The limited bandwidths available between head office and some of Gasunie’s more remote gas pumping locations generate perfect environments for Geutebruck equipment to demonstrate its efficient bandwidth management.
by dozens of Gasunie employees as well as external contractors. Since 1988 the company’s strategy has been to install technical security systems and centralize site security. Depending on the site, the security infrastructure ranges from simple fencing to sophisticated fence systems with perimeter detection systems and CCTV. “The fundamental requirement at every location is that unauthorized intruders are always identified as fast as possible at the perimeter,” explains Reiner Woldring, Gasunie’s corporate security advisor. Security processes such as controlling the access of authorized staff and the verification and tracking of alarm reports following the detection of an intrusion event are all coordinated from the 24-hour Groningen control centre. CCTV systems operate at 25 sites. “We need the camera pictures for verifying the alarm reports which may need to be followed up by the police or another special guarding service,” says Woldring. “We don’t do a full preventative evaluation of the
images. We no longer have guards with dogs on site who could take a look when a detection report comes in. Instead we rely on camera surveillance. For this we need good quality cameras, reliable transmission and storage of camera pictures as well as user-friendly functions for calling up the pictures in the alarm centre.” At Gasunie the complete security system for all sites is now IP-based. “Even the old analogue camera system has been modernized”, says Herman van Hierden, a member of Gasunie’s electrotechnics, instrumentation and process control department. “We now have the same standard across the whole country on all sites. There used to be sites with 30-40 analogue cameras which still couldn’t provide any usable quality pictures. “So even though the detection was very reliable, it was not always easy to verify the detected events. Now we work with a lot fewer cameras per site, and most of them can be remote controlled from the centre. Control centre staff now call up camera images in real time and can immediately replay the recorded footage whenever there is an alarm. “Where necessary there are two high fences with alarm systems on the outer fence,” von Hierden explains. “That way unauthorized intrusion can be detected even earlier.”
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