The Big Red Camaro Gets State-of-the-Art Cameras from Hanwha for Its New Home

Richard Gottlieb was 17 years old when he and his father Dan Gottlieb began working on the car. Their original intention was to find an extracurricular activity that would allow them to spend time together. Since then, the two have invested countless hours as well as 7-10 million dollars upgrading, refurbishing, restoring and improving the performance of the car. The Big Red Camaro is not a movie car. Officially, it is a serious, open-road racing car that has been setting records at the highest level for years.

In 2017, to protect their investment and ensure the continued success of the racing team, the Gottliebs began building a new home for their car in Victorville, California. The 16000 square foot facility was completed in September 2021. Along with a fabrication and machine shop for maintaining the car at peak performance, the facility also boasts a state-of-the-art video surveillance system with Hanwha Techwin cameras to help keep this priceless piece of American racing history safe.

It was clear from the beginning of the project that the site for the new facility would pose unique security challenges. Because of the kind of work being done on the car, which includes welding as well as working with toxic and highly volatile substances like racing fuels, the car had to be housed in an area zoned for light industry. These areas aren’t typically known for high security.

“With Hanwha, you get exceptional performance and great quality. The technology does what Hanwha says it will do and does it perfectly.”
— Howard Levinson, Expert Security Consulting

To help solve these challenges, the team hired Howard Levinson of Expert Security to design and implement the new security system. Levinson’s approach was to first look at the asset and then build the protection around it. As he explains, “I went through a risk and vulnerability assessment to determine the challenges related to protecting Big Red. One challenge was the fact that the building is only a few feet away from a major rail bed. And, while the back of the facility is fairly isolated, the front is very industrial.”

To address the coverage issues posed by the site’s layout, Levinson decided to tailor the camera selection to match the security requirements for each area. For the back of the facility, which is isolated and has several dumpsters, he installed Hanwha cameras with lowlight operability. Levinson also deployed in-camera masking so as to prevent passing trains from triggering motion alerts. Out front, he deployed Wisenet PNM-9030V multi-sensor panoramic cameras from Hanwha to provide a complete 180° view.

Each camera records a set number of frames per second, regardless of the situation. If the analytics in the camera detects movement or a possible threat, however, both the frame rate and image quality are automatically increased. This means that, when a potential incident starts, the security system immediately adjusts to improve the resolution of its video recordings.