Security | News

American Institute of Business Moves to Hybrid IP/Analog Surveillance

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 08/29/11

A business college in Des Moines, IA has replaced a legacy video security system with a new one from Genetec. American Institute of Business, which has 16 buildings on 20 acres and serves 900 undergraduates, installed Omnicast gear for video surveillance after a component of its previous security set-up failed. One of the reasons the college chose Genetec products was because the vendor's technology would allow it to continue using older analog cameras as part of its new IP-based system.

Omnicast provides the user with the ability to monitor and manage video surveillance, license plate recognition, and access control systems from a centralized console.

The security deployment includes 32 fixed cameras, including models from Axis Communications and Schneider Electric's Pelco. Those cameras provide coverage of doorways, parking lots, dormitories, and outlying buildings, as well as sensitive locations where money is exchanged.

The analog cameras previously installed are coupled with Axis 240Q Video Encoders, which allow the college to digitize existing analog streams and exploit some of the benefits of network video, including motion detection, tampering alarms, input/output connections, and video search.

As part of the implementation the Omnicast system was integrated with Aiphone intercoms to allow building occupants in nine resident hall facilities to view and communicate with a potential visitor before permitting access.

The surveillance management system is installed on a virtual server with 48 HP ProLiant blade servers providing 30 TB of storage; 2 TB will specifically be used for video surveillance, enabling video archives to be stored for about a month.

"Since installing Omnicast six months ago, our uptime has been much higher than before. Plus, the system hasn't required much maintenance at all, and data retrieval is a snap--it's just plain simple to use," said the college's CIO Josh Glover. "More and more establishments are looking to install IT-oriented systems, and higher learning establishments like ours are especially well suited to this type of system because of the software's flexibility."

The college used the services of Convergint Technologies, a Genetec integrator, to help the internal IT team design and deploy the hardware and software.