An emergency once set in motion, can not be taken back. All we can do is assess the situation, spread the word, then throw roadblocks in its way. No one knows this better than those responsible for school safety.
Whether it’s the principal, vice-principal, or security officer, all he or she can do when an emergency looms is is learn as much as he/she can, and based on the specific situation, alert teachers and students in classrooms – and oh, yes, hope that the countless hours spent in repetitive fire, evacuation, or lock-down drills have taken root.
The good news is that if the school is protected by an IP Physical Security System, they’ll have a head start.
Cities are getting smarter and safer, thanks to VCA and video surveillance. But before we get started, let’s define the difference between VMS and VCA which is actually a trick question since Video Content Analysis (VCA) stems from algorithms written into Video Management Software (VMS).
Also, known as Video Analysis, VCA analyzes streaming surveillance video to detect spatial and temporal events.
The earliest applications were used to alert security personnel to the real time presence of intruders, loiterers, unattended packages, and cars in a no park zone.
It’s always rewarding to find that one of the technologies we specialize in has been cited in a story. Wednesday, November 12 was just such a day.
An article in The Journal News which covers our area, New York’s lower Hudson Valley bore the headline Harrison Cops Bust Cul-de-sac Burglary Ring.
The arrests came after a two-month long investigation by the Harrison, NY Police, the Westchester County District Attorney’s Organized Crime Division, and the Special Investigation Squad of the Bergen County, NJ Prosecutor’s Office into what grew to be twenty-five break-ins in the tri-state area. The burglary ring would strike the expensive homes between 10 AM and 1 PM, when no one appeared to be at home, to steal jewelry and other property, often hauling away safes that contained them.
Seven burglary suspects were taken into custody as well as a Diamond District Dealer who was acting as ring leader and “fence.” The capture could not have happened without the cooperative effort of the three agencies who trailed the suspects for weeks into nearby New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey, using the latest forensic technology to obtain evidence – video from IP security cameras, and information obtained from police license plate readers.
The question is Who needs wireless IP security cameras?
The answer is schools, transport companies, oil companies, entertainment venues, and construction sites.
Wireless IP cameras are the perfect solution to the problem of monitoring areas beyond the scope of traditional network cameras.
They can be mounted close to their intended subject and connect to high performance radios with directional antennas that use their own wireless protocol to stream high bandwidth video to the VMS.
(For a detailed explanation of how wireless IP cameras work, see our earlier post)
When most people think of access control systems, they picture authorized personnel using a credential and keypad to gain entry to a secured office building or complex. But did you know door access control can be applied to storage cabinets and drawers as well?
Small electric cabinet locks are ideal for situations where security dictates that certain items not only be kept under lock and key, but also that access be limited to authorized persons. These cabinet locks are just as secure as door control locks yet small enough to mount on cabinets and drawers. Since authorized users must use their access credentials to unlock them, a record is kept of who opened them and when.
In these days when Ebola is ravaging West Africa and Enterovirus D68 is sending children home from school, it is especially troubling to learn that Chinese health researchers testing thirty-eight ATMs in downtown Taipei, found an astonishing average of 1,200 germs – per key! Included in the count were E.coli, as well as cold and flu viruses.
The most deadly key? Enter – which if you think about it makes perfect sense – every transaction ends with a hit to the enter key.
Scary, huh? Now think about the access control keypad you use every morning to gain access to your office building or facility.
2014 is proving to be a historic year for wildfire activity in California and the Pacific Northwest. The National Fire Inter-Agency Center, in a report they update daily, put the combined number of fire-ravaged acres in California, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington, to date, at over half-million. Due to the prolonged drought in California, the number of wildfires in that state alone is 123% of the state’s average – and we’re only halfway into August.
With local firefighters working round the clock and, out-of-state teams journeying cross country to join them, one has to wonder if drones and IP camera systems might be able to play an assisting role.
Adding Drones to the Mix
Last year, during the Rim Fire in California that destroyed 257,314 acres in Yosemite National Park and the surrounding Sierra Nevada Mountains, the National Guard launched a Predator Drone to aid firefighters by using infrared sensors to detect hot spots along the fire’s perimeters or in isolated spots.
In this business era, when companies are focusing on getting the best return on their investment, a sizable number are looking towards extending their use of IP camera surveillance systems beyond security and into overseeing business operations.
According to a recent issue of Security Watch Info, a survey in which IT and video surveillance professionals were asked what their business plans were for video surveillance revealed that 68% of respondents plan to use their IP camera systems for improving operations while 32% planned to restrict their usage to security.
Many retail businesses with more than one outlet, perhaps because they are already familiar with how IP cameras systems and video management software deliver remote real-time multi-screen viewing of several locations, have already made the move.
Managers feel that using the cameras will improve their ability to:
manage multiple locations
monitor everyday business activities
track employees over the course of a day
keep a watchful eye on inventory and sensitive customer and business data
They are particularly fond of VMS’s ability to record and store video and easily access it for future viewing and plant to use it for:
Bug, now that’s a word that covers a lot of ground.
Eeck, there’s a bug on the table.
I’m sick. I have some kind of bug.
Don’t bug me!
Bug off!
I love my Volkswagen bug.
And then there’s dreaded. There’s a bug in the system. Our customers rarely find a bug in the IP cameras Kintronics sells, but in the rare instances one finds its way in, they can rest assure we won’t rest until we’ve debugged the system.
A Center for Disease Control advisory states “People who have been exposed to Ebola should not travel on commercial airlines until there is a period of monitoring for symptoms of illness lasting 21 days after exposure. “This has presented a conundrum for officials in West Africa, especially airport security workers. How to determine symptoms in passengers who are in their presence for but a few moments? One solution they’ve been employing is to take temperatures, a time-consuming practice.
Might using thermal Imaging cameras speed up the process?
Since one of the symptoms of Ebola is a temperature of 101.5 or more, temperature-taking has emerged as a daily routine in some countries. You know those signs posted in US bathrooms reminding employees to wash their hands ? They’re nothing compared to Liberia’s Ebola-fighting hygiene requirements.
