Oncam’s Video Surveillance System Helps Secure Educational Establishments

Oncam Grandeye understands and maintains a safe, secure and fear free learning environment

The Education Sector

According to the US Institute of Education Sciences, there are almost 100,000 public schools in the USA, as well in the region of 33,000 private schools and approximately 6,700 colleges and universities. These statistics represent a massive investment in the education of the nation’s children and the creation of vocational career opportunities for teaching at all levels. The same is true for other countries where huge sums of money have been invested in buildings and equipment to ensure present and future generations have the opportunity to achieve their full potential with the benefit of the best possible levels of education. In other countries, the number of schools, colleges and universities may not be as large as in the USA, but throughout the world there is an unquestioned belief that in a tough and competitive environment, investment in education needs be at the top of the list of priorities to ensure a country’s future prosperity.

Designed to be open and welcoming, educational establishments such as schools, colleges and universities are ideal targets for opportunistic thieves and vandals. Laptops, PCs, audio-visual, sports and scientific equipment can all be easily stolen by uninvited visitors, or sadly by students or staff. Oncam appreciates that it is often the consequential cost of this criminal activity that is the main concern, rather than the financial cost as it could take weeks for a stolen item to be replaced, during which time the teaching process can be affected.

Of equal importance is the need to deter and detect anti-social behavior, burglary, trespassing, truancy, bullying, alcoholism, drug abuse and damage to the physical structure of buildings, as well as staff vehicles. Arson is a major concern, as is the increasing levels of violence which have a traumatic effect on students, staff and parents and all too often nowadays involves knives or guns.

An Education in Video Surveillance

Oncam understands that the challenge for security professionals and educational administrators is how to effectively deal with all these issues on a daily basis while endeavouring to maintain a safe, secure and fear free learning environment, and without developing a fortress mentality.

CCTV established its credentials long ago as a powerful tool for schools, colleges and universities to combat all forms of criminal activity and anti-social behavior. Now, Oncam Grandeye 360-degree camera technology cost effectively takes video surveillance to an entirely new level.

An Oncam Grandeye video surveillance solution delivers Total Situational Awareness which offers so much more than just cameras. It enriches the users’ experience and empowers them to capitalize on their expertise by providing them with the video and data needed to instantly gain in real time an understanding of the complete chain of events while an incident or emergency is occurring.

As part of a comprehensive integrated security solution which combines the power of 360-degree technology with advanced analytics Oncam Grandeye can provide educational establishments with the ability to monitor and control access to all areas and observe absolutely everything that has occurred or is occurring on their site. Security personnel, facilities managers, head teachers and school, college and university administrators are able therefore to make fast but informed decisions on how to effectively respond to any incident which may include involving the police or other emergency services.

The Big Difference

An Oncam Grandeye solution provides a robust, highly reliable and cost effective method of monitoring activity in all areas of a campus including classrooms, corridors, playgrounds, car parks, canteens, locker rooms and staff rooms, as well as a school’s perimeter. A single Oncam Grandeye 360-degree camera is quite often all that is needed to monitor an area, such as a gymnasium, where a large number of standard cameras might normally be installed in order to prevent any blind spots.

Oncam Grandeye’s Total Situational Awareness philosophy is reflected by the features which are incorporated into its video surveillance solutions. Protected by more than 35 patents, a key feature of an Oncam Grandeye 360-degree camera, is that its field of view covers all directions at the same time. This allows operators to take advantage of a ‘virtual’ PTZ function to retrospectively review recorded video. The movements of individual students, parents, suppliers and other kinds of visitors can be tracked and if required, operators can zoom in to observe close up detail of any incident. Oncam Grandeye 360-degree cameras take advantage of patented 3D dewarping technology to always point in the right direction, and with low bandwidths and storage requirements, the captured video can be monitored out of hours and during vacation periods from any remote location where there is a connection to the Internet.

A Powerful Forensic Investigative Tool

With the benefit of Oncam Grandeye technology that enables the acquisition and tracking of ‘suspicious’ behavior and the analysis of a potential threat, operators will have the option to observe video streams to retroactively view and carry out a forensic analyze of an incident.

Deter and Detect

With multiple operators able to simultaneous access the live or recorded images from a single 360-degree camera, administrators, facilities managers, headteachers, teachers and other authorized staff can all benefit from the Total Situational Awareness capability of any integrated Oncam Grandeye solution. Identifying what individuals or groups of people are responsible for any criminal activity as well as, for example, quickly resolving any issues which might arise through accusations of one child bullying another or visually verifying the validity of accusations of inappropriate behavior by a member of staff, can all be effortlessly achieved from the comfort of their PCs.

When the safety and security of children and teaching staff are at risk, reliability needs to be taken for granted. A recent report for a global customer employing multiple cameras indicates that Oncam Grandeye 360-degree camera technology is highly reliable and has a failure rate of just 0.25%. This compares favourably to the 4.8% to 6.5% failure rates recorded against competing technologies. For a truly modern, effective and sustainable solution however it is more than just providing a camera. Oncam Grandeye is a security and technology company with a reputation for being one of the most innovative firms in today’s market. As a pioneer of 360-degree technology and with over 10 year’s experience, they understand the need to intelligently integrate the whole process and ensure it provides a modern, scalable solution.