Screening All Visitors
School district staff controls entrances at three schools with network video intercom system
- By Fredrik Nilsson
- Nov 01, 2008
When the Oconto Board of
Education revised Security
Policy 731, unified school
district officials decided to deploy an
integrated system that would enhance the
safety of all 1,200 students, employees,
volunteers and visitors entering any of the
district’s three campuses. The goal was to
devise a solution that would allow office
staff at the elementary, middle and high
schools to remotely identify visitors and
control door locks at all three locations.
The Wisconsin district, located on the
shores of Green Bay, purchased four
Aiphone AX-DV audio/video door entry
systems—two for the high school and
one each for the middle and elementary
schools. The four units are interfaced via
Cat-5e cable to an Axis Communications
video encoder to enable the video stream
from each door to be securely viewed by
authorized personnel over the school’s
existing Internet connection.
A Commitment to Security
“If, for some reason, there was no one in
the office at one of the schools, an
authorized staff person from one of the
other schools’ offices could see who was
at the entrance and decide whether or not
to open the door,” said Tony Warren, project
manager at LaForce Inc.
Since the board of education mandated
a lock hold-secure drill be held at least
once a year at each school, the new system
has been a welcome addition to the
district’s commitment to school security.
Office staff feel the electronic access
control system gives them the extra eyes
and ears they need at critical entrances
into the three schools. The Aiphone units
provide a crisp image of who is at the
door and support clear two-way conversation.
The AXIS 243SA video encoder
turns the intercoms into IP-based systems
so the video stream can be viewed over
the Web using an intuitive Controlware
application, which sits on PCs in each of
the three schools’ offices. This gives the
staff the flexibility to monitor, communicate
and control multiple entrances from
more than one location. Once a visitor is
identified, office staff can activate the
door release relay from an icon on the
Controlware screen to allow the person to
enter the building.
How It Works
The video communications intercoms
that are mounted outside the school
entrances feature an all-in-one door station,
a color-video camera, a microphone,
a speaker and a call-in button. A visitor
presses the button on the unit, and the
camera begins streaming video to the
computer screens at all three schools.
Whoever wants to grant access to the visitor
accepts the call using the
Controlware software.
Once a staff member at one school
accepts responsibility for the call, it drops
off the PCs at the other two schools so that
staff at those campuses will know the call
has been answered. The person who takes
the call talks to the visitor at the door and
grants or denies that person entrance into
the building. Once action is taken, the
streaming video window closes.
The video encoder provides a number
of features to augment the security of the
door system. In addition to supporting full
duplex audio and 30 frames per second
transmission, the embedded analytics
detect motion and sound as well as loss of
video. Using M-JPEG and MPEG-4 compression,
the encoder minimizes the bandwidth
required to send the transmission
across the network. The encoder also supports
multiple layers of protection, including
password, IP-filtering, HTTPS and
IEEE802.1X, to ensure audio and video
are transmitted securely over the network.
Lessening Taxpayer's Burden
Though Oconto’s district covers 103
square miles and encompasses the city of
Oconto and parts of four adjacent townships,
the population being served is less
than 5,000 people.
“You have to be cost effective when
you’re dealing with a small town,” Warren
said. “Small towns don’t have unlimited
funds. Even though taxpayers want their
schools to be a safe place for their children
to learn, they really can’t take on the cost of
a high-priced security system.”
David Stern, president of M.A.D.
Enterprise, the onsite installer technician,
said the video door-station solution
deployed offers enhanced features normally
associated with more expensive
systems. Not only can all three schools
open their locked doors remotely, communicate
with visitors via the Internet
and grant access only to welcome people,
but they can monitor all three schools
simultaneously from any of the three
school offices.
In addressing the provisions of
Security Policy 731, district officials
have closed the books on unauthorized
access to all three campuses. Fifteen
minutes after the start of school, all main
doors are locked to prevent entry from
the outside. Anyone wanting to enter a
school building during school hours now
must enter at the locked main entrance,
equipped with the video intercom station,
identify themselves and the reason
for entry, and then
wait to be buzzed into
the building.