The current wave of new school building projects – and old school refurbishments – is one of the biggest and most exciting opportunities for our rapidly-emerging IP CCTV industry.
The timing couldn’t be better. Just when internet-based surveillance is becoming a mainstream solution, a ready-made, national customer base for it has emerged in the education sector. Not only is CCTV one of the preferred solutions to a number of problems that school designers have to plan for, but IP-based CCTV systems, in particular, are being specified.
So now security installers are finding themselves talking to a major base of customers who are not just technically aware, but who are working with the latest infrastructures and who are keen to take advantage of IP’s flexibility.
BSF (Building Schools for the Future) is the biggest single government investment in improving school buildings for more than 50 years. The aim is to rebuild or renew every secondary school in England over a 10-15 year period. The first phase of ‘trail-blazer’ projects have already been completed, more are under way, and many more are at the planning stage.
CCTV, which a few years ago was still quite rare in schools, is now seen as the ideal answer to a number of problems.
The safety of children and staff during school hours is the number one priority. Cameras at the main entrances to schools and at key points in the grounds help by giving reception staff a much clearer view of who wants to gain access and who is actually on the site.
Out of hours vandalism, arson, and theft of high value equipment have cost schools dearly. More recently, there has been a disturbing increasing in theft of building materials, such as lead from roofs, which causes major disruption.
Detector-activated CCTV, video motion detection, and even CCTV speaker systems, are seen as practical solutions to all these problems.
CCTV in classrooms is much rarer. There has been some debate about whether it is appropriate to use cameras to monitor pupil behaviour, for example, and whether it is right for children to feel themselves growing up under the constant watch of CCTV.
But cameras are often used in communal areas such as internal corridors and are seen by many people as a positive tool. This is because it is typically used only reactively – that is, to provide evidence in the event of a serious behaviour incident – rather than being monitored real time.
Why is IP CCTV so popular? The answer is easy: flexibility and scalability. Not only can school managers site cameras wherever they want along the school’s LAN, but they can also add or move cameras much more easily than they could with analogue.
The new GB pound 2.5million maths and library wing at Shene School, London, is a great example of advanced school building design – and of the opportunities for installers to deliver the latest IP surveillance solutions. It has networked building control systems (for example, automatic window opening, under-floor heating) and advanced security features, so the latest IP-based CCTV technology from Panasonic was a natural choice for the project managers. This networked CCTV solution also incorporates an earlier, analogue system in the older school buildings.
Before the opening of the new wing, ten domes were installed in key communal areas: in corridors, at exit points, in the library and around the outside of the building. There are no cameras in the classrooms, although expensive items such as projectors are protected by alarms, integrated on the same network.
The security system was fitted by Kent-based IC2 CCTV and Security Specialists Ltd. The company has a string of high profile clients that use Panasonic solutions, supplied through CCTV Center, including Premiership football clubs, airports and high street retail chains – and a growing number of schools.
Developments in IP CCTV have been of particular benefit in the education sector, confirms IC2’s MD Andrew Whelan. Lower costs and greater capability enable schools to do much more to protect themselves.
“Schools face constant problems in terms of vandalism, intrusion and theft. In many ways, it has been an uphill struggle for them, but now CCTV technology has evolved to the point where it can really help,” he says. “With IP-based systems you can locate cameras anywhere along the network, meaning you can get coverage of areas where it wasn’t previously affordable. You can view images from any location on the internet, with the appropriate user ID and password, and you can see much more quickly if an attack is taking place.”
Even before the new facility at Shene had opened, the cameras had already started to pay for themselves. Culprits who caused GB pound 500 worth of damage to a new set of doors were successfully identified, and the costs of repair were recouped (they had assumed the cameras weren’t yet working).
Open out of hours
Shene School has a particular challenge to address, in that its grounds incorporate sporting and leisure facilities that are open for public use out of school hours. The combination of attractive new facilities and open public access inevitably increases the risk of vandalism and theft. The new camera system is playing a key part in reducing this, with IP66 rated vandal-resistant domes covering key external areas. The school also benefits from having its own IT Manager, Robin Birtles.
With all the cameras live and recording ahead of the new wing’s opening, Robin and the senior teaching staff at the school are very satisfied with the results. The image quality is very high. The system has been set to operate on a 15ips frame rate, with fine quality resolution, and 30-day recording from all the cameras onto a 32 channel NVR.
The pictures are very clear, whether viewed in real time over the internet or accessed later if staff need to investigate an incident. And the system also very easy to use, which is important for those members of staff without much technical knowledge.
What’s great about the current coming together of the education sector and IP CCTV installers, is that both sides are gaining so much. Schools are being given very effective, very reliable solutions to some of their most pressing problems. And because planners on this new wave of projects are much better informed, they are avoiding the less reliable CCTV ‘solutions’ that were often sold to individual schools, and are thus putting right some of the mistakes of the past.
CCTV installers are winning too, not just because of the obvious financial benefit of handling these major new contracts, but because schools are proving to be the perfect showcase for what IP surveillance technology can do.
- Visit www.cctvcenter.com for a free copy of the installers’ guide IP Surveillance: What you need to know.