Meridian Public School

Mississippi School District Installs IQinVision Megapixel Cameras

The Meridian Public School District (MPSD) in Mississippi has installed approximately 373 IQinVision IQeye HD megapixel cameras at their 12 school buildings and campuses. The Meridian Public School District has over 6,000 students in grades K-12 with more than 550 certified staff and approximately 500 classified staff.

At the end of the 2010 school year, MPSD embarked on their ambitious plan to install a unified video surveillance system in all their schools. By the start of the next school year, the system was up and running and the hundreds of IQeye 2 MP Alliance domes were transmitting new, high quality video images for security and administration personnel.

“In this initial phase, we were looking to migrate a number of different systems and old camera technologies to a single, upgraded system covering all our schools,” said Tim Boutwell, MPSD director of technology. 

The focus was to get all the elementary and middle schools covered, as well as portions of the high school campus. Despite budget constraints and the occasional installation challenge, the system was up and running in short order and has been delivering positive results.

IQeye cameras are deployed at six elementary schools, three middle schools, and the vocational center at the high school to cover bus lanes, parent pick-up lanes, school entrances/exits, administrative offices, as well as many hallways.

“We had been talking about upgrading video surveillance for some time,” said Boutwell. “This project fit right in line with our number one district goal: safe and orderly schools. Now, there is no question that we have a much better idea what is going on at each of our campuses and that we have achieved a higher level of accountability.”

Video is monitored at each school location by school personnel, using a 22-inch monitor at his/her workstation. Each principal also has access to their school’s video, ensuring that at each school at least two people can monitor video at all times. At the District office, the Director of Security and the Director of Maintenance have access to video from all 373 cameras and they provide important back-up monitoring to the efforts at each school. The IQeye Alliance domes offer H.264 Main Profile compression, enabling MPSD to view and record at 30 frames per second. Video is stored for approximately one week.

Meridian staff have been using the new system for about five months.

“This video system makes it very easy for each principal to know who is on campus,” said Boutwell. “We have great views of each campus and the surrounding areas. It’s a tremendous benefit. We frequently have ‘he said, she said’ incidents, and now the principal can easily and quickly go back and see exactly what happened. We also have some vandalism, and we have been able to catch the offenders based on the video images—it’s worked tremendously for that. Boutwell reports that he’s confident that Meridian School’s identification of vandals and other perpetrators has greatly improved. “We’re pleased with the image quality of the cameras. We’re really enjoying the new cameras.”

The future calls for adding cameras and areas under surveillance as budget becomes available.

Featured

New Products

  • PE80 Series

    PE80 Series by SARGENT / ED4000/PED5000 Series by Corbin Russwin

    ASSA ABLOY, a global leader in access solutions, has announced the launch of two next generation exit devices from long-standing leaders in the premium exit device market: the PE80 Series by SARGENT and the PED4000/PED5000 Series by Corbin Russwin. These new exit devices boast industry-first features that are specifically designed to provide enhanced safety, security and convenience, setting new standards for exit solutions. The SARGENT PE80 and Corbin Russwin PED4000/PED5000 Series exit devices are engineered to meet the ever-evolving needs of modern buildings. Featuring the high strength, security and durability that ASSA ABLOY is known for, the new exit devices deliver several innovative, industry-first features in addition to elegant design finishes for every opening.

  • Camden CM-221 Series Switches

    Camden CM-221 Series Switches

    Camden Door Controls is pleased to announce that, in response to soaring customer demand, it has expanded its range of ValueWave™ no-touch switches to include a narrow (slimline) version with manual override. This override button is designed to provide additional assurance that the request to exit switch will open a door, even if the no-touch sensor fails to operate. This new slimline switch also features a heavy gauge stainless steel faceplate, a red/green illuminated light ring, and is IP65 rated, making it ideal for indoor or outdoor use as part of an automatic door or access control system. ValueWave™ no-touch switches are designed for easy installation and trouble-free service in high traffic applications. In addition to this narrow version, the CM-221 & CM-222 Series switches are available in a range of other models with single and double gang heavy-gauge stainless steel faceplates and include illuminated light rings.

  • FEP GameChanger

    FEP GameChanger

    Paige Datacom Solutions Introduces Important and Innovative Cabling Products GameChanger Cable, a proven and patented solution that significantly exceeds the reach of traditional category cable will now have a FEP/FEP construction.