University Business - May 2011 - (Page 46)

Someone to Watch Over You Consalvo: There is a benefit to using video as what we call a force multiplier. You can use cameras to look at areas that are designated as high risk at certain times of the day or evening. You can avoid the need for a roving patrol. For example, if you had to put a guard outside a door every day, around the clock, you’d be paying essentially for 21 shifts of a person—salary and benefits—just guarding the door. It is significantly cheaper to put a camera over the door and make it more intelligent. We can use “smart CCTV” (closed circuit television), which is the integration of other security technologies on top of the cameras that allow the camera to do more than just view. ogy. It can be a major resource for administrators. It can be additional eyes for the security department, especially when schools are cutting manpower. I know that’s a grey area. I’m not a proponent of reducing manpower, but if you have to do that, you can supplant it with technology. Do higher education institutions tend to be proactive or reactive when they contact you? Tynan: That’s a good question. I think there are organizations that have a vision of what video surveillance can do for them when they realize that it can be an information system. Unfortunately, at many institutions, video is viewed as a high data-consumption information system, and IT management typically has a fear of video sharing a common network at a university. But today’s systems can address the issues of transmission compression and storage so that video and other information can share the same network effectively and not get in each other’s way. Consalvo: If you were to compare colleges to private sector businesses, I think I’d say businesses are more proactive. But it comes Give an example of how smart CCTV would be used. Consalvo: You might add a motion sensor to the camera that alerts operators that something is occurring in that area. Or you could have other physical sensors, such as access control, or seismic and infrared sensors added to the CCTV. Fiel: We often hear of customers having problems with false alarms. When I worked in the DC school system, I had 3,000 false alarms in my first year. I spent millions of dollars of patrol time going to false alarms. ‘Sometimes it’s hard to convince senior leadership that In many cases, the security system was so old, a contact on a door was loose and rat- you need security unless something happens.’ tled in the wind, triggering the alarm. With —Patrick Fiel, ADT Security Systems cameras, you can go into the alarm situation and verify if there is any activity. down to the business driver. What is the problem you are trying But, there is still significant cost involved. How have prices to solve? Is it a response problem? Is it a manpower problem? Is it a financial problem? Then you need to look at what services and changed in recent years? Consalvo: With any product as it evolves, it becomes price com- technology can help you solve that problem within your budget. There are certainly some that are proactive. Johns Hopkins petitive, but it really all comes down to the end user’s set of requirements. Cameras that might work in Florida where they have University, for example, is probably one of the most proactive. to deal with a lot of rain, humidity, and high temperatures, may They have had a smart CCTV program in place for five years, and not work as well in the Midwest in the wintertime. Everything that has resulted in an 80 percent drop in Clery-reportable crime has to be based on the user’s requirements and the environmental since 2005. But I wouldn’t say all colleges and universities are ready to adopt concerns that the technology has to meet. The good news is that there are more competitors in the market and the prices are more this. Each makes its decision based on some of the dynamics of putting cameras on campus. Some are competitive. comfortable, some are not. Tynan: Exactly, and there are some compression technologies borrowed What do you mean by comfortable? from the internet world that can allow Consalvo: There are concerns over even the video sensor in your phone to ADT, www.adt.com privacy and concerns over how those be adapted for video surveillance use. Axis Communications, www.axis.com cameras will be used. Is there a stanWhat is typically most important is Bosch Security Systems, www.boschsecurity.us dard for digital evidence or not? Will improving the recording capability, and Cisco Systems, www.cisco.com the cameras be used outside only or inthat can be addressed with commercial side as well? Every college community off-the-shelf servers and workstations. Fusion Connex, www.fusionconnex.com is different, and everyone has different Fiel: I don’t think the price has to be a Salient Systems, www.salientsys.com standards and metrics for public safety factor. Administrators just need to uniXP Corporation, www.ixpcorp.com emergency response. derstand the capabilities of the technol- Resources 46 | May 2011 universitybusiness.com http://www.adt.com http://www.axis.com http://www.boschsecurity.us http://www.cisco.com http://www.fusionconnex.com http://www.salientsys.com http://www.ixpcorp.com http://www.universitybusiness.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of University Business - May 2011

University Business - May 2011
Contents
Editor's Note
College Index
Ad Index
Behind the News
Viewpoint
Money Matters
Human Resources
Community Colleges
Networks Freshen Up
Collaboration Station
Someone to Watch Over You
What's New
End Note

University Business - May 2011