The site uses Power over Ethernet (PoE) from the Israeli manufacturer PowerDsine with both camera data and power being transmitted across CAT5 wiring from the principal server room.
The cameras are located throughout the school, particularly in communal areas such as staircases, entrances, exits and the building’s perimeter.
One of the few areas not to contain cameras is the classrooms, due to data protection issues regarding teaching activity.
There is no live monitoring of the cameras but data is stored and when an incident needs investigating the school’s IT manager performs search and playback using Sony’s RealShot ManagerTM PC monitoring software.
All the cameras used are Sony ruggedised day/night mini domes with 480-line resolution. The cameras employ MPEG-4 compression and make efficient use of bandwidth, always a concern for IT managers. The suite is using three Dell servers (PE1850) attached to a Dell PV220 storage array.
The actual install was done by the CCTV Company, who also liaised with the client.
Anand Subbiah of UBIQZ said: “Traditionally schools tend to be bandwidth-rich so they are well suited to IP monitoring and often have the right kind of structured cabling already in place.”