Enhancing Security on Campus: Technology Takes Center Stage

Unified campus-wide security systems mean anywhere-anytime access to any building on campus, without limitations. With more and more campus violence being covered in the media, students and parents have safety on their minds like never before.

The old small-scale camera systems are being replaced with new unified IP camera systems that come with greater access, more storage, better vision and very futuristic video analytics.

There’s a little bit of a learning curve to the new software that’s out there, but once it is mastered any university security admin or systems admin will start to see real advantages. Such as the Web Client that allows unlimited remote access to live and stored video recordings. Access can be given to local law enforcement, hospitals, and first-response teams so that a crisis situation can be monitored remotely and on-site.

Being able to integrate the campus police video with local law enforcement desktops is critical. Both sets of eyes should be watching during any crisis situation. Also, residence hall offices can be given desktop access to archived & live video for situations they may have with dormitories.

The new unified systems integrate with a network-based access control solution, which means long-term flexibility for campus growth and pretty futuristic capabilities that go well beyond surveillance… and into the world of video analytics.

Video analytics technologies are revolutionizing IP camera capabilities. Sophisticated object detection and human identification capabilities are growing fast. The new capabilities, such as abnormal behavior recognition, access tailgating and object-left detection, can be used to generate specific and actionable alarms.

Some other video analytics capabilities include: counting the number of individuals entering a building or going through a door– knowing the location, speed and direction of travel– and targeting out of place objects or people in a specific area.

Imagine a camera zooming in on a suspicious or unexpected truck at a loading dock, or a camera giving real time data of a criminal’s movement through a building? Knowing if the criminal has left objects in certain rooms, or when their movement stops. What about watching the watcher… cameras that know when security guards fall asleep on the job, or can detect a pronlonged absence?

Obviously all of this begs the question: are we being watched too closely by that eye in the sky, or does this make us safer in a crisis situation? Let me know what you think!