Safeguarding students with a scalable video system
Borough Academy is a new secondary school that’s part of the Haberdashers’ Academies Trust South in London, UK. As a flagship site for the wider organization, Borough Academy chose the Security Center Omnicast™ video system to manage 115 cameras and keep students safer.
The company
Upon taking ownership of the Borough Academy facilities, Haberdashers’ safeguarding leads quickly realized that the video management system pre-installed by the developers was not up to scratch. Just 15 cameras were installed across the entire premises, most of which focused on entrances and exits. The VMS also couldn’t integrate with other physical security systems, creating data silos and slowing access to vital information. With limited visibility, it was difficult for safeguarding leads to respond to incidents and meet their duty of care to students and staff.
Alongside their system integrator, Custom Intelligent Security, the Academy embarked on an overhaul of its existing setup. With a professional and consultative approach, Custom Intelligent Security was able to build and deploy a powerful solution to address the school's specific requirements.
The challenge
Upon taking ownership of the Borough Academy facilities, Haberdashers’ safeguarding leads quickly realized that the video management system pre-installed by the developers was not up to scratch. Just 15 cameras were installed across the entire premises, most of which focused on entrances and exits. The VMS also couldn’t integrate with other physical security systems, creating data silos and slowing access to vital information. With limited visibility, it was difficult for safeguarding leads to respond to incidents and meet their duty of care to students and staff
The solution
Improving VMS coverage
To increase visibility, 15 legacy cameras were replaced with 115 Axis Communications cameras. Combined with Security Center Omnicast, VMS operators can more effectively safeguard students on a daily basis.
Proactive maintenance and cybersecurity
The team can actively manage the firmware of cameras through Genetec Security Center, saving considerable time and minimizing the risk of missing an important security update.
Easy expansions with hybrid-cloud
Since Security Center can be deployed in the cloud and supports hybrid-cloud installations, Edward’s team knows they can confidently transition their security applications to the cloud in due course.
Growing across school facilities
Haberdashers’ positive experience with Genetec Security Center at Borough Academy has already resulted in expansion plans across another two of the Academy Trust’s sites. With a scalable and centralized system, there is now infrastructure to support the Academy as they grow.
“Senior leadership can already see how we’ve improved our ability to maintain a safe school. We’re very happy with what the Security Center platform has provided so far and where we can take our deployment in the future.”
Edward Avenell, Director of IT, Haberdashers’ Borough Academy
Results
After evaluating a range of enterprise VMSs, Edward chose Security Center Omnicast, an open video management system, as the best fit for Borough Academy’s requirements. With the support of their systems integrator, Custom Intelligent Security, the entire school was mapped to identify where a new network of cameras could be deployed. The legacy cameras were replaced with 115 Axis Communications cameras, which has made a huge difference.
According to Edward, “It came recommended as another of Haberdashers’ sites was already using the Genetec security platform and receiving positive feedback from users. Security Center could support our long-term strategy to move IT infrastructure to the cloud. Plus, there is the potential to expand our security deployment in a phased manner as our requirements evolve going forward.”