Jeff Montoya, Sales Director, IDIS America
Schools across the U.S. are putting their money where their concerns are and increasingly investing in new security technologies to create safer environments for our nation’s schoolchildren. This investment trend is evidenced in a 2020 study conducted by global research leader Omdia on behalf of the Security Industry Association (SIA). Their report showed that the market for physical security equipment in K-12 and higher education was estimated at $716 million in 2020 with the K-12 segment accounting for around 56 percent of the total spend. Schools are clearly looking to improve their physical security defenses and video systems figure largely in strengthening that arsenal.
OVERCOMING CHALLENGES
Data from a 2021 survey by the National Center for Education Statics shows that students and school personnel alike each view shootings, victimization, fights, weapons, and illegal substances, as key concerns. And these issues may only be amplified by the fact that the pandemic has acutely increased the number of young people suffering from mental health issues.
Schools, as well as the systems integrators that serve them, have a tough balance to strike - keeping schools open while protecting the perimeter and making internal areas feel safe and welcoming. A comprehensive mix of strategically positioned cameras and flexible VMS is proving to be one of the most powerful weapons in protecting our nation’s schools.
LEVERAGING VMS TO STRENGTHEN SECURITY DISTRICT-WIDE
School districts across the country are increasingly including surveillance system upgrades in their security strategies. To enhance the effectiveness of district-wide efforts, it’s super important to evaluate VMS platforms to ensure that the software being used is scalable and flexible. And, the VMS should easily integrate with other core safety, security, and building management solutions, but it should not put a heavy burden on operating costs. Fortunately, today’s VMS offerings meet those criteria and facilitate a distributed video surveillance architecture that’s flexible yet robust, and enable centralized monitoring that provides a district’s central control room with a view of each of their schools.
K-12 schools can leverage their VMS to allow School Resource Officers (SROs) and teaching staff access to live and recorded video footage, empowering them to manage local events and incidents. To further empower their K-12 clients, systems integrators should specify a VMS that provides protection against footage loss in the event of a range of network instability or power outages. A critical failover feature will recognize the issue and switch over to a redundant system to ensure an uninterrupted video stream.
THE ART OF STRATEGICALLY PLACING CAMERAS
To further enhance school security and facilitate district-wide resilience, cameras should not only be installed at the perimeter, but also on the grounds that extend beyond the immediate perimeter. This can be instrumental in helping schools detect, identify, and take action against known perpetrators before they reach the school itself. Correctly positioned high-resolution cameras with powerful zoom capabilities can provide exceptional wide-area coverage to protect building perimeters, parking lots, playgrounds, and playing fields. Powerful options include 4K PTZs, mounted on existing lighting poles and on buildings, and smaller bullets and domes targeting higher risk exit and entry points.
Schools that are looking for storage and bandwidth savings can also benefit from specialist outdoor 2MP cameras that still capture high-quality images in all lighting conditions thanks to light-enhancing technology. License Plate Recognition (LPR) technology can further help secure parking lots and automate vehicle access. For example, authorized vehicle lists will allow staff and parents to gain unhampered entry to dedicated parking spaces. Integrating visitor management systems will also streamline the arrival of guests, contractors, and regular deliveries while preventing unauthorized vehicles from entering. And the latest AI-enhanced solutions are fast becoming an increasingly practical option for schools, delivering the benefits of simple configuration and accuracy over 98 percent. Video intercoms at key entry points also allow staff to vet visitors before granting them access into buildings. This gives security staff critical time to assess potential threats from assailants and intruders and respond appropriately.
To cover exterior areas economically, users can take advantage of the recent advances in HD-TVI analog. These cameras deliver high-definition image capture while leveraging existing infrastructures and managing analog cameras and devices from the same VMS interface. In addition, video wall solutions that provide a range of viewing layouts, maps, and alarm information give security teams a situational overview that allows for a rapid chain of communication and response.
OUT OF SIGHT, OUT OF MIND
While it’s critically important to secure our schools and schoolchildren, it’s also important to remember that these places of learning should look and feel welcoming. That’s why for most internal learning environments, discreet and low-profile cameras are popular, especially fisheyes, as they provide reliable, comprehensive area coverage without being intrusive. Fisheyes are also very budget-friendly, as one fisheye can replace three or four traditional fixed lens cameras. They can be mounted on ceilings, poles, or walls, and protect against threats to students, staff, and visitors. Dewarped footage from these cameras is now of exceptional quality, even out to the image periphery, and will allow SROs to intervene more quickly in the event of a serious incident or threat.
FINANCIAL AID FOR SCHOOL SECURITY BUDGETS
There are several federal grant programs available to help schools pay for their security needs. These programs include the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) Fund, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, and the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act. It’s very important, however, that all schools receiving federal funding through grants or loans comply with section 889 of the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). This reflects growing concern about the manufacturing origins of equipment, and awareness of potential cyber security risks from Chinese cameras or their components being used as back-doors into networks. In fact, whether a project is federally funded or not, checking for full NDAA-compliance is a wise precaution for any system planner and it will also ensure schools are prepared for the Secure Equipment Act which has now been signed into law, meaning the Federal Communications Commission, (FCC) will block new Chinese surveillance equipment authorizations.
MAKING OUR SCHOOLS CYBER SECURE
Seemingly no sector is immune to a cyberattack. Schools are increasingly reporting ransomware and other cyberattacks that have the potential to cause serious disruptions, which is shedding more light on the need to better secure their IT systems.
Video systems with multi-layered protections covering access, transmission, and the security of recorded footage do much to protect against hacking and mitigate the risks of cyber attackers gaining access to camera feeds, or IT networks. System integrators should look for encryptions that don’t impact performance, multi-factor authentication, and firewalls that prevent unauthorized access. True plug-and-play, end-to-end solutions can be ideal, as they not only use their own proprietary protocols unfamiliar to hackers, they also provide an additional layer of defense because devices mutually authenticate each other. This eliminates the need for manual passwords, which can add complexity during installation and maintenance and lead to engineers inadvertently creating cyber loopholes or leaving devices vulnerable.
SAFE LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS FOSTER SUCCESS
Ensuring safety and a high level of security in our nation’s schools often requires collaboration between many stakeholders, including students, parents, teachers, school and district staff, law enforcement, and the local community. They all share the common concern for the overall success of students, and for safe learning environments that foster community pride and give a good return on tax dollars. To deliver this value, surveillance solutions need to be flexible, scalable, and future-proof, with the ability to easily integrate third-party safety and security systems, including access control, intrusion, and fire systems.
Today’s powerful video solutions act as a force multiplier, reducing costs and taking pressure off security staff, administrators and teachers, allowing them to focus on what’s important – providing students a quality education in a safe and secure environment.
A newly released guide from IDIS explores the role of video security in reducing risks in the education sector and creating safer, more welcoming learning environments. This latest sector-focused eBook from South Korea’s leading video manufacturer – Optimal Use of Video Systems for K-12 School Security – is written to provide in-depth insights for school administrators and senior teams, education sector security planners, and systems integrators. It can be downloaded with just one click here .
