Nokia facility calls for tight security

Aug 1, 1997 12:00 PM

Telecommunications giant Nokia is in one of the world's most competitive industries, making it a possible target for industrial espionage.

Employees arriving for the early morning shift at Nokia Mobile Phones distribution and manufacturing facility in Ft. Worth, Texas, do not have to worry about leaving their headlights on and returning to a car with a dead battery. Using high-speed dome cameras, a security officer at the building's main monitoring station will spot the car. The officer will zoom in on the car's license plate, record the number and notify the employee or visitor.

Of course, security watches for more than slowly fading headlights; it provides a safe environment. "We provide a second set of ears and eyes for employees in the parking lot," says James Hill, security system administrator for Nokia Americas. "It is an important function of the system."

Security mirrors company growth

Nokia, which garnered $8.5 billion in net sales in 1996, is a leading international telecommunications company and manufacturer of cellular telephones and technology. Founded in 1865 as a forest industry enterprise in southwestern Finland, the company derived its name from its original location on the Nokia River. The company is headquartered in Helsinki, Finland, and employs more than 31,000 people in 45 countries.

During the 1980s, Nokia strengthened its position in the telecommunications and consumer electronics markets and now faces the concerns that come with being in one of the most competitive industries in the world; it is considered one of the top five industries targeted for industrial espionage.

So when Nokia Mobile Phones built its 500,000-square-foot manufacturing and distribution center for the Americas in Ft. Worth, they decided to upgrade from the simple burglar alarms used in the previous facility to a sophisticated, integrated electronic security system.

"Nokia wisely looked for a system that had the potential to grow with them," says Kelle Shanks, a senior account manager for Sensormatic Electronics, Boca Raton, Fla., who helped Nokia design an integrated security system.

Nokia required a high level of security for its manufacturing and distribution center, known as the Alliance facility. Due to the facility's location in a foreign trade zone, Nokia receives special tax incentives, and, in return, the United States Customs Agency requires a high level of accountability for the materials moving in and out of the facility.

The Alliance facility serves as the main monitoring center for most of Nokia's security efforts in the United States. The site also monitors Valley View, Nokia's research and development headquarters for the Americas, located in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, and the Diplomacy facility, a telecommunications plant. Ready for growth

The Software House C*CURE 1 Plus with photo imaging capabilities and guard station is Nokia's access control system. Approximately 70 card readers monitor the more than 2,000 employees at all Nokia facilities. The system can grow to support up to 64,000 badges and 2,048 readers.

Bi-directional optical turnstiles, manufactured by Omega Optical Turnstiles, Walnut Creek, Calif., are integrated into the system to move large numbers of shift workers in and out of the Alliance facility without traffic jams and delays. The turnstiles work in conjunction with the card access system to provide unobtrusive traffic lanes through which employees can pass quickly and safely.

A red or green light at the end of the turnstile indicates the status of the lane. The green light indicates that the lane is open and ready for the access card. The red light indicates that the lane is closed or in alarm mode. The employee slides the card into the top of the turnstile. If the card is authorized, the top green light graphic will point in the direction authorized and a chime will sound to tell the employee he or she may pass. When passing through the lanes, the employee crosses an infrared beam that resets the lane for the next person. If the card is not authorized, the turnstile will sound an alarm. Anyone attempting to pass without presenting a card will trip an infrared beam and cause an alarm. All access activities are recorded and logged in the system.

"Our facility operates 24 hours a day with shifts moving in and out of the building throughout that period," says Hill, a security veteran who has worked with electronic security equipment for the past 14 years. "We wanted a system that would perform smoothly and get workers to and from their jobs as quickly and efficiently as possible."

The Alliance facility also uses PIN code readers at locations that require a higher level of security, such as computer rooms.

The Nokia Americas headquarters building in Irving, Texas, uses proximity readers with keypads from Motorola Indala, San Jose, Calif. Biometric hand readers from Recognition Systems Inc., Campbell, Calif., which were used at the 1996 Summer Olympic games, have been installed in areas needing the highest level of security. The biometric devices read employees' palm dimensions and allow access only to those with matching dimensions filed in the system's memory, eliminating the possibility of access with stolen badges or access numbers.

24-hour-a-day monitoring

Nokia also uses an extensive CCTV system at its facilities. Sensormatic cameras are recorded 24 hours a day and monitored at the Alliance facility's central monitoring station. Video input is handled by a matrix switcher from American Dynamics, Orangeburg, N.Y. Two multiplexers, manufactured by Robot Research Inc., San Diego, are used for recording and display on several color monitors. The multiplexers can be switched to display 16, nine, four or two cameras simultaneously, or focus on a single image for greater detail. The process does not interfere with the continuous recording of images from other cameras.

Both the Irving facility and the Diplomacy site are monitored using Robot HyperScan Ultra. Using a computer platform, HyperScan transmits up to 12 frames of video per second over standard or ISDN phonelines, cellular or satellite data links. Security officers at the Alliance facility can monitor events at the other facilities as they happen.

The Irving office has 15 American Dynamics fixed-dome cameras. The Diplomacy site uses two fixed-dome cameras and seven SpeedDome cameras, while Alliance has two fixed-dome cameras and 20 SpeedDomes.

Integrating officers and equipment

Integrated into the electronic security system is a mixture of in-house and contract security officers. There are 22 officers at the Alliance center. Most are in-house officers covering the central station, employee entrances and exits, and the parking lots. Security officers patrol the facility on a regular basis. Nokia also employs a transportation security specialist.

"The installation of the Nokia system at the manufacturing and distribution center was very fast paced," says Shanks. "We needed to have the system up and running after the building was completed and before it was occupied."

Shanks says the distribution center at Alliance was built first. It took about three months to complete the fire and security system installation. She said the manufacturing center was added later and that fire and security system installation took about four months to complete.

Since the installation of the system there have been upgrades. Nokia started with a Software House C*CURE 700 and upgraded to the C*CURE 1 Plus because of its ability to expand as the company's needs expand. The biometric hand readers were also a part of the upgrade. Before the hand readers were installed, the company used PIN code pads for those areas with the highest security needs.

Nokia also uses its CCTV cameras for more than security. The company uses the recorded video in training tapes and as a way of developing new methods for increasing productivity and safety. For example, company officials may review recorded activity at the loading dock to come up with more efficient ways to load and unload trucks.

So far, the system has worked well for the company, says Hill.

"One of the things an end-user wants is speed when gathering and retrieving information, and this system does that for us," he says. "I feel like I know what is happening before the criminal does."

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© 2008 Penton Media Inc.

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