News
Contava selected as 2011 Security Integrator of the Year

Contava was chosen based on its project for its customer the City of Calgary. Contava delivered a CCTV upgrade for the city’s LRT transit system. The project involved almost 500 cameras, and a 30-day distributed archiving and retrieval system, as well as a monitor wall, full core redundancy and a training program for the operators. The project involved at least four subcontractors, more than half a dozen technology vendors, and several obstacles requiring the company to think on its feet and come up with fast solutions. For instance, when a vendor was unable to deliver the required video wall on time, Contava procured a cheaper option and implemented it at their own cost. This level of dedication to the project impressed the City of Calgary — it was the customer that submitted the award nomination on behalf of Contava.

“Contava is honoured to receive the 2011 SP&T News Security Integrator of the Year Award,” said company president Curtis Nikel.

Nikel added, “The City of Calgary CCTV LRT Replacement project is a perfect example of how Contava through its experienced, creative, and diverse workforce was able to work with the City of Calgary to provide security expertise through the deployment of this IP video surveillance system. Contava achieved exemplary customer satisfaction by installing an extensive security network that deters and detects criminal activity while maintaining public safety.”

Contava was chosen from amongst the nominees by the SP&T News advisory board in late July. Advisory board members were impressed by the complexity of the project and the way Contava handled it.

“I think the biggest thing was trying to overcome the complexity of the design, as well as overcome it and reverse engineer it. With a railway, that would just amaze me. I’ve never been involved with a project with a challenge like that,” said Joe McCann of Bulldog Fire and Security. Kitchener, Ont.-based Bulldog received the Integrator of the Year award in 2009 for a project it completed for Sleeman Brewery.

“Everyone’s company or material will do a certain thing, but when you need to get a combination of those technologies to work together, that’s always an issue,” added McCann.

“I was looking for a project that represented true integration of the complexities of software and hardware, and overcoming obstacles,” said advisory board member Joe Cosentino of the Canadian Association of Independent Security Distributors. “This certainly met that critieria. I was particularly impressed by the fact that this is a very large project, involving a very busy public area. They had to deal with various software and hardware suppliers and make that all work.”

The full story on Contava’s project will be published in the October issue of SP&T News. The integrator will be handed the award at an awards dinner held in their honour in October, sponsored by Anixter Canada.  The SP&T News team would like to extend our thanks and congratulations to Contava for a job well done.