Wichita State University Upgrades with Milestone and Partners IP video surveillance is flexible and scalable making it very suitable for school campus expansions. The Wichita State University also finds that after installing a Milestone IP solution, the system is very easy to manage. Wichita State University has over 14,000 students. It is a metropolitan university that is community-based, with many students already working and getting degrees at the same time. Academics include Engineering, Business, and the Fine Arts, with a specialty in aviation, thanks to the local influence of that industry (Raytheon, Airbus, Boeing, Cessna). WSU sponsors huge sports programs, especially basketball and baseball. The university is closely tied to the community with its activities, both academically and culturally.  The college had been using an old VCR tape surveillance system that, according to Steve Dickerson, Manager of Academic Computing at Wichita State University, functioned very poorly and was time consuming. The Wichita State University Main Campus has two computer labs with 75 workstations, generally open until 10 pm. According to Dickerson, ninety percent of the school’s security issues occurred when the public came in to use the labs. Theft, vandalism and minor incidences of misbehavior are the main problems to monitor and control, he says.  The West Campus is across town, with additional facilities to keep track of. The Koch Arena presented the typical crowd control issues. The National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR) is located in the Raytheon complex in another part of town. Dickerson is responsible for security and IT equipment purchasing at the university. He knows it’s time to upgrade and finds a solution in Milestone. Milestone XProtect Enterprise IP video management software is the core surveillance platform. The Main Campus labs use Axis video servers with Panasonic and Axis cameras. The West Campus is using Axis cameras indoors and IQinVision megapixel cameras in the parking lots. The School of Art Design is also using Axis cameras with XProtect Basis+ to protect the computers, and the NIAR facility is using Milestone to monitor its tests. ISG Technology Inc., a Certified Milestone Partner, Axis partner and Cisco partner, assists WSU with the university’s IT and surveillance needs. “We threw away the old CCTV circuitry, the VCR and tapes,” Dickerson states, “and now we have a more streamlined network solution. Used first in the computer labs, we've since upgraded the software and expanded its use to other buildings including the West Campus, the Koch Arena and the aviation test site. WSU’s base site license for XPE is in place for other departments to make use of by simply purchasing additional camera licenses. The University locations that are spread out geographically are monitored both centrally and locally with a solution that is easy to install, operate, maintain and scale over time. Temporary events can be covered and new buildings easily added. Remote access allows managers to keep track of activities from home during off hours, too.  The surveillance works for more than just security. It is a managerial tool and is also used for quality control in the aviation test facilities. The cameras act as prevention, and the archived video is quickly searchable and exportable to share with campus police. A number of incidences have been resolved using the video evidence in court.     “The surveillance these days works well as a deterrent but also as a resource to search, analyze and resolve any incidences after the fact. I also use it as a managerial tool,” explains Dickerson.

Genetec offers Scalability at a Paper Products Institution Founded in 1964, Cascades is one of North America’s leaders in the production, converting and marketing of packaging products, fine papers and tissue papers. The head office is located in Kingsey Falls and employs over 14, 000 employees across 160 operating units around the world.  Confronted with theft and vandalism at one of its Montreal locations, Cascades decided to increase their security installation. Omnicast’s scalability allows users to add one camera at a time, to meet their evolving needs. In this case, Cascades used its existing Wide Area Network (WAN) to extend the reach of the system to the Montreal location faced with security problems. Security agents based in Kingsley Falls now have access to monitor the remote cameras, while the actual archiving is being done locally in Montreal. This architecture allows for a high quality archive and low bandwidth consumption on the WAN. This feature is made possible by the dual streaming capability of each video encoder. Omnicast continues to meet all of Cascades needs and permits the company to have a versatile system that will grow, adapting to any changes. Omnicast leveraged the customer’s investment and offered peace of mind by ensuring that the company’s assets are protected, whether near or far.

