Unique Challenges

Unique Challenges

560-acre downtown campus invests in unified security platform to heighten campus security over time

  • By Andrew Elvish
  • Apr 01, 2016

Founded by the president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) Church in 1875, Brigham Young University (BYU) has evolved into the third largest privately-owned university in the United States. The campus grew from a single building to 320 buildings spread throughout the downtown core of Provo, Utah.

With almost 33,000 students and just under 5,000 academic and administrative staff, BYU takes its responsibility to provide a secure environment for students, staff and visitors very seriously. The campus also offers 60 parking lots totaling around 17,000 spaces, and distributes 65,000 parking permits each semester.

“Because we are sitting in the middle of a city, we have 90,000 vehicles passing through our campus every day,” said Steve Goodman, the technology architect and manager of the communications center for BYU’s chartered police department,” This creates unique challenges for our team. We are very passionate about securing our campus, but at the same time, we don’t want our security initiatives to detract from what we have worked hard to build here on campus—that is an open and vibrant environment that promotes higher learning.”

Investment in Parking Leads to Better Campus Security

The first step for BYU was to address vehicle security and parking. When electronic barriers on gated parking lots began to fail, and sticker permit costs kept rising, BYU sought to upgrade its system to the latest advancement in parking technology by implementing an automatic license plate recognition system (ALPR). After researching ALPR solutions, Goodman and the team at BYU chose Genetec AutoVu, the license plate recognition system of Security Center. The Genetec security platform unifies video surveillance, access control, ALPR and other third-party systems such as intrusion detection, in one intuitive solution.

“We didn’t know it at the time, but our investment in the ALPR system was the start of a fully integrated security system that has grown over time,” Goodman said. “Security Center allows us to add components as we make decisions about improving campus security.”

Four years after the successful implementation of the ALPR system, BYU decided to expand the use of the software platform and upgrade its outdated analog video surveillance system to IP. The university slowly began integrating all analog cameras with Genetec Omnicast, the video surveillance system of Security Center, and added new IP cameras where needed. Omnicast software supports a long list of video devices, so transition was seamless.

Security Center Platform Allows BYU to Roll-out Additional Functionalities

The most notable advantage for BYU has been the ease of system unification offered by the platform.

“With Security Center, we are expanding our platform in a way that our operators will have everything they need at their fingertips to ensure the fastest and safest response to any emergency on campus,” Goodman said. “Our vision is to enable operators to receive emergency calls, view live video feeds from nearby cameras, lock or unlock doors and find the nearest officer on the ground. And all of this is possible from the map interface.”

Alongside video surveillance and ALPR, BYU used a software plugin within Security Center to incorporate its existing third-party access control system. More than 200 police radios with GPS tracking are also being integrated with the unified platform and linked to Plan Manager, the map-based interface of Security Center. This feature simplifies the operator’s job when trying to dispatch the closest in-field officer to respond to a call or incident.

“Being a university campus, we have access to talented software developers, and so the robustness and openness of the software development kit allows us to easily customize the platform,” Goodman said. “Rather than having an external PSIM vendor try to anticipate our needs, the Security Center platform has become the more affordable and autonomous option for our team.”

The BYU team is currently working on a custom task within Security Center which will act as a central dashboard for all incidents on campus. In addition to video surveillance, access control, ALPR, and radios, BYU’s computer assisted dispatch (CAD) system and Cisco VoIP phone system will all be pulled into the custom dashboard in

Security Center. Security Center Heightens Response Efficiency on Campus

BYU operators receive all notifications and alarms from a central command post on campus. From there, they are able to dispatch guards and police officers to handle incidents. BYU has implemented the Security Center Mobile feature so that responding officers can use their phones to access video prior to reaching the scene.

Other guards are assigned to manage local command posts which are positioned throughout campus buildings such as museums, libraries, the IT data center, motion picture studio, the broadcast center and more. BYU was able to use the highly-granular system user privileges within Security Center to ensure that the guards only have access to the systems and devices for their assigned site. Hundreds of system users, including faculty deans and other administrative staff, have also been provided limited access to the system, in accordance with their roles.

Setting Sights on Long-Term Investment in Security Center

For BYU, this software platform is a long-term investment. Plans to add more devices and functionality to the unified platform are underway, including the trial of a new emergency call station with an AXIS video camera and Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) call button. Other future plans include extending the system to remote campus sites in Washington, D.C. and possibly elsewhere in the world using the Federation feature.

