Hilton Central schools ensuring student safety with unified security
The Hilton Central School District is a PreK-12 public school system in New York State. The school district completed a 3-year phased upgrade to Genetec Security Center with the Omnicast™ video surveillance and Synergis™ access control systems to better protect students and respond to events.
The company
The Hilton Central School District (HSCD) is a PreK-12 public school system in Monroe County, in the state of New York. With a transportation terminal for buses and five educational facilities, including three elementary schools, a middle school, and a high school, HSCD does not take security lightly. So when their 10-year old analog cameras, DVRs, and disparate access control system were no longer able to help them provide adequate recordings to resolve events, catch vandals, and protect their over 4500 students district-wide, they turned to the latest IP security technology for the job.
The challenge
“Our old system was failing miserably,” said Josh Ennis, Network Administrator at Hilton Central School District. “We could live view a few cameras, but they only had about three hours of archive retention, no one knew how to retrieve the video, and coverage was scarce. So the likelihood of a camera actually capturing an event was slim.” Their access control was not any better. Access cards were neither being issued nor used, leaving the school’s security team to rely on simple locks and keys to control physical access. HSCD decided it was time to plan a phased security upgrade to a more modern and unified security platform.
The solution
Flexibility to expand
The entire upgrade was phased over 3 years. The ease of system management and the ability to slowly expand the system over time made Security Center ideal for HCSD.
Quick incident resolution
With Security Center Mobile, principals can find video from their iPad or mobile device. They save time getting to the bottom of disputes and avoid classroom interruptions.
Quickly search features
Youth assistants can easily go back and follow a person throughout the building, jumping from one camera to the next. This saves them hours of time when trying to figure out what happened.
Unified school security view
Using a unified platform, youth assistants keep a closer eye on physical access to the buildings. Upon every card swipe, cardholder badges are provided with video of the event.
“Security Center has been a fantastic system to work with. Genetec keeps pace with innovation and is always pushing the envelope and striving for the best customer service and satisfaction.”
Josh Ennis, Network Administrator, Hilton Central School District
Results
Hilton Central uses Security Center to manage over 500 cameras and 35 door readers across all schools. The school district has also unified an intercom system within the platform, allowing operators to greet visitors at the door, verifying credentials and prompting automatic door opening once vetted. According to Ennis, “Security Center easily accommodates expansion, allowing us to grow without having to rip and replace every time we want to upgrade.”
Instances of theft, vandalism, and common school-ground “he-said, she-said” disputes have been resolved within minutes thanks to Security Center. According to Ennis, “The time it takes to remediate a situation has decreased incredibly. Principals and assistant principals no longer have to pull eight kids out of class to find out what happened.” In the future, the district wants to provide remote access capabilities to law enforcement.