Agent Vi Video Analytics Integrated With Milestone Platform In Minnesota Jail

Scott County Jail in Minnesota sought a real-time video analytics solution for the detection of unauthorized people in restricted zones.

Automatic detections serve their security needs due to the substantial size of the site, which otherwise would demand a large number of staff physically patrolling the restricted zones, or a corrections officer keeping watch and picking up irregularities on nearly 100 screens.

Scott County Jail turned to Agent Vi to deploy their real-time video analytics solution: Vi-System. Of 186 cameras at the site, the Jail required enabling 90 cameras with video analytics capabilities. Scott County Jail’s surveillance system employs Milestone XProtect Corporate as their VMS recording and viewing application, which is fully integrated with Agent Vi’s products. 

Vi-System was installed at Scott County Jail by embedding video analytics in Axis Q7406 encoders that stream video from analog cameras. The solution’s distributed analytics architecture -- which splits the video analysis between the camera and the server -- enabled the use of a single analytics server to handle all 90 cameras.

No additional hardware or equipment had to be purchased for the Milestone surveillance system to support video analytics. With the Milestone-Agent Vi integration, events generated by Vi-System detections are sent to the Milestone XProtect Smart Client for display.

With 90 channels enabled with the real-time detection capabilities, Corrections staff are alerted immediately to breaches of defined secure zones, allowing them to decide -- as the event occurs -- how to best respond to the incident. Such alerts have proven to be much more effective than visual monitoring of screens in the master control station.

Scott County Jail Administrator Captain Bonnie Case stated that "Vi-System is an integral component of our surveillance system. Our Corrections Officers find it easy to use. The response to Vi-System has been universally positive, and it increases officer efficiency."

She also commented on the integration between Vi-System and Milestone XProtect Corporate, stating that "adding Agent Vi’s video analytics to our existing surveillance system has been seamless. We continue to use the central management of the video recording system to manage the surveillance network, and receive event alerts in this interface."

Todd Vojta is President of Paragon Solutions Group, Inc., a certified member of both Agent Vi’s and Milestone’s Channel Partner Programs, who installed the integrated solution at the site.

"Vi-System is a fantastic video analytics solution,” he said “We have had experience in the past with other analytics solutions and have always been disappointed, but Vi-System is easy to install and the integration with Milestone provides our customers with the right solution to effectively secure their locations."

Scott County Jail covers 88,737 square feet, including 160 cells that house sentence and pre-trial adult male and female offenders, a secure tunnel that connects the Jail to the Scott County Justice Center, and a secure Courtroom within the Jail itself.

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