How Brookfield Iron & Metal Cut Incident Review From Hours to Minutes

Two Busy Yards, a Break-In, and a VMS That Missed It

Brookfield Iron & Metal and Wilkins Rebuilders operate in industrial recycling and metal processing, with two busy yards and constant vehicle and foot traffic. Dave Whitesell, IT Supervisor for Brookfield, leads the IT side, with facilities and security stakeholders depending on what the video system can deliver.

Their legacy VMS, Salient, couldn’t deliver the reliable detection or the fast investigations that kind of traffic demands. “Seeking footage was a pain with our old system,” Dave said. Pulling clips meant staff had to “manually scrub camera by camera”, which took far too long to complete.

The tipping point was a break-in. The old system failed to detect the trespasser, and the review that followed was slow and manual — the moment that made a modern replacement a priority.

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The Best Feature Set, at a Price That Fit the Budget

Dave evaluated modern AI systems on search, usability, reliability, and value. “Ultimately Coram had the best feature set, along with the best pricing that fit our budget,” he said. Onboarding and rollout were just as straightforward: “From the Coram side it was extremely smooth. Since getting everything set up and ready, it’s been pretty much smooth sailing”.

Coram stood out for a few specific reasons:

• AI search that cuts review time: Text and person-centric search instead of scrubbing camera by camera
• Built for many users: Easy for many users to access and operate day to day
• Smooth rollout: Reliable operations from day one
• Responsive human support: During setup and beyond — “Support has been responsive, and our rep took great care of us.”
• Best-fit value: The right feature set for the budget

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Answers in Sixty Seconds, Reviews in a Couple of Hours a Month

Faster investigations were immediate. Where the old system meant scrubbing camera by camera, a search in Coram returned what the team needed in sixty seconds. Reviews now take “a couple hours a month” instead of far more, and Coram’s AI tools “save a ton of time.”

What Brookfield Is Doing with Coram

• Finding footage in seconds: Text and person-centric search replaces manual, camera-by-camera scrubbing.
• Reviewing incidents across both facilities: One system for incident review at both sites, now stabilized on Coram.
• Watching for trespassers: AI video security and trespass detection across yards with constant vehicle and foot traffic.
• Planning the next phase: Expanding coverage and considering PTZ and hardware upgrades as needs grow.

Asked whether he would recommend Coram, Dave doesn’t hedge — and his advice to peers is practical: “Do the free demo and get the trial hardware, so you can see if it’s better than the system that you have.”

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