Milestone XProtect IP Video Helps Protect Brampton Manor Academy
Milestone Systems, the open platform company in IP video management software (VMS), has formed the centerpiece of a major surveillance upgrade in a 1,500 pupil school based in East London called the Brampton Manor Academy. The Academy benefitted from a £10 million injection of capital from Building Schools for the Future for major renovation of the main building and grounds in 2009, prompting the decision to improve their security system. Academy status was attained in April 2011, and it will be expanded further this year with the creation of a Sixth Form Center for 300 additional pupils.
Milestone partner Security Systems Technology (SST) carried out the specification, installation and configuration work for the security system upgrade. The new solution consists of 112 Arecont Vision, Axis, Mobotix and Sanyo IP cameras in addition to 33 legacy CCTV analog cameras - all being managed by Milestone XProtect Enterprise IP video software, running on three Dell servers. The video recordings are archived on three RAID-5 arrays.
"Milestone XProtect has proved to be a very intuitive system for viewing a wide mix of cameras - the interface is easy to manage," said Graham Glass, director of finance and administration at Brampton Manor Academy. "SST keeps us up to speed with technical enhancements, which Milestone is continually bringing to XProtect, to keep our initial security investment future proof."
The benefits of the Milestone open platform architecture are clear to Glass, who oversaw the installation, subsequent upgrade and expansion of the new surveillance system by SST: "Coverage is now excellent. If there is an incident, we can find it quickly in the Milestone XProtect software and use the video (and in some cases audio) evidence to tackle any wrong-doing, which is now very rare."
Brampton Manor Academy now has a surveillance system which serves their security needs today but is also capable of integrating with other building management systems over time, such as access control in the new Sixth Form Center to be completed in late 2012. The Milestone XProtect system integrated with Paxton Access control in the new building will help Academy staff to place trust in the 16-18 year olds to use their swipe cards when entering restricted areas rather than having to be physically on hand to unlock rooms where valuable equipment is located.
"This installation by SST shows that Milestone XProtect Enterprise is a future-proof video management platform ideal for long-term flexibility," said Glenn Fletcher, Milestone Systems UK General Manager. "Taking feeds from CCTV cameras as well as the latest IP devices from a wide range of manufacturers, and offering integration with access control or other systems shows the versatility of Milestone software."