Los Angeles Temple and Schools Integrate Surveillance with Physical Security Information System
TK
(Editor’s note: do not make live. needs editing, PC)
Stephen S. Wise Temple and Schools in Los Angeles is one of the largest Reform Jewish congregations in the country, with more than 3,000 member families and close to 1700 children in its Schools. The Temple and Schools take security very seriously, and have installed a multi-faceted security system to ensure the safety of facilities, members, students, faculty and staff. One element of that system is the NetDVMS Video Surveillance Management and Control Solution from On-Net Surveillance Systems Inc. (OnSSI), which manages networked video from cameras located throughout the facilities and integrates with the institutions’ physical security information system (PSIM).
As the chief information security officer for Stephen S. Wise Temple and Schools, David Lam has a background in physical security as well as information technology (IT). Experience in both disciplines guided his search to find the best technologies to fulfill the critical need for a highly integrated video surveillance and security solution. For video management, he chose NetDVMS from OnSSI, a multi-site, multi-server enterprise-scale network video recorder and camera management platform. “We’re just thrilled with the system,” said Lam. “It’s a remarkable piece of technology.”
Mr. Lam called on David Girdner, Vice-President of Antropy, Inc., an IT integrator located in Chatsworth, CA, to assist with the evaluation process and subsequent upgrade of the facilities’ video surveillance system. Having an established relationship dating back to 2001, Antropy’s staff has worked closely with Stephen S. Wise Temple and Schools’ in-house IT department on special projects.
According to Mr. Girdner, OnSSI’s NetDVMS solution was evaluated along with two other IP camera management systems, and selected based on its lower total cost of ownership, conformity with IT best practices, its compatibility and simplicity of installation and operation. “OnSSI designed NetDVMS from the ground up as an IP system with advanced video surveillance capabilities. It is designed with the IT environment in mind, unlike other control systems that evolved from analog video roots,” said Mr. Girdner.
Protecting the Temple And Schools
Stephen S. Wise Temple was founded in 1964 with Rabbi Isaiah Zeldin and 35 families. Today, the Temple encompasses an Early Childhood Center, an Elementary School, Milken Community High School, and David Saperstein Middle School, completed during the summer of 2009. A 24-hour Security Operations Center maintains watch over the Temple and its various campuses, thanks in part to OnSSI’s video system.
A physical security information management (PSIM) system provides the “front-end” of the security system. It integrates multiple systems, from video and video analytics to fire, access control, and intrusion detection, tracking workflow and prompting security personnel to take action if an incident occurs. OnSSI is critical to the PSIM, courtesy of NetDVMS’s ability to interface easily with other systems from other suppliers.
Wise Temple and Schools run NetDVMS software on two HP servers with 16TB of video storage assigned to the OnSSI system. Ten cameras run on a virtual server and another 54 cameras run on hardware servers, with plans pending to add more cameras. The cameras are a mix of domes, “box” cameras and pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) cameras, all of which are managed by OnSSI’s NetDVMS system.
A primary concern for Mr. Lam is perimeter protection. To effectively manage monitoring of the facilities’ extensive perimeter area, the system also employs video analytics from Agent Vi in conjunction with OnSSI’s NetDVMS software. The PSIM receives data from multiple systems, processes it and provides operators the visual information they need to see. “If there’s an event triggered by the content analytics, the system takes the feed from OnSSI and analyzes it, then alerts the guard,” said Mr. Lam. For example, the video analytics could detect if someone crosses a “virtual” boundary at the perimeter of the facilities. OnSSI and Agent Vi have collaborated to integrate the advanced content analytics capabilities, enabling Mr. Lam’s security staff to intelligently review video, assuring that they see what they need to see, when they need to see it. As a result, fewer people can effectively monitor a far greater number of locations, greatly reducing operational costs while improving security.
The Temple and schools also use OnSSI’s Ocularis Client Lite software, installed at the Operations Center and the IT department, for forensic analysis of incidents. “When the school needs more ‘granularity’ in searching video, they turn to Ocularis Client Lite’s investigation tools,” said Lam. Features include simultaneous playback of up to 64 cameras; highly configurable motion detection; incident search by time and alert; a kinetic timeline for reviewing large volumes of video; and auto-generation of thumbnails based on time and motion.
In addition, the software offers instant investigation capabilities during live monitoring, including playback, digital PTZ and optical PTZ, as well as automatic, on-event push-video alerting. Once an incident is accessed and investigated, video can be exported for court evidence in multiple formats, including multi-camera video database.
What OnSSI Offers
“Part of the beauty of the NetDVMS system from OnSSI is its ability to integrate with multiple systems,” said Mr. Lam. “It is a very open system. We had no problem integrating analytics, and we can switch cameras whenever we want to. It is an open solution and works with products I want it to work with.”
“OnSSI gives us what we want with both high quality and high reliability. OnSSI’s NetDVMS is a great tool,” concluded Mr. Lam.
Sara Chaput is a vice president with LRG Marketing Communications, which represents OnSSI.
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