Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) is a state-controlled oil
and gas company headquartered in Mumbai, India. Among the world’s
largest corporations, the company was ranked #272 in the Fortune Global
500 listing for 2011.
Recently, BPCL embarked on a surveillance project as part of the
organization‘s initiative to restructure the internal surveillance
system. Prior to the structure reform, the old surveillance system was
not centralized. As the headquarters would like to gain better
understanding of the operation at each branch location in order to
improve the business and communication between the headquarters and each
station, a new surveillance system was proposed - installation of a
total of 5000 high-performance surveillance cameras at 1000 petrol
stations throughout India.
BPCL sells petrol, diesel and compressed natural gas to consumers at
these stations. The company hoped to take advantage of top quality video
cameras primarily to not only monitor the customer experience for
quality control purposes but also to enhance the level safety for
customers and employees. A process of competitive bidding resulted in
VIVOTEK cameras being selected for the project, with System Integrator
Livedarshan developing the deployment, the typology and the engineering
aspect of the implementation. Additionally, Kores India Pvt Ltd, a
leading provider of after-sale services, was contracted out to oversee
and supervise the project and its implementation, while addressing
customers’ inquires and concerns.
According to Vivek Bagri, CEO of Livedarshan, one of the factors that
led BPCL to decide on VIVOTEK cameras for this important large-scale
project was the company’s very favorable previous experience with
VIVOTEK. For the first phase of the deployment, Livedershan installed
around 60 cameras for BPCL. “BPCL found the quality of the VIVOTEK
camera to be superior to models within the same technical range from
other competing manufacturers,” says Vivek.
Mission
As for the particular VIVOTEK camera model selected, the IP8362, part
of the VIVOTEK SUPREME series, there were several reasons for the
choice, Vivek explains. First of all, BPCL required very high-quality
video, as it needed to be able to identify the license plate of a
vehicle, an employee and a potential criminal — all to ensure that
customers were to the best possible services. In addition, to simplify
administration, BPCL hoped to use as few cameras as possible at each
location.
The combination of these two basic requirements — for clear, detailed
image footage and a relatively low number of cameras to be installed to
cover the entire premises of each petrol station — meant that cameras
with very exceptionally resolutions were absolutely mandatory. As a
best-in-class 1080p outdoor bullet camera designed for diverse outdoor
applications, VIVOTEK IP8362 is equipped with a 2-Megapixel CMOS sensor,
temper detection and a vari-focal, auto-iris lens. WDR Enhancement
technology and removable IR-cut filter are also available for Day &
Night function, so the image quality remains uncompromised even under
constantly alternating and challenging lighting conditions. In addition
to satisfying the fundamental requirement for the BPCL project, the
IP8362 also offered a number of other important advantages towards the
solution deployed.
Designed for demanding outdoor surveillance applications, the IP8632
not only includes a removable IR-cut filter and built-in IR illuminators
for daytime and nighttime monitoring, but it also adds robust WDR (wide
dynamic range) enhancement to ensure that clear, properly exposed video
can be obtained no matter the time of day—even when particularly
challenging high-contrast lighting conditions—where bright and dark
areas are present in the field of view—prevail.
BPCL also valued IP8362’s wide operating temperature range, crucial
due to the extremely hot weather that is the norm throughout much of
India. In addition, the VIVOTEK camera features an IP67-rated housing,
which protects against the ingress of dust, water, and other foreign
material—an important consideration in the harsh environment of a busy
petrol station. Even the IP8362’s physical styling turned out to be a
plus, as BPCL felt its compact form and sleek looks avoided the need to
conceal it in an ungainly device box.
Video from the cameras already installed is recorded 24 hours a day
at Full HD resolution, while to conserve bandwidth, VGA-quality streams
are monitored at BPCL headquarters in Mumbai. Together, the live and
archived footage are already proving valuable resources for management
as it checks service quality at the stations, and seeks improvements
where deemed necessary. Station owners can also monitor activity, and
refer to the high-quality recorded video in case of incidents.
Customer feedback
Thus far, over 100 BPCL petrol stations have been outfitted with new
VIVOTEK IP8362 cameras. BPCL is hoping to finish deployment of all 5000
cameras in 1000 BPCL petrol stations by the end of this year. “BPCL is
very impressed with the high performance of the VIVOTEK IP8362, and
needless to say, so am I,” says Vivek. “I would recommend any user and
integrators to work with VIVOTEK. Not only their products are first-rate
in the industry, their sales support and services are also absolutely
outstanding.”
Vivek Bagri has recently been featured in “10 Leaders Under 40” published in a&s International - May 2012.
