Maize is the most important grain crop in South Africa and is mainly produced in the north central highlands. Approximately 12 Million tons of maize is produced annually on 3 million hectares of land. Theft of grain has been a constant headache for South African silo owners since grain handling became deregulated, 15 years ago. The thieves are well organised and well armed, so posting guards at the silos is simply not an option. With the help of a Geovision surveillance system, any suspicious movements around the silos can be detected from miles away, even at night. Silo owners will have plenty of time to call the police, or coordinate defences to scare away the thieves.

Apart from theft, many vendors attempt to claim the payment twice when they only deliver once; they drive away and come back with the same delivery. By installing the video servers on top of the silos where maize and corn are stored, video footage can be transmitted through a Wi-Fi network to be recorded and monitored at one central office. According to the satisfied silo owners, the first installation was done about 6 months ago with very positive results, and they are now wanting to complete the installation country wide. Geovision video servers not only helped them to eliminate double payment, but also brought the theft down effectively.

Geovision H.264 video servers have 2 and 4 channel models. They both support PoE and full D1 real-time video and audio encoding. And they can be fully integrated with Geovision NVR software. Furthermore, by installing a Wi-Fi USB adapter, connecting the Geovision video server to the wireless network can be achieved easily totally eliminating laborious cabling work.