Improving Campus Safety
New York medical facility replaces analog system
- By Courtney Dillon Pedersen
- Apr 01, 2015
Covering an entire city block, one of the busiest
medical facilities in New York City has more
than 600 beds and thousands of doctors,
patients, staff and visitors every day. An outdated
analog and DVR surveillance system
would have been very expensive to maintain and
upgrade when it came time to expand, so the
hospital security management team at Apollo
International designed and installed a new digital
security system that improved operational
efficiency, reliability and evidence sharing.
“The biggest issue we had with our previous system was video storage,”
said Jack Hendrickson, assistant director of security at Apollo
International. “Our storage capabilities—due to our legacy systems—
were weak, with constant problems. The hospital required a centralized
system with full redundancy and failover, which Milestone delivers
with high reliability, ease of use and increased storage capacity. We
now provide even greater security for the patients and staff. Our connection
with the police department has also improved since we can
quickly export video evidence when requested.”
Outdated Systems
The hospital’s security system had become outdated. Housing all of its
DVRs and servers was becoming more of an issue as time went on.
With DVRs stored in closets that were not thermally managed, issues
with the uptime and maintenance ensued. Excessive heat contributed
to failures and the loss of archived video on a daily basis. Hours were
spent attempting to access, search and reboot the systems. The surveillance
systems for the hospital’s satellite offices were not centralized, so
monitoring and retrieving their video was another challenge.
A completely centralized, hierarchal system incorporated through
Milestone Federated Architecture with the open platform XProtect
Corporate video management software was implemented for the hospital
and its affiliated medical buildings. Virsig LLC supplied the servers
as well as the 315 Sony, Mobotix and Axis network cameras; encoders
from Vivotek connected the legacy analog cameras still in use to
the network. A server with a storage capacity of 36 terabytes allows the
hospital’s security team to save nearly two months of video footage,
unlike the previous system’s two-week capacity. Multiple recording
servers with failover and redundancy ensure instant backup and seamless
operation should a server fail.
The architecture makes it possible for every camera view linked in
the medical facility and surrounding buildings to be easily viewed
from a central location or via the Milestone Mobile client. When a
video export is required, XProtect Corporate allows Apollo’s team to
provide one extended file, rather than numerous camera angles on
multiple drives.
A City Healthcare Hub
Located in Manhattan, this medical facility, with more than 600 beds, is
a busy healthcare hub. It occupies one entire city block with 11 buildings
representing various medical specialties. Thousands of people—patients,
medical staff, facility personnel and visitors—are kept safe and secure on
a day-to-day basis through the 24/7 physical and digital surveillance
presence of security contractor Apollo International.
Previously, closets were stuffed with the hospital’s old DVRs, so
physical storage of the hardware became a big issue as equipment continuously
overheated in the non-climate-controlled spaces. The servers
and DVRs failed regularly, sometimes many times a day. Gaining
access to them was difficult due to the small spaces.
“We spent a lot of time rebooting and in some areas couldn’t even
reach the equipment,” Hendrickson said. “Out of necessity and time,
we sometimes just unplugged the DVRs to restart them. There were
constant problems with the DVRs and not a day went by where a piece
of the system didn’t need to be fixed.”
The Open Platform Provides More Choice,
Flexibility and Value
The hospital required a new, centralized system to provide a reliable
surveillance solution, able to share video with management through
one data center. XProtect Corporate was deployed by Virsig LLC to
keep surveillance constant throughout the facilities. Glenn Taylor,
executive director of Virsig, presented Hendrickson and his team with
numerous options, including some very structured systems, but the
conversation always returned to the value of the open platform.
“The hospital went from everything being very proprietary to being
able to select the best cameras for each particular setting,” Taylor said.
“The open platform allowed us to use encoders that extend the life of
analog cameras for less than $100 per port. From the moment the
system was deployed, they have been able to leverage their existing
architecture, using other technologies that tie into the open platform.”
