The Omnicast system, fitted at the Musical Instrument Museum (MIM) comprises 200 Axis Communications and Interlogix IP cameras, as well as a few analog PTZ cameras connected via encoders.
MIM is the world’s first global musical instrument museum and has a collection of more than 10,000 musical instruments and artifacts housed in a building measuring 190,000 sq ft.
As well as monitoring the interior of the building, Omnicast watches the exterior of the museum including the car park.
All main security operations have been centralised in MIM’s security command centre, a station that is manned 24 hours a day.
The Omnicast system also allows for remote monitoring by senior staff and configuration of internal access user privileges by administrators.
Jeff Worcester, project manager at Climatec, the integrator involved in the project said, “Omnicast’s ease of use is a key advantage to the system in any environment. It enables a security team comprised of individuals with any level of experience – from none to a lifetime on legacy systems – to quickly and easily learn to navigate the software.”
Guarding against intruders
While MIM has only been open since April 2010, staff were able to use the surveillance system to track a potential thief off the grounds and onto a bus, according to Genetec.
Later, MIM staff were able to direct law enforcement to the suspect using the bus identification number.
In another instance, security staff identified paparazzi outside the building attempting to photograph a visiting celebrity.
Justin Karim, the head of security at MIM, said: “We have been quite pleased with Genetec’s Omnicast Enterprise system. Its flexible nature is particularly well suited to a museum environment, where exhibits move and the security needs are amorphous, changing regularly.
“The Omnicast system has met our demands, and we are even looking at possibly using the system to inform business decisions – for example by expanding our system to include Genetec’s license plate recognition software for counting license plates in the parking lot to keep track of patron numbers.
