Page 108 - Security Today, April 2018

DIGITAL UPGRADES
ability to expand and manage the system is a key benefit for the dis- trict and its security partners.
Like a typical data center—and unlike a typical school—the Everett Public Schools data center has power backup and redundancies in place. In addition to the security infrastructure, all data processing for every system, across all campuses, happens centrally at the data center.
CAMERAS, ACCESS AND STORAGE
Each school is on its own VLAN, sending isolated feeds to the central data center via a 10 GB fiber optic network to all schools. With so many camera feeds coming in, analytics play a key role in managing which feeds are recorded onto the facility’s 220TB of SAN storage. Knutson and his team use a combination of motion detection and in- camera “on the edge” intelligent analytics.
“The cameras integrate perfectly with the VMS system, and we par- ticularly like the on-the-edge analytics that the cameras provide in addition to using motion to trigger recording,” Knutson said. “In most cases, we record only during motion or other analytic triggers. The latest cameras come with an entire suite of analytics which includes loitering, intrusion, entry, exit and disappear, but we mainly use the intrusion function, which we find very reliable.”
As feeds come into the data center, the VMS determines who gets to see what using LDAP group assignments. A principal at Cascade High School will have a VMS client installed on a capable PC receiving feeds from the data center to his or her school campus. A police officer can see the entire district including support buildings.
“When we developed the system, we rolled out a policy about reten- tion, who sees it and what it’s used for,” Knutson said. “For image stor- age, we keep 30 days’ worth of storage. For the most part, we use the system in a 'post-incident' capacity, helping us to answer questions around any type of incident that may occur. It’s a great protection for staff as well as students when it comes to sharing what really happened
in a given situation.”
ADVANCED ANALYTICS AND CYBER-SECURITY
“We’ve been using the Wisenet X series for single imager cameras and we really like those,” Knutson said. “Two significant differentiators about these cameras are their wide dynamic range and their perfor- mance in low light. It’s pretty phenomenal. Any camera can give you good daytime vision, but when things get tough it really separates out the camera vendors.”
Because of the close integration with the VMS provider, Knutson and the team are able to use the cameras’ multi-stream capabilities, dynamically switching between an H.264 low resolution and H.265 high resolution image when required. When viewing a grid of 6 x 6 cameras on the VMS, the smaller images can use the low-resolution stream. This keeps CPU/GPU usage low. If an operator clicks on an image to enlarge it, it automatically switches to the H.265 higher frame rate image for more detail and resolution.
“We’re currently installing our first multi-sensor, and we’re excited by the economies of scale we can achieve with these cameras while making no sacrifices in terms of performance and flexibility,” Knutson said. “We are currently testing the X series rugged interior cameras. We’re particu- larly interested in the sound analytics that come with those cameras. We’re looking at gunshot, explosion and glass breakage analytics.
“We like the commitment to cyber-security,” Knutson said. “We’re very aware of the cybersecurity issues surrounding some camera man- ufacturers, and we feel good about the company’s
South Korean ownership. Moving forward, we have
a new elementary school in planning, and we’ll be
using Hanwha Techwin cameras there too.”
Paul Kong is the technical director at Hanwha Techwin America.
CS24 WWW.CAMPUSLIFESECURITY.COM | APRIL 2018
A SPECIAL SECTION TO SECURITY TODAY AND THE JOURNAL
CAMPUS SECURITY & LIFE SAFETY