District Security Department Installs Video Wall
Fairfax, Va. – The Security Operations Center Office for the Safety and Security department at Fairfax County Public Schools was recently tasked to move into a new facility and rebuild their console to make use of the latest technology standards.
As Security Technology Specialist Jack Guglielmo tells it, “Fairfax County is the country’s 13th largest school district and we have two of our own safety and security departments, one doing safety risk management, one doing security. In our section, Security Services, one of many functions is to centrally monitor intrusion and fire alarms for about 230 different facilities. And we do that from a central console in our security operations center. And let me stipulate, we had to achieve state of the art on a limited budget.”
A key component of the new system is Middle Atlantic Products’ VisionFrameTM video wall that is used to mount a large 42 x 47 inch display monitor.
“We had size and budgetary constraints for this project,” says Guglielmo, “and what I liked about Middle Atlantic is that they were able to help me to use CAD software so we could come up with a physical layout of the dimensions and the room, including a raised floor and recessed ceiling. Through our planning and the help of their engineers, we were able to develop a design, using a VisionFrame system to absolutely meet our needs.”
Guglielmo points out that “We’ve created a window to the outside world from our command and control console to the rest of the school district. We’re looking at several things from this system, including a school bus GPS system that lets us know where everyone of our 1,000 buses is. We can also monitor videos on expulsion hearings or judicial processes in our school system that are supplemented with ‘panic buttons’ in the room so we can see what’s going on at any point. Using the VisionFrame and working with Middle Atlantic’s engineers made it all possible.”
“We have three command consoles with supervisory stations at the middle and end,” Guglielmo continues. “At any given time, we can have two to three people working in there.
“Not only is the VisionFrame system effective as a video wall for our displays, it is exceptionally accessible for wiring and power, which was important for us. It’s modularized and very easy to get into. In fact, they even made the foot frames attach to the foundation in a way that allowed us to maneuver behind the video wall if we had to.
They also helped us with an improved mounting scheme; instead of mounting the system on top of the raised flooring, we mounted it with the feet going through the floor for maximum strength and stability.”
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