On a fairly regular basis, my friends will ask me how often I travel as part of my job. “Extensively and often if you are talking about anywhere in the UK,” I’ll reply, but when it comes to trips abroad they do tend to be few and far between (irrespective of the fact that Security Management Today is a UK-focused publication).
Few and far between until recently, that is… Next week, I’m off to Portugal for two days with Samsung Techwin, then on the 25-26 March it’s Geneva (again for a two-day stopover) courtesy of Ascom. I’m never off an aeroplane these days, it seems.
A couple of weeks back, I was honoured to be invited (as the lone UK press representative) on a trip to Milan with Sony Professional Solutions Europe. The aim of the visit was to check out two premier installations in the city serviced by Sony surveillance solutions – namely the City of Milan Control Room and the Esprinet Group’s huge warehouse complex, the latter devoted to serving 40,000 reseller customers of IT and electronics equipment right across the country.
It was an early start on the Tuesday morning. I had to be at Heathrow for between 5.30 am and 6.00 am, as the flight to Milan Linate airport was due to take off at just after half-past seven. That meant climbing out of bed at the ungodly hour of 4.30 am and staying ‘on message’ until the early hours of Wednesday morning before sleep came into play. Anyone who believes we journalists don’t work hard for a living needs to think again, I suggest!
Having passed through the security at Heathrow Airport, I found myself in Seat 23C and immediately cranked up the iPod Nano. Marillion’s fantastic album entitled marillion.com was my ‘Pick of the Day’, but having listened only to the first few bars of opening track ‘A Legacy’ there was a tap on my shoulder.
“Good morning, Brian!”. It was Simon Nash, the senior European marketing manager for network video monitoring and CCTV at Sony Professional Solutions Europe. I’ve known Simon for many years now. We regularly meet at IFSEC to discuss ‘the State of the Nation’, and he’s always great company.
It transpired that the girl to my right in the next bank of seats (and one row further forward) on our British Airways Boeing 757 was Kate Forrester, account manager at Sony’s PR company Ogilvy. I’d never met Kate before, and it was a pleasure to do so. A quick chat with Simon and Kate ensued so that we could all find our bearings for the days ahead, and then it was time to settle back for some more Marillion. When marillion.com was finished, I listened to their last album, Somewhere Else, and a touch of ‘the old stuff’ with Clutching at Straws. Sublime.
On arrival at headquarters…
We arrived at Sony’s impressive Cinisello hq via minibus transfer – organised by the delightful Serena Borsani of TT&A, Sony’s Public Relations provider in Italy – at just gone midday for a buffet luncheon prior to the afternoon’s major presentations. Not surprisingly, the Italians didn’t pull any punches on the food, which was pretty spectacular. Parma ham (my favourite), delicious pasta, crisp salad, fresh-baked bread. It was all there in abundance, washed down with some Nastro Azzurro (or coffee for those who were feeling a little delicate in the wake of the early start to the day).
By the time I drained my glass of beer I’d already been up and about for eight hours and hadn’t really started the working day! Strange, but true…
Before the formal proceedings began, I had a chance to meet some of the other journalists on the trip. They included Michel Eynaud (a security specialist from France), Lotta Eriksson (the charming editor of a Swedish security magazine), Gaston Dakulovic (general manager at Top Security Magazine in Brussels) and Finn Halvorsen (the apparently camera-mad technical editor of Oslo-based title Teknisk which covers security as part of its remit). It was fascinating to talk to them not only about security but also their approach to the profession of journalism. Anyway, I digress. Back to the work…
Simon kicked off the presentations with a brief welcome and overview of Sony and the company’s presence in Italy and beyond. In Europe as a whole, Sony’s goal is to provide an end-to-end solution for the customer. According to Simon, Italian clients have shown “phenomenal leadership” in the field of IP, and have taken to Sony’s IPELA (integrated visual communications) solution in a big way. This is one of the many reasons why 90% of Sony’s R&D effort is now focused on the IP side of the business.
Seamless security, standardised solutions
“Customers want seamless security installations and a standardised solution,” explained Simon. “By adding intelligence to the cameras, as we have done, the end user can introduce additional strands to the surveillance set-up such as intelligent motion detection. That’s where the ‘value add’ comes into play.”
Simon was keen to point out that IPELA (a name created from the merger of IP with the word ‘Bella’, the Italian for beautiful) is the “glue that binds together the different areas of Sony, and the key verticals such as healthcare, transport and retail… all can be bridged with IPELA, as the network connector is common throughout the world.” IPELA encompasses two of Sony’s core business offerings in the form of videoconferencing and IP monitoring.
