Wyoming School District Expands Security Camera Coverage
The Washakie School District No. 1 needed video surveillance coverage of all of its campuses.
WORLAND, Wyoming — Located here in the Big Horn Basin in northwest Wyoming, Washakie School District No. 1 serves roughly 1,350 student. It operates three elementary schools, one middle school, one high school and a district-wide educational resource center.
Integral to the district’s commitment to providing an ideal learning environment is ensuring the safety and security of all its students, teachers, administrative staff members and visitors.
Mindful of both modern school security challenges and the benefits of newer, more innovative security technologies, the Washakie School District sought to optimize its surveillance infrastructure. They tapped the expertise of security specialist Kurt Stauffer of ADTECH Fire Alarm Systems in South Dakota to design a modern video surveillance solution.
Washakie District Sought Distributed Infrastructure
Washakie required coverage across all of its geographically separate school campuses. They also wanted a distributed infrastructure that allowed for enhanced privacy and reliability while giving them the ability to manage and administer surveillance operations centrally. The district sought proven solutions that wouldn’t require sacrifices in quality or performance but would fit into the confines of their budget.
After comprehensive review and analysis of the district’s needs, Stauffer selected an IDIS solution to provide a next-generation, feature-rich technology that easily met the need for comprehensive surveillance across the school district, while also delivering reliability and high performance without unnecessary cost.
The IDIS Solution Suite video management software (VMS) is highly scalable and enabled a fully integrated network video surveillance solution that allowed ADTECH to focus on a comprehensive, yet rapid and easy-deployment of cameras and network video recorders (NVRs).
Each camera was carefully selected to provide consistent views and situational awareness across all environments and conditions. IDIS’ wide range of purpose-built surveillance cameras leverage the company’s true plug-and-play DirectIP technology and provide options that are appropriate for the education sector’s specific and wide range of surveillance needs.
These include indoor and outdoor environments, cold weather and vandal resistant designs, high and low light, expansive and enclosed spaces. Additionally, IDIS Smart Failover technology ensures there are no gaps in the footage.
Stauffer, who serves as branch manager for ADTECH’s Wyoming operations, also opted for the IDIS Solution Suite VMS because of its enterprise-level features and modular functionality. It uses intuitive control panels that provide live monitoring, playback, event management and search, notifications and live popups, system health reports, and simple navigation across floor and building plans.
The solution allows control room staff to manage hundreds of video streams and devices across the district’s multiple educational facilities. Authorized staff at each school can easily retrieve, review and export footage via a user-friendly interface to quickly investigate and resolve incidents from workstations, tablets and smartphones.
This made IDIS Solution Suite VMS an attractive choice for Washakie because not only is it operationally efficient for non-security staff to use, it also comes at an industry-low and simple pricing structure — end users only pay for what they use.
System Incorporates Cybersecurity Measures
IDIS DirectIP, which guarantees ease of installation, use and interoperability, afforded Washakie an ideal mix of cameras, including the IDIS 12MP Super Fisheye with dewarping technology and Smart UX Controls.
Washakie is also assured of cybersecurity through secure access, resource-efficient encryption, two-factor authentication, and proprietary protocols and file structures. Additionally, IDIS DirectIP mutually authenticates devices to eliminate the risks of passwords during deployment, while IDIS for Event Network technology enabled engineers to easily connect each school to the centralized control room, without special knowledge of routing or networking.
The school district is already seeing the benefits of the design and technology innovations comprising their modernized surveillance solution. The NVR-based project utilizes local, distributed storage, which enhances security, reduces complexity, and increases reliability on both the processing and storage-side of the surveillance equation.
The IDIS Critical Failover solution also eliminates any single point of failure to preserve all video data by providing protection against a range of fault conditions, including network failure and instability or a power outage.
Schools Are Safer and More Secure
The IDIS solution has proven to be best suited to the district’s specific needs. It’s delivering a more cost-effective, cybersecure and less complex solution than a server-based and multivendor set up that requires expensive systems integration services and maintenance.
Washakie officials report the district is reaping the many benefits of the IDIS Solution Suite VMS in terms of a safer and more secure learning environment for students and staff, and improved protection of property and assets.
The solution allows district personnel to centrally administer and monitor each schools’ security systems, giving Washakie the best of both worlds — the security and reliability of a distributed system and the administrative control and situational awareness of a centralized system.
In addition, the security team has the confidence that the IDIS solution is expandable to ensure a future-proof investment and surveillance solution for the district.
Erin Harrington has 20+ years of editorial, marketing and PR experience within the security industry. This article originally ran in CS sister publication Security Sales & Integration.
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