| The integrated solution brings together EntraPass software with exacqVision NVRs and VMS, and DSC MAXSYS intrusion alarm panels |
Camosun College is a multi-campus, community college with a student population of approximately 16,000. Located in Victoria, British Columbia, the college is known for its diversity with a yearly student population of more than 1,100 Aboriginal students and 1,500 international students from over 70 countries. Camosun College offers more than 160 academic programmes and includes two campuses: its Lansdowne Campus in Victoria and its rural Interurban Campus in Saanich, a nearby suburb.
As a community college, Camosun College offers a broad range of academic programmes that include trades such as welding and construction, technical degrees in computers and engineering, and medical and nursing degrees. Camosun College also offers online degree programmes.
Between its Lansdowne and Interurban campuses, which are located 10 km apart from one another, Camosun College operates, maintains and secures more than 50 buildings, including nearly one million square feet and 120 acres of land. Its facilities include a public dental clinic where dental students in training see patients, two child care centres, invigilation (exam) rooms that are monitored remotely by CCTV, executive offices, classrooms, cafeterias and study areas for students.
Camosun College security expansion project
The latest stage of the college’s security expansion project included the Trades Education and Innovation Complex, the Dental Building and the Paul Building. Camosun College is known for its technical training programmes and planned to open a new state-of-the-art Trades Education and Innovation Complex at its Interurban campus in 2016.
The Dental Building, another part of the project, is home to the college’s dental hygiene programmes, including classroom and clinical practice space, radiography rooms housing expensive diagnostic equipment and computer labs. It also houses the school’s dental clinic, which provides direct dental care to patients from the community and includes a reception area for patients. The Paul Building, the third building in the project, is a college administration building.
Integrated security solution required
With the project’s mix of new construction and renovation, Camosun College sought an integrated security solution that could blend the school’s existing Kantech access control system with updated readers, controllers, new and existing cameras, new VMS software and video recorders and existing intrusion panels. The goal of the project was to secure the perimeter of the college, as well as the new Trades Complex and Paul and Dental Buildings, with plans to deploy the same systems in additional buildings across its two campuses.
“We wanted to work with the facility security team to shift the approach to security to move from an incident response-based approach to a more holistic outlook for an overall integrated security solution,” said Don Laidlaw, Senior Project Manager, BMS Integrated Services, Camosun’s Vancouver-based system integration firm. “We also wanted to future-proof the security systems and for new installations to be scalable, according to need.”
| The solution enables college security staff to have comprehensive overview of campus security at Lansdowne & Interurban campuses |
The Trades, Dental and Paul buildings are each home to a wide variety of activities involving students, faculty, visitors who use the buildings for day and night classes, dental care, study groups, exams, executive meetings and other daily activities. With such diversity in access and use, the school wanted to set up areas to control access to specific doors and sections of the buildings with greater precision, granting and revoking access to specific groups of users as needed and matching video cameras to doors for better integrated management of the campuses’ security.
In addition, Camosun College wanted to extend administrative user access to the integrated system to include staff members outside the security department, such as IT staff, invigilation room monitors or managers of computer labs, so those staff members could manage some of the access rights within their respective areas. The college also was seeking a one-card system that required integration with its human resources department’s software, so that access cards could be easily initiated by the HR department and with multiple access levels of access for different types of users. Therefore, they needed a security system that could be easily used by anyone with minimal training.
“For these buildings, we had a long list of requirements: fully integrated security, easy remote access, a seamless video/access/intrusion integration and superb technical support and training,” said Joe Matthews, Security Specialist for Camosun College. “We wanted to be able to use the magnetic stripe cards and DVRs that we already had together with new IP-based access controllers and video, and with our intrusion system, and to be able to migrate to these new technologies over time as our budget allows.”
Remote access to the integrated access control, video and intrusion platform was essential to the smooth operation of the new system. With a limited number of security staff members, the college needed a mobile and web-based user interface that would allow operators to manage the system from a smart device or home computer with relative ease.
Tyco Security Products solution
With help from BMS Integrated Services, Camosun College chose and integrated a security solution from Tyco Security Products that brings together the EntraPass Corporate Edition security management software with exacqVision network video recorders and video management system (VMS) software, and DSC MAXSYS intrusion alarm panels for the multi-building project. Through its native integrations with exacqVision and DSC intrusion, EntraPass allows for the remote management of access, intrusion and video, including existing cameras, analogue access control and video systems, using a web browser or mobile app, one of the college’s ‘must haves’ on its list of requirements for a new, integrated security system.
“The built-in integrations between EntraPass, exacqVision and MAXSYS are intuitive and at such a deep level that you just know they are going to work,” Matthews said. “It truly becomes one less thing you need to even think about.”
Using the EntraPass Go mobile app and EntraPass Web, a web-based platform, Camosun security officers can manage the college’s integrated system from any authorised Internet enabled device. Security staff can easily grant and revoke access to specific buildings and doors as needed, and also access camera feeds and recordings when needed. With the integrated system, staff can designate doors to computer labs, invigilation rooms and other areas easily and know who is coming and going through the two campuses.
| Using EntraPass Go mobile app & EntraPass Web, Camosun security staff can manage integrated system from any authorised Internet device |
“The Tyco Security Products and Kantech development teams are truly willing to listen to the needs of both the end user and Integrator as they add features to releases,” said Laidlaw. “In this case, the web-delivered application fits perfectly and continues to evolve as required.”
EntraPass’ graphical mapping makes the overall management of the security system easier and more time-efficient. Using defined nested maps, end users can quickly navigate large numbers of cameras according to their physical location, which enhances event management and incident response times. Mapping also lets security staff locate and view alarms on a map and click on an alarm’s icon for more information, such as the controller’s status or to view matching video at the alarm point. The graphical maps in EntraPass make adding alarm zones and devices easier, and can even be graphically interfaced with such third-party applications as Google Earth, giving security staff a literal 10,000-foot view of the campuses.
New Ethernet-based Kantech KT-400 door controllers, each capable of supporting four doors, including those still using legacy magnetic swipe readers, answered the college’s requirement for simplified installation with onboard Ethernet ports for quick connection to the college’s network. Kantech controllers connect directly to existing DSC intrusion alarm panels so EntraPass can receive intrusion events and zone status and arm and disarm intrusion partitions.
When it came to video surveillance for the three buildings, Camosun College selected the exacqVision video management system, for use with its new video cameras. In an emergency, the exacqVision Enterprise VMS software can allow security officers to monitor data in real time. The new CameraLinks feature gives College operators their most needed Kantech EntraPass access control events at their fingertips in live video mode. They can easily control alarm outputs and triggers from the live camera view through one single interface.
Additionally, they can completely control their video and access control from their mobile app. With access, video and intrusion systems running on a common software platform, the college’s security team can now forecast a migration strategy for the school much more easily, as the college prepares for future renovations, construction and upgrades.
exacqVision servers provide the high level of reliability needed by the college and are capable of recording up to 64 IP cameras, for a total storage capacity of up to 48TB, another important component in the project.
Future system expansion plans
With the successful deployment of the new security system in the new Trades and Education and Innovation Complex and Dental and Paul Buildings, college security officials hope to implement the same multi-discipline security system in all campus buildings and in new construction, using this initial phase as a blueprint for the future as the school migrates from analogue to IP-based systems.
Future plans include the potential expansion of the system throughout both campuses, followed by incremental updates of other security systems. According to Matthews, the new integrated security platform gives Camosun College the flexibility to expand and future-proof its investments, providing the college community with the secure environment needed for its continued success.