Adra
Key Metrics
Weeks to minutes: Investigations that once took weeks are now resolved in minutes.
Substantial long-term savings: Eliminated call-outs, reduced maintenance to “almost nil,” and lowered energy costs by removing racks of hard drives.
Reduced antisocial behaviour: Noticeable decline across car parks, bin stores, and communal areas.
Faster insurance resolution: Clear, objective video evidence accelerates claims and reduces disputes.
Rapid rollouts: Upwards of 60 cameras installed in a single week, even at one of the most challenging sites with legacy coax infrastructure.
Arrests within hours: Police can now act on evidence the same day, thanks to rapid search tools and secure sharing.
Background
Adra is a housing association (Registered Social Landlord, or RSL) providing more than 7,000 homes for 15,000 tenants across North Wales. From rural estates tucked into mountainous terrain to dense urban communities, Adra works closely with local authorities to maintain safe, welcoming environments.
Richard, Adra’s Infrastructure and Operations Manager, has been with the organisation for 14 years. He leads IT and operations strategy, helping ensure that technology investments deliver value while improving tenant safety.
Challenges
Adra’s previous NVR-based systems were costly to maintain, slow to scale, and difficult to manage across widely dispersed sites. Site visits to retrieve footage or repair equipment often required two-hour drives through mountains, with heavy rain and snow sometimes making travel impossible.
Investigations were equally challenging. Police requests for a week’s worth of footage often took weeks to fulfil — if they could be fulfilled at all. Staff relied on tenant call-ins to report incidents, as the system lacked analytics or alerts. Meanwhile, antisocial behaviour, vandalism, and potential risks like cuckooing demanded a proactive, modern solution.
“Our traditional security systems didn’t scale,” Richard explained. “We were increasingly frustrated — the value for money just wasn’t there.”
From Weeks to Minutes: Faster Investigations and Real-Time Collaboration
One of the most dramatic changes since adopting Verkada has been the speed of investigations. Richard described cases where, thanks to Verkada’s AI-powered tools and secure sharing, police were able to make arrests within hours of requesting footage — something he said was “impossible before.”
What once took weeks of manual searching now happens in minutes:
AI-powered alerts (motion, line crossing, loitering) give staff early warning of incidents, working in tandem with tenant call-ins.
AI-powered search and History Player Search enable staff and police to swiftly find and trace an individual’s movements across multiple cameras.
Live link sharing enables Adra to grant external investigators temporary access, accelerating collaboration and response.
Rapid Deployment and Effortless Scalability
Adra has now deployed more than 600 Verkada cameras across its estates, beginning with a retrofit of legacy systems. In one of the most challenging rollouts — a site previously running entirely on coax — the team brought 60 cameras online in a single week. Similar rollouts have since been repeated, with multiple sites going live in the same week.
Verkada’s hybrid cloud architecture made the rollout seamless:
No NVRs, DVRs, or servers required — just a PoE connection.
Onboard storage with up to 365 days of video and cloud-based management for centralized access.
Cameras configured and came online in minutes, without third-party software or complex networking.
Automatic updates and a 10-year warranty support predictable long-term ownership costs.
Low bandwidth consumption — typically just 20–50 Kbps per camera — allowed Adra to connect remote, rural sites without straining networks.
“The speed and simplicity were unlike anything we’d seen. It’s as easy to put in one camera as it is 1,000.”
Turning Security Data Into Operational Insight
Beyond improving safety, Adra has used Verkada’s API integrations to extract insights that shape how it manages estates. By integrating data into custom Power BI dashboards, the team can:
Distinguish between people vs. vehicle activity across sites.
Identify hotspots of activity in parks, bin stores, and roundabouts.
Redeploy wardens strategically, focusing time on supporting tenants rather than chasing reports.
“What started as an experiment quickly became essential,” Richard noted. “We can now see how spaces are being used, target resources more effectively, and prove to stakeholders that we’re making smart, data-driven decisions.”
Outcomes
For Richard, the biggest difference has been speed. Investigations that once took weeks of staff time can now be completed in minutes. “Now, when the police ask for footage, we can give them access almost immediately,” he said. “We’ve had cases where arrests were made within hours — something that was impossible before.”
The financial and operational impact has been just as important. By eliminating stacks of NVRs, Adra has reduced energy costs, avoided call-out charges, and cut maintenance to “almost nil.” Staff who once spent hours chasing down footage can now devote more time to supporting tenants, while objective video evidence has helped settle insurance claims far more quickly.
Verkada’s analytics-driven alerts have also transformed how Adra manages its estates. Crowd detection, line-crossing, loitering, and motion alerts notify staff the moment activity occurs in sensitive areas like bin stores and car parks. Rather than waiting for residents to call in issues, staff can intervene proactively. Richard credits these capabilities with reducing antisocial behaviour across estates and freeing wardens to focus more of their time on tenant support.
Custom dashboards built through Verkada’s API extend this impact even further, giving Adra insight into how spaces are used — from busy roundabouts to quiet parks — and helping the team redeploy wardens where they are most needed.
“With Verkada, we can now show stakeholders that every pound is working harder — and, more importantly, we’re protecting tenants and communities in ways that simply weren’t possible before.”
Partnership & Support
Adra worked with partner Boxxe for deployment, which Richard described as seamless: “Boxxe was a great conduit for us.” Beyond installation, Verkada continues to provide 24/7 support — just a chat, email, or phone call away.
Richard also noted that Verkada makes the team feel like “an extended part of the family,” inviting Adra to roadmap events, training on new features, and helping ensure staff are confident using the system. “It’s not just about the technology — it’s the ongoing relationship that makes the difference.”
Looking Ahead
Adra is embedding Verkada into its “Safe by Design” programme so every new build includes security from the start. With hundreds of homes added each year, Richard sees Verkada as a core part of how the association will protect tenants well into the future.
Planned next steps include expanding the use of multisensor cameras in long hallways and communal areas, exploring Access Control with MFA for staff, and continuing to build out API-driven dashboards to turn security data into actionable community insights.
To other housing associations, Richard offers this advice: “Don’t get caught up in the upfront cost. Once the system is in place, the long-term savings across call-outs, maintenance, and staff time are substantial. More importantly, think about the benefits to your tenants and community — the real value is in keeping people safe, resolving issues quickly, and giving everyone peace of mind.”
“For us, it’s about making safety part of the fabric of every home we build. Verkada is central to that journey, because it’s not only keeping people safe today — it’s giving us the tools to keep improving year after year.”