The case for cloud surveillance at remote construction sites
The Covid-19 pandemic has hit every industry, and the construction industry is no exception. Since the pandemic- related lockdown was imposed, the Construction Equipment Association (CEA) has reported a 50% surge in construction site crime rates.
Even before the pandemic, the sector had witnessed losses of approximately £800m per year due to theft at construction sites, a fact corroborated by a survey carried out by the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB). While 92% of respondents confirmed that they were affected by site theft, 21% reported weekly robberies at their sites! Theft or vandalism, which typically occurs at night when the site is closed and unmanned, leads to missed deadlines and project costs.
Additionally, as construction companies must ensure stringent health and safety protocols are maintained throughout the site, any unauthorized access to the site or hazardous areas represents a critical business risk. Combined with the problem of fraudulent accident/compensation claims, annualized loss exposure at construction sites is significant and must be accounted for in corporate returns. Furthermore, an immediate consequence of increased compensation claims is a steep rise in insurance premiums, adding more cost to each project.
Implementing a CCTV surveillance system and manned after-hours guarding appears like a straightforward solution to address these concerns. However, each has its own set of problems and associated costs. With construction sites undergoing constant changes, it can be challenging to implement and manage a traditional fixed CCTV surveillance system.
A typical construction site scenario utilizing a traditional fixed CCTV surveillance system is that perpetrators of the crime will often break into the portacabin to steal the CCTV network video recorder to remove any evidence.
When construction activities are carried out at remote locations, lack of power and fixed communication are also problematic for surveillance, and accessibility to 4G-5G network communication infrastructure becomes mandatory.
CASE STUDY
We are working with an infrastructure construction company on a major new civil construction project. During the planning phase, the developer was struggling with the cost of securing dozens of remote construction sites with manned 24X7 guarding and traditional fixed CCTV. They decided they needed a more cost-effective alternative and began to explore modern video surveillance solutions. They needed a solution that could:
Deter theft of valuable equipment at remote, unmanned sites
Monitor people and vehicle movements specifically for health and safety reasons
Create alerts on specific events
Show live view of cameras on any remote site
Provide video analytics to detect public intrusion, vehicle movements, and the absence of PPE protection
Highlight system health and alert when cameras were offline or not recording
4G connection to the cloud as there was no fixed network infrastructure
There was significant resistance internally from a natural reluctance to change and sceptics regarding storing the video in the cloud. However, when they saw Cloudview’s ability to directly capture video events via 4G wireless to the cloud and alert on specific events as well as live-view any location they made their decision.
The infrastructure company is implementing a Cloudview cloud video platform and management dashboard to monitor the whole network of sites. They eliminated the need for physical presence and manned guarding. This reduced cost and risk, while increasing safety and speed in the delivery of insights. This is an ongoing implementation and enhancement and they are very satisfied with their decision.
CLOUDVIEW SOLUTION
As the name indicates, Cloudview stores CCTV footage securely in the cloud, ensuring that the footage is available anytime, anywhere to users who have the appropriate access rights and privileges. The system can be used to monitor the site during unmanned hours and to capture footage as and when events occur.
As the system captures only event-based footage, it helps save valuable time – the relevant footage can be located and extracted quickly. For instance, the system can do the following:
Detect if someone is wearing the correct protective equipment
Detect if someone tries to access a restricted area
Identify specific incidents or accidents quickly and easily
System health monitoring service to notify users when a camera is offline and not recording
Send alerts to relevant personnel who can initiate corrective actions quickly
Cloudview’s cloud based remote monitoring platform uses military-grade encryption for transmission, storage and sharing of video, supports GDPR-compliance, and all recorded footage is legally admissible in a court of law. Contact us today to learn how we can help you implement an effective and reliable CCTV surveillance system at your construction sites.