Texas Water District Deploys Unified DVTel Access and Video Solution     The Tarrant Regional Water District is securing up to 30 facilities over 10 counties with DVTel, Inc.’s intelligent security solutions over IP networks. The TRWD is deploying the DVTel unified intelligent Security Operations Center (iSOC).      The iSOC, comprising Longitude Access Control and Latitude Network Video Management solutions, safeguards a wide variety of facilities located across 10 counties in North Central Texas. The installation also features DVTel cameras and a video analytics package. Maez Security Consultants aided in system design and Systems Group of Dallas is overseeing installation.   TRWD is one of the largest raw water suppliers in the state of Texas, providing water to more than 1.6 million people in the North Central Texas area. Operations span a 10-county area and include maintaining dams at the Water District’s four reservoirs and more than 150 miles of pipeline used for water transport. Another primary TRWD function is to manage an extensive flood control system, featuring more than 27 miles of floodway levees. TRWD is deploying the unified DVTel solution at upwards to 30 different facilities with video surveillance from approximately 150 cameras and management of more than 200 access control points.     The District has installed a 6-gigahertz wireless backbone with dedicated T-1 lines to ensure efficient, effective transmission of all data from the many different locations back to a central command. “Our goal was to improve upon our previous system with a fully integrated solution and a single point of control,” states Norman Ashton, TRWD Risk Manager. “Previously, we had four different software packages running in isolation of each other, not even popping video on alarm. We needed a much smarter system.”     With DVTel’s flexible, scalable open architecture, TRWD plans to continue to expand its security system to keep pace with the District’s new construction and to add facilities as they move down their priority list of critical assets. Video surveillance provides excellent views of key facilities and the access control system restricts access to each facility to only those who have permission and only for certain periods. In addition, the DVTel system enables TRWD to quickly lock down a single facility or the entire operation as needed.     DVTel President and CEO, Eli Gorovici comments, “Video and access control are quickly becoming standard commodities. But when we combine the two functions and extend system capabilities to improve operations and control, all on the network with a robust interface, we now have a unified, highly intelligent IP-based security solution.”

ioimage Provides Video Analytics for a Hospital Emergency Room A hospital in Texas, (which, for security reasons chooses to remain nameless), recently deployed a solution at its emergency room in conjunction with surveillance cameras to alert nursing staff when patients arrive at the entrance or if someone should slip and fall outside the building.  The system automatically identifies any approaching individual and alerts the staff with a visual and audible alert of the person outside and their status. This enables the medical staff to focus on caring for patients and hospital staff to attend to their daily tasks, while providing secure and safe 24-hour access to the hospital’s emergency room.  By implementing ioimage’s video analytics, hospital officials estimate savings of $240,000 annually on around-the-clock staffing. It also enables the healthcare facility to comply with a state law requiring all hospitals to offer an emergency room with all-hours access. ioimage offered a unique solution that can identify people lying down and can also determine coverage area and eliminate non-critical areas, such as the street next to the hospital. Zeev Farkash, VP of Sales and Customer Services for ioimage points out that this installation is an example of  how security integrators can provide solutions to small to medium sized vertical markets such as the healthcare, in which clients benefit from enhanced security and also gain substantial savings.

OnSSI IP Video Management Solution Helps Secure Super Bowl XLII To help better control and manage its city-wide wireless video surveillance system during Super Bowl XLII, the Phoenix Police Department relied on an IP video management solution from OnSSI. The OnSSI solution controls and manages over three dozen video surveillance cameras in and around downtown Phoenix The advanced video system installed in Phoenix provides the Police Department with ability to remotely monitor and track activities across the city. Video feeds from almost 40 cameras are transmitted to two police command centers via a wireless mesh from Firetide Inc. The system also includes rapid deployable cameras supplied by IPVision, Inc., a systems integrator headquartered in Tucson, AZ. All the cameras are monitored by specially trained operators using OnSSI’s IP video control and management solution. “Our video surveillance network has proven effective in our major investigations and now has become a quick security solution for major events,” states Detective Chris Jensen, the technical surveillance systems administrator for the Phoenix Police Department. “It has been very adaptable to many types of law enforcement activities.”  The Phoenix Police Department implemented the advanced video surveillance solution in 2006 to support covert operations during a serial crime spree, and has used it for numerous investigations and event management since, including Super Bowl XLII. “The distributed architecture of the OnSSI IP video management solution enhanced the Phoenix Police Department’s rapid deployment systems and ability to cover all of the events surrounding the Super Bowl,” comments Ben Green, Vice President of Business Development at IPVision. “This provided extreme flexibility as it allowed the OnSSI solution to seamlessly connect to the various systems already deployed, enabling centralized control and monitoring of all operations,” he adds.   Video from all cameras is recorded and delivered to users using OnSSI’s IP video management solution. The OnSSI solution enables instant access to video from any camera, which can be routed or automatically pushed on-event to any video wall monitor or networked PC. The system eliminates the need for a matrix switcher and allows full utilization of high resolution IP cameras with digital PTZ on both live and recorded images. OnSSI’s user intuitive touch-screen interface employs dynamic maps for fast and easy navigation allowing efficient monitoring of the entire camera system via one system operator at each location. The system’s ease of operation expedited the training process, effectively reducing manpower and operational costs. In addition, OnSSI’s IP video management solution incorporates video content analytics to detect policy driven situations such as motion in restricted areas, loitering, overcrowding in public places, and more. The system also seamlessly integrates with access control and physical security systems allowing alarms and programmed events to be jointly managed.

