These stand-alone analogue legacy systems no longer met their requirements, as they were not connected and produced poor image quality that created difficulties addressing and resolving incidents.

The district worked with systems integrator ISG Technology, to identify a video solution to meet their needs: Milestone Xprotect Corporate management software and 150 Axis network cameras, plus integrated S2 Security access control for door monitoring.

The Milestone open platform enables integration with the access control system from S2 Security so the district can remotely lock and unlock doors from the Xprotect Smart Client video interface. By integrating cameras with the access control system, video is triggered to show views of doors being opened and closed, and operators can remotely lock them if necessary.

“Our system is light years ahead of what we had in 2010. Now we can go to any computer and see what’s going on at any of the campuses,” said Ron Brown, Director of School Safety, Topeka Public Schools. “Principals love being able to log in and check on school properties over the weekend.”

The district voted in 2015 to continue expanding the Milestone/Axis solution to cover schools across the district and add monitoring capabilities using the Milestone Mobile client that gives access to the video from smartphones and laptops. Currently, the district’s system covers 15 schools with about 1,200 cameras, and there are plans to add about 1,000 more cameras and cover 25 more schools by mid-2017.  The district continues to implement the Milestone and Axis solution across its schools and recently moved to centralised management of the system with the Federated Architecture platform from Milestone Xprotect Corporate.

For Mike Reece, account manager for ISG’s Topeka branch, this move is both cost-effective and forward-thinking: “We realised after doing a few schools that server costs were really adding up. We decided to migrate to the Federated Architecture platform. It’s a move made with school budgets in mind, but more importantly with the future in mind. We’re adding district schools every year, which means adding more Xprotect Corporate licenses. Now, each system is linked, and we have a central command centre where every school and every camera is viewable. It’s immensely valuable.”