Just The Facts 

Customer: PITCO Foods

Location: San Jose, California

Challenge: Protecting the 150,000 square foot food warehouse, entrances and exits, employee and point-of-sale areas.

Solution: Around-the-clock video surveillance, access control and alarm system.

Results:  A modern security system that oversees operations, entries and exits, and protects the facility after hours.

Customer Challenge

PITCO Foods operates several members-only warehouse stores in various California locations, including San Francisco, Sacramento, San Jose, and Oakland.

The wholesaler initially engaged Safe and Sound Security to implement a comprehensive security system, including alarm systems, security cameras, and access control, at its new facility in San Jose. Later, PITCO enlisted the company’s services to secure facilities across California.

Despite introducing security systems at multiple sites, the foundation for every enterprise-level system is the original installation in San Jose, according to Zachary Palmquist, project manager for Safe and Sound Security.

The company had a limited budget for all installations, according to Palmquist. “They are very price conscious,” he explains. “We showed them different systems, such as Milestone and Avigilon, but they felt they were too expensive.”

Upon discovering that PITCO had Hikvision security products in other locations, it was decided to install them in San Jose. The 150,000-square-foot facility’s installation ultimately used:

• Hikvision digital video recorder (DVR)
• Hikvision server
• 110 Hikvision cameras
• Brivo access control
• DCS alarm parts
• Alarm.com alarm system monitoring

Monitoring an Active Facility

PITCO warehouses are always busy due to their ability to sell products in bulk at wholesale prices, which appeals to today’s price conscious consumers. To prevent theft and ensure safety, PITCO wanted a way to monitor customers and employees at all times. 

“They have very tall shelving that goes up to the ceiling,” he says. “Because of this, they were having issues with stock going missing. They also wanted to make sure they had security cameras covering the outside.”

The need was there, but securing the facility was a challenge, Palmquist admits. 

There were two areas to secure: the area where customers shopped and the area where extra stock is stored. “There were a lot of products disappearing from the shelves, especially in the employee-only, stock area,” he says.

Both areas presented two issues for a security installation: extremely tall shelving and 200-foot long aisles. “This scenario created challenges with image quality and focal length,” he says. “We needed cameras with long-range capabilities, so we went with Hikvision varifocal cameras.”

He explains security cameras with a varifocal lens offer adjustable focal length, angle of view, and zoom level, making them ideal for airports, hospitals, government offices and warehouses. “These cameras have a motorized lens you can use to zoom in and zoom out,” Palmquist says. 

But challenges remained even with varifocal lenses. Though the camera’s motorized varifocal lens could go from 2.8 mm to 12mm to get a super wide angle field of view, a single camera at the end of the aisle could not capture everything.

“We were losing what happened in the middle of the aisle,” Palmquist explains. “We needed the lens to be able to narrow and zoom out so it could capture more of the aisle than a fixed wide-angle lens. The only way this would work is if we installed 4-megapixel cameras on both ends of the aisle.”

Palmquist adds cameras were also needed in areas with forklifts and pallet jacks due to frequent accidents and chemical spills. PITCO also sought coverage for walk-in refrigerators and point-of-sale areas. 

Technicians created centralized hubs to distribute power to this vast camera network. According to Palmquist, network racks must be within a range of 320 to 328 feet from all cameras to ensure proper communication. If the distance exceeds 328 feet, Cat6 cable loses amperage and cannot power PoE cameras. 

“We had to run wire trays throughout the facility so we could have bundles of cables that would sit in these trays,” he says. “Roughly 15 cameras connected to each tray.”

This setup also simplified maintenance. “With managed switches in there, we are able to log in to those switches and power cycle ports,” he says. “It breaks this massive facility into manageable areas. If a camera is down in one area, I don’t have 110 cables coming into one room. We can troubleshoot in a smaller area.” 

Alarm System

PITCO also wanted an alarm system that secured the perimeter and all entry and exit doors,

The main doors had to be open during business hours. Yet, all workers had to use a single entry and exit point. “They wanted one access point for staff. If they went out to lunch, they had to leave through that door. When they came in for work, they had to enter through that same door,” he says. “And they wanted those doors armed throughout the day.”

Technicians broke the alarm system into two partitions to fulfill this request. Essentially, there is one alarm system with the ability to arm and disarm two sections independently. 

“We use these a lot, especially in businesses that have both a general office area and a warehouse,” he says. “If the warehouse workers are not in on a specific day, but office workers are, they can disarm the area where people are working and keep the warehouse alarm system activated.”

