Founded in 1887 in Buies Creek,\u00a0N.C., Campbell University offers students\u00a0all of the amenities of a typical\u00a0large-scale college campus while at\u00a0the same time providing the feel of a\u00a0small, close knit community. With an\u00a0enrollment of more than 6,000 students,\u00a0including 4,000 undergraduate\u00a0and graduate students on its main\u00a0campus, the private university offers\u00a0courses in nearly 100 disciplines and\u00a0also boasts its own medical and law\u00a0schools. Later this year, Campbell\u00a0will also be launching its new School\u00a0of Engineering, which will provide\u00a0students with yet more options from
\nwhich to choose in furthering their\u00a0academic career.<\/p>\n
This will be the third new school\u00a0to open at Campbell in less than\u00a0five years following the opening\u00a0of the Jerry M. Wallace School of\u00a0Osteopathic Medicine in 2013 and\u00a0the establishment of the Catherine\u00a0W. Wood School of Nursing in March\u00a02015. With this expansion in degree\u00a0programs and course offerings\u00a0has also come new construction.<\/p>\n
Concurrent with the establishment\u00a0of the nursing school last March,\u00a0the university broke ground on a\u00a072,000-square-foot building that is\u00a0expected to house the nursing school,\u00a0as well as Campbell\u2019s physical therapy,\u00a0occupational therapy and medical\u00a0research programs. Campbell is also\u00a0working in conjunction with the state\u00a0to erect a new pedestrian tunnel\u00a0under U.S. 421 to connect its campuses.<\/p>\n
To ensure the safety of students and\u00a0faculty members in these new facilities,\u00a0Campbell decided to significantly\u00a0upgrade its video surveillance system\u00a0beginning with its Fine Arts building.<\/p>\n
The job of updating Campbell\u2019s\u00a0surveillance hardware and software\u00a0fell to Charlie Price, the university\u2019s\u00a0audio\/visual manager, and the rest of\u00a0his team that oversees the installation\u00a0of physical security systems across\u00a0the campus.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is very little crime here and we\u00a0want to keep it that way,\u201d said Price.\u00a0\u201cWe feel like one of the best ways to\u00a0ensure our parents that we\u2019re keeping\u00a0the environment healthy is to provide
\nsurveillance.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Price, the university\u00a0currently has about 150 cameras\u00a0deployed across campus, which are\u00a0a mix of both analog and IP. For\u00a0years, Campbell relied strictly upon\u00a0analog solutions for its surveillance\u00a0needs but with the advancements\u00a0made in image quality and the costs\u00a0to deploy network cameras coming\u00a0down, the university has decided to\u00a0make the migration to IP for all of its
\nfuture projects.<\/p>\n
Although the organization had leveraged\u00a0some standalone video recorders\u00a0in the past, Price said the devices\u00a0had limitations and for the initial run\u00a0of this upgrade, which included the\u00a0installation of 20 cameras in the Fine\u00a0Arts building and about 30 cameras\u00a0altogether, they needed a more\u00a0robust system that could help bridge\u00a0the gap.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe tried some standalone units that worked really well but you\u2019re limited to 16 channels on most of them and we were really searching for a solution that would deliver more than your average, standalone IP video recorder,\u201d said Price.<\/p>\n
As opposed to many college campuses which opt to install one large server and then tie all of the cameras into it and thus create a single point of failure, Price wanted to safeguard against this by having a more distributed network setup, leveraging individual servers that could be viewed from a single desktop. Additionally, the audio and video team wanted its surveillance network to be separate from the rest of the university\u2019s IT backbone.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat not only takes a load off of our computing people, but it also ensures great reliability per building,\u201d added Price. \u201cWe can just sit at our desktop, pull up a certain server from an individual building and view the cameras.\u201d<\/p>\n
After consulting with Accu-Tech \u2014 the distribution partner Campbell collaborated with on the project \u2014 and evaluating several different brands, the school opted to go with Arteco\u2019s eMotion software as it delivered all the benefits the school sought and more. Price said he was extremely impressed with the user-intuitiveness of eMotion, as well as the company\u2019s technical support which he described as second to none.<\/p>\n
With built-in analytical features included, eMotion is an event-based video management software solution that allows for unlimited number of user profiles in an expandable and scalable format, making it ideal for a wide variety of applications. It includes intelligent options such as license plate recognition (LPR), privacy zones, and Arteco Everywhere to remotely activate I\/O devices right from the software client, further expanding flexibility for customers, like Campbell.
\nHaving only a five-person staff with myriad responsibilities across the campus, Price said manpower resources are stretched to the max, but he knew eMotion could help support the university\u2019s current and future surveillance infrastructure with relative ease.<\/p>\n
\u201cSecurity is one-eighth of what we do and we don\u2019t have a lot of time to dabble with it, so we\u2019re happy when we hook up something and it works,\u201d said Price. \u201cArteco provides great technical support and the support team is always right there to answer any questions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Price said he was also comfortable knowing that eMotion would always be up and running in the background so that in the event an incident does occur on campus, officials will be able to retrieve the evidence needed quickly and reliably.<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing is more disheartening than to have an incident, go through your video recorder and find there is nothing there,\u201d said Price. \u201cReliability is key for us.\u201d
\nWith the installation in the Fine Arts building still ongoing and the upcoming projects at the aforementioned tunnel and school of nursing set to get underway soon, Price said the university has decided to standardize all of its surveillance technology on Arteco and will be ensuring all future hardware purchases are certified on the platform. However, because Arteco\u2019s software conforms to the ONVIF standard, the university will not find itself pigeon-holed into using one particular type of camera.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this is going to be powerful software for us. It delivers far more benefits than we currently leverage it for. In the future, we look to capitalize on these rich functionalities as there is so much more we can use,\u201d said Price.<\/p>\n