Page 20 - Campus Security & Life Safety, July/August 2022

By Kelly Lake
How to Protect a College Campus with a Communications ‘Umbrella’
Campus Audio
How important is sound?
Hearing sound every day enables us to connect to people and to the
world.
Sound is vital to sharing information,
whether it’s interacting with our friends and family or people at work. Sound enables us to understand the context of words spoken when we can’t physically be in front of someone.
Sound protects us from danger, such as the sound of a car or a train horn telling us to get out of the way. Sound is also a medium of entertainment. Without sound, we would not be able to listen to music or watch movies and fully enjoy them. Health-wise, sound plays an important role in providing treatment, like when doctors use a stethoscope to hear the heartbeat of a patient.
Sound augments and enhances our vision, informing us and moving us in ways that visuals cannot. Sound communicates to the brain far more quickly than sight. Even more, certain combinations of sound and visuals can evoke what neither can do alone. Therefore, the combination of sound and vision is important because it can help to determine and give clarity to what we see.
Sound is also present and important on university and college campuses, whether it’s students interacting with each other in dorms, classrooms, and common areas; professors and faculty speaking and teaching in large lecture halls; and in musical, sporting, and other entertainment events. Sound allows the individuals at all those buildings, venues, and events to communicate.
Sound and Security: Creating
a ‘Communications Umbrella’
We know that it is complex and difficult to physically secure university and college campuses. Their open environments; large numbers of faculty, students, and vendors; and multiple buildings spread across large areas make them vulnerable to crimes against both property and person.
And that’s where sound via voice security solutions can play a vital role: creating a
communications network that forms a protective umbrella over and throughout a campus. The “communications umbrella” enables security teams to better mitigate security and safety risks.
Communications are as critical to a successful security strategy as more prominent technologies like video surveillance and access control. So, the question is: Does your communications strategy allow your security teams to clearly hear what they see and understand what’s happening?
Video surveillance allows security teams to see and record incidents. It has long been embraced as an essential element of a physical campus security solution. However, surveillance footage is often recorded without sound, even though some security cameras can capture it. The result is an incomplete and often unclear record of what took place. Access control is an additional and essential component, as it can either allow or deny access—but it, too, is limiting. There’s no doubt that both technologies are very important. However, they are about monitoring and control, and they do not give campus security teams the ability to
completely understand the situation and clearly communicate with people before, during, and after an incident.
Human intervention and interaction through voice and audio will always be necessary to secure college and university campuses. Communications technologies like IP intercoms and speakers bring video and access control together, and they provide a well-rounded and responsive “communications umbrella” that offers actionable insight into potential physical breaches.
Implementing the ‘Communications Umbrella’ on Campus
How and where can you implement a “communications umbrella” on your campus?
•In a campus classroom or lecture hall,
intercoms can be used for room-to-room communication. While a professor is teaching, intercoms can help them to communicate with staff in another room or area.
• In campus buildings, intercoms and speakers can provide critical information to professors and students during emergency situations.
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20 campuslifesecurity.com | JULY/AUGUST 2022