“The scalability, flexibility and openness of Security Center has been powerful, and we are realizing greater benefits as we continue to leverage more features within the platform,” Goodman said. “Having all of our systems come together under the unified platform helps our team find information much quicker which allows us to respond faster. The most beneficial aspect of our security system is that we’re able to remain discreet and provide a safe environment centered on learning.”

This article originally appeared in the April 2016 issue of Security Today.

Featured

  • Analysis of AI Tools Shows 85 Percent Have Been Breached

    AI tools are becoming essential to modern work, but their fast, unmonitored adoption is creating a new kind of security risk. Recent surveys reveal a clear trend – employees are rapidly adopting consumer-facing AI tools without employer approval, IT oversight, or any clear security policies. According to Cybernews Business Digital Index, nearly 90% of analyzed AI tools have been exposed to data breaches, putting businesses at severe risk. Read Now

  • Software Vulnerabilities Surged 61 Percent in 2024, According to New Report

    Action1, a provider of autonomous endpoint management (AEM) solutions, today released its 2025 Software Vulnerability Ratings Report, revealing a 61% year-over-year surge in discovered software vulnerabilities and a 96% spike in exploited vulnerabilities throughout 2024, amid an increasingly aggressive threat landscape. Read Now

  • Evolving Cybersecurity Strategies: Uniting Human Risk Management and Security Awareness Training

    Organizations are increasingly turning their attention to human-focused security approaches, as two out of three (68%) cybersecurity incidents involve people. Threat actors are shifting from targeting networks and systems to hacking humans via social engineering methods, living off human errors as their most prevalent attack vector. Whether manipulated or not, human cyber behavior is leveraged to gain backdoor access into systems. This mainly results from a lack of employee training and awareness about evolving attack techniques employed by malign actors. Read Now

  • Report: 1 in 3 Easily Exploitable Vulnerabilities Found on Cloud Assets

    CyCognito recently released new research highlighting critical security vulnerabilities across cloud-hosted assets, revealing that one in three easily exploitable vulnerabilities or misconfigurations are found on cloud assets. As organizations increasingly shift to multi-cloud strategies, the findings underscore significant security gaps that could provide attackers with potential footholds into networks. Read Now

  • Built for Today, Ready for Tomorrow

    Selecting the right VMS is critical for any organization that depends on video surveillance to ensure safety, security and operational efficiency. While many organizations focus on immediate needs such as budget and deployment size, let us review some of the long-term considerations that can significantly impact a VMS's utility and flexibility. Read Now

Most   Popular

New Products

  • HD2055 Modular Barricade

    Delta Scientific’s electric HD2055 modular shallow foundation barricade is tested to ASTM M50/P1 with negative penetration from the vehicle upon impact. With a shallow foundation of only 24 inches, the HD2055 can be installed without worrying about buried power lines and other below grade obstructions. The modular make-up of the barrier also allows you to cover wider roadways by adding additional modules to the system. The HD2055 boasts an Emergency Fast Operation of 1.5 seconds giving the guard ample time to deploy under a high threat situation.

  • Connect ONE’s powerful cloud-hosted management platform provides the means to tailor lockdowns and emergency mass notifications throughout a facility – while simultaneously alerting occupants to hazards or next steps, like evacuation.

    Connect ONE®

    Connect ONE’s powerful cloud-hosted management platform provides the means to tailor lockdowns and emergency mass notifications throughout a facility – while simultaneously alerting occupants to hazards or next steps, like evacuation.

  • A8V MIND

    A8V MIND

    Hexagon’s Geosystems presents a portable version of its Accur8vision detection system. A rugged all-in-one solution, the A8V MIND (Mobile Intrusion Detection) is designed to provide flexible protection of critical outdoor infrastructure and objects. Hexagon’s Accur8vision is a volumetric detection system that employs LiDAR technology to safeguard entire areas. Whenever it detects movement in a specified zone, it automatically differentiates a threat from a nonthreat, and immediately notifies security staff if necessary. Person detection is carried out within a radius of 80 meters from this device. Connected remotely via a portable computer device, it enables remote surveillance and does not depend on security staff patrolling the area.