On the network video monitoring side, North America and Europe account for two-thirds of this part of Sony’s business. The products developed in Japan are primarily aimed at these two markets. “In the EMEA region,” added Nash, “business is up by 11%, while our IP business has escalated by 31% in recent times.” The latter figure in Italy stands at 50%. Network video recorder sales are also on the up in Italy – by a staggering 163%, in fact.
Future strategy and IFSEC 2008
“What’s the strategy in Europe going forward?” I asked Simon during the open Q&A Session. “To build on our experience in offering intelligent, end-to-end systems, Brian. We wish to do that with the support of qualified, specialist and carefully selected partners. Ultimately, I want Sony to be Number One when it comes to NVM-based solutions.” Wisely, Simon acknowledges that even with the right products and the best distribution channels, the company (like any other solutions provider) also needs buy-in from end users if its goals are to be achieved with interest.
Simon also hinted towards several new products that will soon be appearing at an IFSEC Exhibition near you, including an 18x speed dome for indoor applications, a 30x speed dome – this time for outdoor installations – and a 3 megapixel camera. “That will be ruggedised, for indoor use. There’ll also be a day-night camera named Gemini”. If you want to see all of these systems and more, then make sure you attend Birmingham’s NEC at some point between 12 and 15 May.
Next, it was the turn of Fabio Andreoni (business development manager for visual communications with Sony Italia) to offer us an overview of the rest of our visit. Like so many mainland Europeans for whom I have such high admiration, Fabio spoke wonderful English. Better than many English people, if truth be told, and I wished there and then that my Italian stretched to more than utterances of the word ‘Pizza’ and the name of Paolo Di Canio, in my humble opinion easily the greatest player ever to pull on the claret and blue shirt of my beloved West Ham United FC. One of these days, maybe I’ll take some time out and learn this beautiful dialect.
Fabio primed us for the afternoon trip to the Esprinet Group warehouse complex at Cavenago, Brianza. The Esprinet Group is a major European IT wholesale distributor. The fourth largest in Europe, in fact, and the biggest in Italy (commanding a 28% market share, its closest rivals being Ingram Micro and Tech Data). It supplies nearly 600 different brands, employing 625 people at its Italian operations and just over 200 in Spain.
Uniquely enabled by its Internet-based business model (www.esprinet.com), the company is particularly focused on delivering technology to resellers. Running alongside the core business, Esprinet is also active both in the electro-components distribution (Comprel) side and in online B2C electronics distribution (via www.monclick.it)
Fabio explained that Esprinet opened its 30,000 square metre warehouse at Cavenago to support its existing 25,000 square metre home in Cambiago. The company – headed up by chief executive officer Alessandro Cattani and logistics manager Umberto Gazzotti (who would later show us around the Cavenago facility) – wanted a monitoring solution covering indoor and outdoor surveillance with recording at “unusual” times (for example, the company is in operation around the clock during the Christmas season). The end result is a network-based solution fronted by Sony technology that’s easy-to-use and cost-effective for the client.
Tour of the Esprinet facility
Seeing is believing, as they say, so we boarded the minibus for the 20-minute journey to the warehouse…
It’s certainly an impressive installation. 140 internal cameras watch over rows of laptops, printers and other high-tech ‘goodies’, while there are nine external Sony units eyeing up the perimeter zones. There’s an average of two cameras per aisle in the warehouse proper. In addition, eight recording racks each deliver a storage capability of 1 Tb, while ANPR is also in operation. Recordings are made in MPEG-4 format. Metal detectors help bolster security at the promenade entrance.
Before we delved totally into the technical side of things, though, I asked Umberto about the security officers on site. There’s one armed officer on duty at any given time, in addition to five internally-based officers and four permanently stationed at the main entrance.
“They’re contracted-in,” he told me. “We have to do this because it lessens the possibility of collusion and attempted theft between security staff and employees. The officers are also rotated on a regular basis so that they stay sharp and alert, and have a handle on all parts of the business.” The reasoning is sound.
We left the Cavenago facility at around 5.00 pm and headed back to the sumptuous Crivi’s Hotel in the city centre. A quick wash and brush up was followed by a short walk to a local restaurant (by the name of the Finger Cafe) for an 8.30 pm sit down. The food was absolutely fabulous, and the conversation flowed. I was sat opposite Clemens Schuette (senior manager of corporate communications in Europe for Sony Europe) with Kate to my left.
