Anoka County has grown from a largely rural area in 1857 to the present day urban center with a population of over 320,000 people. It is one of the largest and fastest growing counties in the State of Minnesota.

 

Bunker Beach Water Park features four waterslides, a zero-entry pool with a water play structure, a creative sand play area with two volleyball courts, and Minnesota’s largest wave pool. Large open areas for sunning and relaxing are scattered throughout the water park. Concession options, family-friendly changing rooms, and a metro-area location make Bunker Beach a perfect family destination.

 

Many of the 100,000 customers each year are young people, so it takes a large staff of well-trained individuals to maintain a safe and secure environment. Supervision was very difficult due to the number of staff, the number of stations spread throughout the park, and the multiple merchandise counters. Because of these challenges, the park was exposed to potential money and inventory losses. They considered additional employee training and hiring additional staff and supervisors, but the solution seemed very expensive and they were not sure that it would solve their problem.

 

Kevin Symens, Aquatic Facilities Manager, evaluated several possible solutions. After meeting with Solbrekk employees Larry Phelps, VP of Sales, Jerry Weiler, Director of Operations and Becky Jacobs, Sr. Account Executive, Kevin made the decision to go with a Solbrekk video surveillance solution utilizing digital technology. They purchased an Axis Communications IP video surveillance system with nine IP cameras. The system was installed on an HP Proliant video server and integrated with their existing IT network.

 

One of the challenges that needed to be overcome with the final solution was the potential cost of cabling with all of the concrete surfaces in the water park. The solution was to interconnect several of the cameras with wireless access points.

 

The system freed up supervisors time to handle other tasks, provided a safer environment for their customers, increased productivity of employees and made employees more aware of merchandise and cash transactions due to the video surveillance cameras.

 

When Kevin was asked why he picked this system versus the many other systems he had evaluated he said, “All the other systems used analog technology as opposed to the digital solution offered by Solbrekk. It just made sense as a long-term solution. We liked the significantly better picture quality, the ability to take a snapshot and to create a jpg file that could be saved or emailed from any PC on our network or remotely.”

 

Kevin went on to say “This system not only meets our immediate needs better than any other proposed solution, it also has additional capability and expandability that will allow for future needs and growth.”