Remote and Mobile Capabilities
Hendrickson says that the ability to access the Milestone system
remotely and on mobile devices is particularly important for an organization
in the healthcare industry. In the case of a medical emergency—
a triage situation, for example, or a contamination—Hendrickson
says that the priority for all personnel in the impacted building would
be helping people get to where they need to be as quickly as possible.
“When emergencies occur our officers are out assisting people rather
than monitoring video views,” he says. “That puts us at risk for losing
situational awareness, which is critical to emergency management. With
the ability to watch multiple camera views from a remote location, however,
our colleagues who are not in the building that’s impacted can keep
an eye on things like triage, a decontamination situation or an active
shooter. Based on what they see at various points in a building they can
communicate to us how to best approach the situation. They can also
communicate directly with law enforcement agencies.”
Integration with Infant Protection System
Another benefit delivered by the open platform technology that is
important in a medical setting is the ability to integrate with an Infant
Protection System, or IPS. Hendrickson selected Hugs by TPC Systems,
a solution that leverages RFID capabilities to lock doors and
send alerts through the Milestone network when a child wearing an
RFID-enabled wristband approaches designated barrier points.
“In addition to locking the doors and sending an alert, the Milestone
system also automatically gives us a view of the camera that’s closest to
the area where the child with the RFID tag is,” Hendrickson said. “This
is another benefit that integrates with pretty much any program.”
Ease of Use for the Security Team
The hospital employs about 70 staff members for security purposes.
With numerous buildings to patrol and monitor, keeping them connected
was one of the main concerns for the upgraded surveillance
system. A big selling point was the architecture, which connects multiple,
individual XProtect systems into unified distributed sites, ensuring
unlimited scalability and ultimate operational flexibility. The federated
architecture allows the system to be configured according to the
hospital’s reach, which includes many satellite offices with a central
hub for surveillance management and overview.
“Everyone from lower level security to management is able to set up
views and change what they need to be effective during their shifts,”
Hendrickson said. “Training sessions for the interface seemed to be as
fast as possible. Everyone picked up the software from the moment of
deployment.”
Mobile client also has been implemented for administrators in
Apollo International and the medical facility. If there is an emergency
situation or event, mobile devices can quickly connect with any camera
in the VMS and view it from any location with an Internet connection.
“There is no replacement for our hardworking staff, but this software
is one heck of a tool,” Hendrickson said. “Since installing the
VMS, we have gone years without a blackout.”
Sharing Evidence: Quick and Simple
“The Milestone solution is simply more efficient in all aspects of our
security responsibilities. I can sit in front of the monitors, get an alert
and immediately check the playback to make sure the hospital is safe,”
continues Hendrickson. “Milestone allows us to be more in tune with
our buildings and the people in it on a consistent basis.”
At times, the New York Police Department also relies on video
from external and internal cameras throughout the facility. With a
storage capacity of 36 terabytes, archived time can reach up to three
months, compared to the maximum two weeks the old system provided.
When a video export is required, XProtect Corporate allows
Apollo’s team to present the investigating parties one evidence-grade
extended file with built-in viewer, rather than numerous camera
angles on multiple drives.
“When we export video for the police, DA or our own security
teams, the player is directly on it,” Hendrickson said. “There is no
need for an additional download, so everything is quick and simple.
Having the high-definition feeds has helped us improve our already
great relationships with local law enforcement agencies. The first
response from anyone in an agency is ‘Wow!’ We’re all proud and
impressed with our abilities.”
Easy Scalability
According to Hendrickson, the ease with which the software solution
can be expanded makes it an attractive option for the healthcare sector,
where hospitals and clinics are usually organized into large and often
complex networks. The hospital he works for, for example, is part of a
healthcare system comprised of 17 other hospitals. Hendrickson said
he expects the solutions to be deployed in other facilities over the
course of the next decade as budgets permit. In the meantime, he’s
adding cameras to this facility.
“I can expand our deployment without additional
licensing,” he says. “That is one of the many
things that sold me on the corporate version of
Milestone XProtect, and the value of that investment
is proven every time I add to our system.”
This article originally appeared in the April 2015 issue of Security Today.