A most pleasant evening in wonderful surroundings ended with a trip to the famous Duomo. The most bizarre sight greeted me here in the adjacent shopping mall, where a gold-leaf fronted McDonald’s lives cheek-by-jowl with Prada and Gucci outlets. A surreal experience, I have to tell you, but not as surreal as all of us being cajoled into ‘spinning’ around on one heel on top of a Bull mosaic which adorns the floor in the middle of the mall. Apparently, anyone who succeeds in making a 360-degree rotation is brought good luck. I made it, so I’m OK!
City of Milan Control Room
Ogilvy PR deserve congratulations for their timing on the trip. I cannot tell you how many overseas visits I’ve been on in the past when the host company transports you to Europe, keeps you up drinking until the early hours and then demands a 7.30 am start for a factory tour the next morning. It’s self-defeating, because you’re going to be too tired and hung over to concentrate on anything!
None of that this time around, though. Kate had organised a civilised ‘meet time’ of 10.00 am in the hotel lobby before we made our way to the City of Milan Control Room – for me, most definitely the highlight of the trip.
To say that this installation is impressive would be something of an understatement. Fabio had told us the day before that the City of Milan boasts “the most advanced security infrastructure in Italy”. Since 1 January, traffic in the centre has been restricted to try and cut down on pollution (there are ten monitoring stations looking at air quality alone) and a congestion charging scheme imposed. More than 1,000 cameras watch over the city, with all of the images fed back to the main Control Room (which is ‘in touch’ with three separate Control Rooms). You can begin to formulate an impression of the sheer scale of this operation, I suspect.
What did the client want? Fabio said that Mario Grippa (the City of Milan’s Control Room manager, and head of security) wanted a monitoring solution that would identify threats in real time, with reduced storage ‘space’ in terms of the physical equipment needed and a substantial reduction in the time needed to search for incident footage. All of that needed to be integrated within the existing system such that traffic monitoring and security monitoring could be taken care of in one ‘hit’.
In the main Control Room area on the top floor of Police Headquarters there is one central screen with four split screens either side. Control taken care of by Sony’s Real Shot Manager. The same principles have been adopted here as for the Esprinet project, except in this instance control is being exerted over security and safety, traffic and general transportation.
“We are mainly looking to combat the terrorist threat,” said Mr Grippa. “We already have 1,000 cameras installed with 300 more Sony units planned for installation and some covering the Metropolitan Underground Stations. The Duomo Cathedral and Central Station are potential ‘hot spots’, so the monitoring must be first class.”
Bosch, Pelco and Siemens cameras are used in addition to Sony’s products.
Setting up for ‘area protection’
In the Duomo area, cameras can be set up for ‘area protection’. If more than, say, ten people are picked up in a demarcated zone then the cameras will trigger an alarm that a security-related event could be taking place. “This gives us the potential to prevent a terrorist attack,” continued Mr Grippa. “If a car were to park right in front of the Milan Municipality Buildings we’d know about it immediately and, thanks to the ‘talking cameras’ installed, we can warn the driver and occupants to move away. It’s what we like to call the ‘Shout and Shock’ treatment.”
Fabio Andreoni added: “The City of Milan project was and is a great challenge for us. All images are collected and transmitted over fibre optic cable. If the Control Room were to be disabled for any reason then we can transfer command and control functions to a back-up facility. Business continuity is absolutely critical. Every element of the installation is co-ordinated between the Milan Police and the national Carabinieri.”
Next door to the main Control Room lies the local Police Control Room, operated by officers from the City Police of Milan. This Control Room opened just before Christmas. I was beginning to wonder where all the servers were for the installation, and what kind of back-up is on offer. I didn’t have to wait long for an answer, as we were then escorted out of the building and sent below ground to see the massively impressive Server Room (you need finger print and iris recognition approval before being allowed in if you are an employee).
Mr Grippa said that, to date, 140 million Euros had been spent on this part of the operation alone. Phenomenal, but the desired effect is clearly being realised.
After a splendid luncheon in the Dolce Vita restaurant (comprising delicious risotto, Parma ham, beautifully-cooked turkey and salad) it was time to say our goodbyes and head back to Linate Airport. There wasn’t much in the way of Duty Free on offer, so Simon, Kate and I decided to order one or two last beers each. Gaston joined us after having bought a pretty big collection of silk ties, and the barman brought us over some crisps, which was a bonus!
I arrived home tired but at the same time energised. It had been a fantastic trip. I learned a great deal, and I must offer my sincere thanks to Sony for inviting me and to Ogilvy PR for arranging everything. Let’s do it all again sometime, folks!
