Page 42 - Security Today, September 2017

A Redesign in Surveillance Illinois elementary district upgrades to IP system
BTy Jeff N. Whitney
he Ottawa Elementary School District is in Ottawa, Il- linois, a river town 80 miles southwest of Chicago. The district consists of five schools, the campuses of which include Jefferson Elementary School, Lincoln Elemen- tary School, McKinley Elementary School, Shepherd
Middle Schools and the Jefferson Elementary “Art House” building. In the spring of 2015, a variety of issues caused the schools’ adminis- tration to determine that they needed a surveillance system upgrade.
The district’s IT director, Kyle Olesen, met with Nick Melnyk, a systems integrator for Ficek Electric & Communication Systems, and the Arecont Vision regional sales team, ultimately sparking a major collaboration to redesign the surveillance systems used by all their schools.
Out with Analog
The district had been using mostly analog cameras for its school sur- veillance. The original cameras had been placed throughout the five campuses without a formal coverage strategy, hindering the useful- ness of the surveillance system. This prevented key areas from being effectively monitored and the images that were provided by the ana- log cameras were of low quality.
New challenges presented themselves as the project continued. With five completely different locations to work with, it was clear that the project would be a long-term one. It was imperative that the installation efforts be planned accordingly. Part of planning was to treat each school as a separate project with its own surveillance cover- age layout and system requirements.
Such a long undertaking meant staffing challenges. The project
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manager changed five months into the project, resulting in the bid- ding process to be undertaken a second time. A Chicago-based ar- chitecture and engineer firm was then hired by the school to help facilitate the project. Educational sessions were offered by Arecont Vision to bring the new firm up to date on IP megapixel camera tech- nology. The end user, systems integrator and all other stakeholders were brought up to speed quickly and efficiently.
Introducing the Technology
During the first meeting with the district in 2015, the IT director was introduced to megapixel single- and multi-sensor cameras. The end user was impressed, and a more in-depth meeting was scheduled. This led to walkthroughs at each of the five campuses to outline rec- ommendations for camera locations and models.
The individual schools were pleased with the camera performance during this series of events, and the project continued into the design phase. During this period, the district received a detailed layout for each school. The layouts outlined the coverage area that each camera would provide.
After completing the design phase, the systems integrator and the school district participated in the Arecont Vision Try-and-Buy Program. This program provided the end user community with the opportunity to experience Arecont Vision megapixel cameras before committing to a full installation. The Ottawa School District ap- proved the installation of networked cameras in all five locations in July 2016.
Exacq Technologies, part of the Security Products business unit of Tyco, was selected as the VMS provider. Exacq and Arecont Vi-
SCHOOL SECURITY