PITCO uses signage to make it clear which doors are continuously activated. “The doors have buzzers on them to notify site managers and other authorized personnel if someone tries to go out those doors,” he says. “That’s obviously a red flag that someone is trying to get away with something.” 

The doors are also equipped with security cameras to monitor who enters and leaves. “There is not a dead zone on the exterior or interior of this facility,” he says. 

Palmquist selected alarm.com because it is a cloud-hosted alarm system. DSC, also known as Digital Security Controls, provided the alarm system parts that connect to this cloud-based system.

Technicians divided the facility into zones and assigned names to each alarm zone based on the corresponding door in that area. That way, if specific door is activated, the site manager will know the specific area to inspect. “They can pull up the camera and look at what is going on in that zone,” he says. “Site managers can access the feeds from their phones or desktop computers. They also have enormous television screens in the admin area with all video feeds on them.” 

Palmquist remembers the Sacramento alarm installation posed an obstacle, mentioning that it was one of their bigger projects. They had opted for PowerG technology at the facility because it offered the benefits of wired security without the hassles and vulnerabilities associated with wires. 

“We had two keypads, one in the front and one in the rear, emitting a PowerG signal. We had hoped all devices could communicate via that PowerG signal from those keypads,” he says. 

Palmquist says initially the system kept experiencing dropped signals. 

“We called DCS, and they said the products on the shelves were weakening the signals,” he says. “We solved this by putting a transceiver on the ceiling in the middle of the warehouse. The transceiver acts as a hub that can communicate with repeaters that we put in every quarter of the building. Doing this boosted our signal so that we had full bars on every device throughout the facility.” 

Access Control

To ensure constant access control at PITCO, technicians installed a Brivo card reader, a cloud-based access control system, on every door.

“Choosing Brivo enables them to manage all of their sites from a single interface,” Palmquist says. “The multi-site, single pane of glass feature lets the San Jose headquarters issue key cards and mobile passes from a single web browser.”

PITCO opted for card-based access control to prevent PIN code sharing. And despite having five mobile passes for administrative personnel included with their system, they decided not to add any more. 

“This system allows site managers to pull up an event log to see every badged entry that worked or didn’t work,” he says. “They also can use the system to quickly add, suspend or delete users.”

If an employee leaves or is terminated, authorized personnel can log in to the app and immediately disable their access. They simply select the employee under “Users” and choose “Suspend” or “Delete” to deactivate credentials associated with that person. 

“As long as you have Internet service you can add or delete users,” Palmquist says. “Creating users is simple. You just click ‘Create New User’ then enter their first name, last name, phone and email, and upload photos of the employees. That way, in the activity log, site managers can see their faces as they enter or leave.” 

If any employee misplaces or loses a card, the site manager simply logs in, looks for that employee, deletes the missing card, and issues a new one.

Cloud-based Benefits

Cloud-based systems allow site managers to control access and alarms through a single interface. PITCO also manages their cameras from one interface using the company’s Virtual Private Network (VPN), which operates between all their facilities. 

“This lets them log into all of their DVRs as if they were on site,” he says. 

Safe and Sound Security built a strong relationship with PITCO through these successful installations. As a result, PITCO enlisted the company for a full data network installation, including network drops, at several of their sites, according to Palmquist.

Their initial system operated a 16-channel DVR, but they later added a Hik Vision Pro Series Hybrid with 128 channels to handle their traffic. “This is a massive, rack-mount server that weighs around 150 pounds when all the hard drives are in place,” he says. “All video is stored locally on the recorder. We have 28 drives in the Sacramento site and each of these offers about 280 terabytes of storage so they can store their video for 60 to 70 days.” 

Training & Maintenance

PITCO entered a comprehensive service level agreement (SLA) with Safe and Sound Security to cover training and maintenance. In this agreement, Safe and Sound Security includes training and on-demand maintenance, updates, and repairs by their technicians.

An SLA allows technicians to remotely access the system when alerted. If remote repair is not possible, the company sends a technician to the site.

Large facilities demand scalable security that accommodates their massive needs. PITCO’s installation met this need, ensuring that customers, employees and products are always secure.

Safe and Sound Security
75 E Santa Clara St 6th floor, San Jose, CA 95113, United States
+1 408-560-4799
https://getsafeandsound.com/locations/san-jose/
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