If there’s one thing that’s consistent with the K-12 school protection market, it’s constantly evolving. The existing COVID-19 pandemic is expected to replace security protocols for at least the existing school year, if not longer, but the need for security generation will remain constant, from access to an expanding video surveillance presence. While these technologies may be intended to integrate low-priority features such as non-contact and frictionless appliances for access systems, temperature tracking, and people video tracking, schools will still face the challenge of having to do more with less, as the district’s budgets face even larger cuts given the pandemic economy.
This factor, Steve Lasky, editor-in-chief of Security Technology, is accompanied by 3 security experts close to the general school defense factor and specific video surveillance for our normal series of sponsored printed roundtables. Tom Cook represents this month’s sponsor, Hanwha Techwin America. Cook is Hanwha’s senior vice president of sales and has been active in the security industry for 33 years. He was Senior Vice President of North American Sales at Hanwha Techwin for 8 years and helped the company with one of the leading video corporations in North America. In the past, he led sales in North America from Vicon and Panasonic Video. The last user of the panel is Jeffrey Gibson, Deputy Operations Commander who manages the security of the Army and Navy Academy in Carlsbad, California. He is guilty of the security of a 20-acre campus that houses about 300 academics and employs more than a hundred people. Prior to joining the Army and Navy team, he spent several years working at major protective security points with the State Department in Afghanistan, serving as a coverage officer and tactical physician. Gibson served 8 years in the U.S. Marine Corps. Our newest expert is in the integrative aspect of the house. Michael Tremblay is a senior account manager at JMG Security Systems. He has worked in the security industry for 28 years in Southern California. Tremblay is guilty of working with commercial/industrial customers in sales and design of security alarm assignment, access control, video and large-scale fireplaces systems in Southern California. This includes assignment control services, recommendations, and daily assistance in managing customer accounts.
Steve Lasky: When comparing a K-12 high school or campus, what do you see in video surveillance responses and how they are incorporated into a general threat protection and mitigation roadmap?
Tom Cook: When comparing a high school or campus from kindergarten through grade 12, it’s vital to know if your assignment includes one or more buildings, as it will indicate the design. It is also essential to determine whether you will protect individual or multiple perimeters, and whether security responses can be combined, as video products will be fully integrated with access control and audio systems. Budgets are a challenge because of the way schools raise funds for allocations. It is vital that schools maintain any investment and design scalable systems that can evolve over time.
The trend is a way to mix capacity and reduce charges, as many services will want to evolve their responses through successive budget cycles. The purpose is to put in place a functional system, knowing that it can be expanded and expanded according to budgets and desires. Multisensor cameras that reposition 4 individual cameras with a single case are a popular way to reduce charges. Cameras that come with audio intercom functions are also ideal for inputs. One of the most important requests we get are our cameras that come with audio investigations, such as detection of damaged glass and shooting. These cameras can particularly reduce the burden of installing all those functions individually. Having an automated reaction that alerts security resource managers (ORS) and managers to those critical occasions allows them to temporarily block and is a key detail of many threat mitigation plans.
Jeffrey Gibson –