. The system includes a combination of exterior and interior Axis Network Cameras and Milestone XProtect IP video surveillance software, which runs on Windows 2003. GigaKOM hosts a Web-based infrastructure to provide imagery and accessibility with no bandwidth impact to the existing LAN.

GigaKOM installed each camera, and it worked with the park's staff for two months to determine each camera's exact coverage area. The cameras are visible, as they are located on rooftops of various buildings throughout the park.
 
Review Camera Footage Via The Web
Belmont Park's operations staff and its tenants have 24/7 access to camera footage via GigaKOM's hosted Web-based system. The vendor provided access codes to the park's operations staff, which then distributed the codes to the people who need them (e.g. the park's general manager, owner of the snack stand). "An access code allows you to go online anywhere, anytime to view your area," says Puetz. "We only allow people to view the camera that corresponds with their access code." The operations staff chose a Web-based system because many people needed access from home or while traveling.

GigaKOM trained the operations staff on how to operate the Web-based system (e.g. how to log on, how to toggle between different camera settings). Puetz can customize the number of cameras he'd like to view, and he can view up to 24 cameras at once. The vendor trained the staff how to record footage to prove theft or other security infractions. For example, if a tenant realizes a window's been broken, he scrolls through the footage until he finds the incident and burns it to a DVD. The XProtect IP video surveillance software stores footage for 11 days based on server capacity.

Belmont Park has reaped several benefits since implementing GigaKOM's system. First, it serves as a deterrent to theft. Also, users have the ability to remotely monitor the business. The park still employs security guards, but the cameras serve as a teaching tool. The operations staff uses footage to teach the guards how to better handle similar problems in the future. Puetz states the greatest benefit is the ability to monitor the park's POS systems at any time.