The Challenge is Cost effectiveness
School district has fully committed to the latest technology
- By Tristan Haage
- Jan 01, 2015
Lexington School District One
serves more than 24,000 students
from pre-kindergarten
to grade 12. With more than
3,550 employees, the district
occupies 48 percent of the Lexington
County’s 750 square
miles and is one of the county’s
major employers. During
the past 10 years, Lexington
One has grown by an average
of 513 new students per year,
and the district remains one
of the fastest-growing school
districts in South Carolina. To
keep up with growth, Lexington
One has buil
Lexington One prides itself on the innovative
use of technology and has built a substantial
network back-end support infrastructure
for student use. The school district has nearly
16,000 iPads. Every student in grades 6
through 12 carry the tablet devices, which
provide access to the most current information
available through the Internet and to the
district’s Learning Management System
24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week.
“Our district benefits from a visionary
superintendent who sees technology as key to
student learning,” said Allen Ray, network
services coordinator at Lexington One. “And
that vision goes far beyond learning and into
the very core of our IT department and our
security program.”
Meeting Budget
Demands Efficiently
Lexington One, working with long-time systems
integrator partner, South Carolinabased
CMI Networks (CMI), needed to
upgrade to higher resolution video surveillance
cameras and move away from legacy
equipment reaching end-of-life. Given the
school’s preference for the latest technology,
security and IT personnel sought out an innovative
platform to enhance the protection of
its district.
Being used as an investigative tool the
advanced video surveillance system was expected
to gather more details relating to incidents.
More importantly, Lexington One sought an IP
camera system that serves as an active deterrent
while avoiding the look of a secured campus
and that enables a fast investigation and quick
response in case of an incident.
Though looking for the latest technology
Lexington One had to assess the cost of installation
and the total cost of ownership as well.
“We sought a surveillance solution that
could take advantage of our current infrastructure
while increasing camera coverage
by 40 to 50 percent,” Ray said.
After closely evaluating the district’s
requirements and infrastructure, CMI recommended
the IP-video surveillance system to
serve as an active deterrent, using the crimeprevention-
through-environmental-design
(CPTED) principles built into the system for
the growing school district. The MOBOTIX
solution could deliver high resolution live and
recorded video with audio capabilities, event
logic and IP notification.
“Integration with audio was essential,” Ray
said. “We found surveillance to be a significant
deterrent when combined with audio
recording and 2-way-communication. With
the solution we selected, we are able to gather
details relating to incidents with high-resolution
video and crisp audio and determine the
outcome quickly.”
Following the successful evaluation of the
solutions, Lexington One deployed 1,200
cameras. CMI leveraged cameras from
MOBOTIX with built-in hemispheric and
dual-lens technology to drastically reduce the
required number of cameras thus maintaining
the open environment of the campus.
The 5-megapixel IP camera models deliver
high-contrast images without motion blur by
leveraging superior image sensors and pioneered
MxLEO, light enhancement optimization,
software which is processed within the
camera, even in poorly illuminated environments.
The cameras are light-sensitive and
capture twice as many pixels as HD.
All cameras in use are based on the decentralized
concept, with data processing taking place
within the camera and recording taking place
internally on an SD card, externally on a USB
stick, or via the IP network on NAS hard drives.
Pioneered by MOBOTIX the decentralized
system approach reduces the traffic across the
network significantly and thus takes the burden
of a conventional video surveillance system
forcing expensive upgrades of the IT
infrastructure.
The MxControlCenter software serves as
the district-wide video management system,
while QNAP NAS servers provide 12-48 terabytes
of storage per school.
Administrators, local police and school
resource officers are trained to use the surveillance system and to export video evidence
if needed. “With MOBOTIX, configuration is
everything, and the vendor support and from
CMI has been critical to the success of the
installation,” Ray said.
Securing the Campus
“The process of securing a campus environment
is challenging, but schools can benefit
greatly from the efficiencies provided by IPbased
surveillance,” said Jason Walker, business
development manager at CMI. “The
solution delivered to Lexington is a perfect
example of how innovative use of high-resolution,
networked surveillance can provide
higher video quality, lower upfront costs and
operating expenses, faster investigations and,
most importantly, a safe environment parents
can be happy to send their children to.”
“The decentralized system with data processing
and recording taking place within the camera
makes it possible to use up to 10 times more
cameras per server, compared to central VMSbased
recording typical of competitors. These
benefits will continue to be realized as Lexington
One expands the system,” Walker said.
The solution, which was deployed July
2014 in a four-phase project plan, is completely
scalable and, therefore, can grow as the
school expands. For example, a new school
opened August 2014 and will be equipped
with the same technologies as other locations.
All users at Lexington One find the system
to be reliable, effective in investigations and
efficient when accessing video data. Most
importantly, the system provides superior
protection of the school district’s property,
assets and resources, and ensures the safety of
its most significant assets, their students and
staff members.
“If there is an incident, we can easily pull the
video files and quickly make a determination
on what our response should be,” Ray said.
“In today’s education environment, the ability
to quickly determine what
is happening at any given
moment is invaluable.”
This article originally appeared in the issue of .