Vivotek Serves as the Eyes of an Intelligent Robot   Based in Markham, Ontario, Canada, mobile robot development company, Dr Robot Inc., was looking for a high performance IP camera for its new series of mobile robots, named i90. The i90 robots were developed for applications such as security, remote monitoring, automatic tour guides and academic research and development platforms. The i90 is a fully wireless robot, and operates as an autonomous mobile wireless device providing remote monitoring, control and communication. Dr Robot’s engineering team was looking for a high resolution wireless (802.11g) IP camera with a reasonable price tag.  Robot criteria: the remote monitoring task normally requires robot and camera to operate under low illumination in some circumstance and capable of bringing the target close by optical zoom without alerting the subject; the camera has to be reliable and capable of operating on a constantly moving robot; integration to high level software should be flexible. With support from ACC, Vivotek’s Canadian distributor, the Vivotek PZ6114 was finally picked for integration with the i90 robot for its functions including smooth pan tilt operation, plus the 10x optical zoom, two-way audio, low light operation mode, and excellent image quality with reasonable cost. A variety of mobile robots were then developed based on i90 platforms, and all equipped with Vivotek PZ6114 cameras as a standard feature. The i90 robots are deployed at various facilities including nuclear power plants, advanced automotive engineering labs and university research centers.

Fluidmesh Networks and Viewpoint CRM Forge a Solid Partnership Integrated solutions providers as successful as Viewpoint CRM opt only for the best, so when the time came to pick a wireless mesh system partner, they put their faith in Fluidmesh Networks. Lowell, MA-based Viewpoint offers a comprehensive scope of services spanning complete integrated security design and installation, remote (analog, digital, IP- based) video monitoring with audio, access control management, virtual property management and a state-of-the-art operations center. The company’s coveted technology enables them to communicate, through speakers, with each camera they install or easily add the audio technology to systems already in place. Viewpoint Sales Manager, Bill Reilly, explains, “The Viewpoint Video Voice System provides a physical presence at the customer’s location which is as effective as, and in most cases, more effective than a live security guard. While our patented technology allows us to speak at an unlimited amount of camera locations, Fluidmesh now allows us to do it wirelessly.” Viewpoint first tapped into the Fluidmesh technology in January of ’06 when they were working on a multi-unit housing project in Massachusetts. “There was no way for us to trench 500 yards in a parking lot under a city street and into another parking lot down that street,” Reilly notes. “Fluidmesh was the perfect fit and going with their wireless mesh network also greatly reduced the cost of the installation.”  “Viewpoint was looking for a reliable and easily deployable wireless system for its monitoring applications which had to support both video and audio in real time,” recalls Fluidmesh Director Cosimo Malesci. “With our easily deployable mesh networks, Fluidmesh was able to successfully provide such a solution.” Malesci explains that mesh networks provide a higher level of reliability compared to traditional wireless systems which make them the network of choice for many systems, particularly in urban areas. And Fluidmesh dual radio technology provides a greater level of redundancy than single radio mesh systems. “The Fluidmesh network analyzes in real time the interferences in the area and will automatically pick the best frequency based on those results,” he says. Every Fluidmesh network runs on 2.4, 5.3 and 5.8 GHz simultaneously minimizing the chances of interference problems. In addition, the Fluidmesh proprietary transmission protocol is based on an innovative optimization system which guarantees a much lower latency and a much more reliable wireless connectivity compared to 802.11 systems. “Latency is critical in VOIP system like the one used by Viewpoint CRM,” Malesci notes. For the multi-unit housing project, Viewpoint CRM worked closely with Malesci and the Fluidmesh engineering team to design the mesh network according to the clients’ needs. The network had to be laid out on a map and factors such as link distance, bandwidth, line of sight, and interferences needed to be taken into account.   According to Viewpoint’s Bill Reilly, the client was super happy with the cost-effective solution provided. “We have several more projects coming up with Fluidmesh because we believe in the product and they’ve given us tremendous support and training,” he concludes.