Facility

The Jersey Community School District is in a rural community located approximately 50 miles northeast of St. Louis, MO. Area residents work in a mix of service industry, education, manufacturing, retail business, farming, and professional occupations. The community is also part of the St. Louis Metropolitan Area so there is a large commuter population.

Mission

Administration recognized that there was a pressing need to upgrade its current surveillance system. In recent years, Jersey Community High School (JCHS) had been vandalized and had experienced incidents of disorderly conduct that were not captured on their current surveillance system. Prior to the integration of its new security platform, JCHS relied on a methodology comprised of 32 interior and exterior, low quality, analog security cameras that were not providing the quality image they were seeking.

“In our original implementation a few years ago, the objective with our surveillance system was to strictly review situations as they occurred. However, we eventually realized that our previous vendor implemented a security system that was better fit for a commercial facility than our school building,” said Lisa Schuenke Principal of Jersey Community High School. “The images that were being produced were not clear at all, which was inhibiting us from being able to properly identify students who were misbehaving. Which is why we started looking for another vendor and system that would better fit our needs,” Schuenke continued.

Case Study - High Definition CCTV

The Answer

JCHS partnered with Primary Systems to install and integrate Avigilon’s HD surveillance cameras and encoders. With the internal integration of 6 Avigilon IP cameras, JCHS was given the complete solution they envisioned. With better quality images being produced by the new Avigilon cameras, JCHS had the system they needed to dramatically decrease the likelihood of improper conduct and increase the safety and overall protection of their students and staff in the facility.

To correspond with the new Avigilon IP cameras, Primary Systems was able to integrate the school’s existing 32 analog cameras into the Avigilon platform by simply replacing the existing systems DVRs with high resolution Avigilon analog video encoders. This upgrade not only facilitated deployment and reduced costs, but also improved the performance of the existing cameras.

“Primary Systems demonstrated the power of Avigilon’s IP camera solution and they were able to show us how easily it would integrate with our existing camera system which was important to us,” said Keith Norman Director of Technology over the Jersey Community School District. “Now, not only is the picture produced from the Avigilon cameras pristine but the quality of images from our existing cameras have greatly increased as well, giving us a great deal of flexibility.”

Jersey Community High School Deploys Avigilon’s High Definition Camera System

Tomorrow’s Technology Today

The Implementation

Primary Systems installed six new High Definition Avigilon IP interior cameras throughout the facility. With the integration of four 5 mega pixel and two 2 mega pixel Avigilon surveillance cameras, mounted in strategic areas of the building, School Resource Officer Roger Kirby, was equipped with the complete surveillance platform that was needed for reviewing and identifying problematic students.

“Primary Systems showed great confidence in the Avigilon solution. They really made us feel comfortable with the benefits that the Avigilon system provided and now we see for ourselves,” Kirby said. “We not only have better quality images but we are also capable of seeing multiple views, zooming in on image details and can playback footage easily at our work station,” Kirby continued.

It’s fascinating how the public is constantly being exposed to surveillance cameras on fictional television shows that display crystal clear images of problematic situations and the perpetrator(s). We have all witnessed instances on television where characters zoom and manipulate their surveillance cameras to obtain a pristine image of incidents miles away. That perception couldn’t be further from the truth with most surveillance systems, but with Avigilon’s solution, it’s like bringing fictional television capabilities into real life reality.

Once JCHS had the Avigilon HD surveillance system in place, it wasn’t long before users realized how much easier the system was to manage using the Avigilon Control Center network video management software compared to its previous system.

“With our previous system I would spend hours trying to find an incident that occurred. Nobody has time to learn complicated processes and software when using a surveillance system, especially our Administration. The simplicity that the Avigilon Control Center provides is outstanding and makes it very user friendly,” Kirby commented.

Conclusion

With Avigilon’s easy to use and advanced functionality, Administration will spend 70 percent less time reviewing footage and will benefit from reduced investigation times to improve overall school security. After implementation, JCHS now has an effective surveillance system in place that can expand easily and cost-effectively to meet growing needs.

“Eventually our goal is to expand our Avigilon system once we have proper funding. We already have our next 7 cameras picked out and a plan for how we want to use them,” explained Schuenke.

Primary Systems provided JCHS with not only high quality cameras that provided a high image but they also received the proper educational facility camera system they were seeking, the first time!

“It was nice to have a partner, like Primary Systems who worked with us and addressed our wants and needs, rather than our previous vendor who would just tell us what he thought we needed,” Norman cheerfully stated.