To help protect the university’s IT rooms and equipment from loss and damage, and to alleviate the risk of attack (some of the computing facilities are remote from supervised areas), Loughborough University’s management required surveillance of the rooms at all times.
However, to add cameras to the existing security system was too costly and, besides, the system was near to capacity. Furthermore, this traditional approach would not permit the IT function to have direct access to recordings, which was a key requirement.
Loughborough University managers approached Cisco – its network infrastructure provider – for an alternative solution. As Cisco’s first Premier Physical Security Authorised Technology Provider (ATP) in the UK, Quadrant Security Group was the company’s first port of call.
Using IP technology as a base
Following site visits and drawing on expertise in designing similar solutions for other customers in the education sector, Quadrant designed, installed and commissioned a solution using Cisco’s own IP video surveillance technology. Although new to the UK market, Cisco video surveillance has been in operation in the USA for some years now and is well proven.
Dave Temple at Loughborough University is pleased with the end result. “We have experience of security companies adding equipment to the network without permission and causing problems,” he told SMT Online.
“Quadrant and Cisco clearly have the network experience which was very important to us. The system they’ve put in place does exactly what it’s supposed to. It’s also very easy to use – the Gate House staff were able to come to terms with the basic operations without any formal training at all.”
Each IT room at Loughborough University campus now benefits from a Cisco video surveillance IP camera giving a ‘recognition’ view of each door into the room, while further cameras take care of surveillance for entire rooms.
These superior performance digital cameras are high-resolution, feature-rich and employ MPEG-4 compression for efficient network use (while at the same time providing high-quality video).
Directing images to storage areas
Video from the cameras is fed back to the university’s server room control location via the LAN. The Cisco Video Surveillance Media Server collects and controls the video streams from each camera and directs them to the appropriate storage area (supplied by the university). Media Server also controls access to the live and stored video by the main Control Room operator or any other remote users.
Working in conjunction with the Video Surveillance Media Server, the Cisco Video Surveillance Operations Manager enables the University to quickly and effectively configure and manage its video. It allows viewing of the video from any location at the display consoles. Live or recorded video can be scrutinised on monitors in any configuration of single or multi-camera display.
This new Cisco technology-based surveillance system has provided Loughborough University with many benefits, most notably in cost savings. Dave Temple explained: “We were using fibre transceivers which are very expensive, especially when you consider the expanse of the site. It’s 435 acres. As the new surveillance system runs on our existing LAN, cabling costs are dramatically reduced, disruption is kept to a minimum and valuable fibre cores are freed up. Centralised storage is also more cost-effective, not to mention safer.”
Furthermore, the new system is truly scalable and flexible. In fact, managers at Loughborough are so impressed that there are already plans in progress to expand the system and incorporate existing equipment.
