At the National University of Colombia, Bogotá, it has been implementing modern electronic security technologies to solve security aspects on campus.
by Hikvision
The National University of Colombia is an institution that has offices in more than nine different cities in Colombia. Over time, the university has been equipping the different areas with security cameras and other related devices, which make up a complex environment for their administration and use, despite the fact that most of the equipment belonged to a recognized European brand of electronics.
With the passage of time, video recording systems, cc-circuit television and intrusion detection systems and everything related to their integration, became an increasingly complex problem to solve.
However, from two years to now, Hikvision's technology has allowed them to solve a large part of these problems, while allowing them to experiment with new functionalities. Iván Fernando Pedraza, Head of the Surveillance and Security Division of the National University of Colombia, comments on how the approach to the universe of Hikvision solutions by the university where he works has been:
"We met Hikvision at a security product fair, established contact and received their visit... from there began a relationship where they have exposed all their products and the way we can integrate them into our university, being that we already have a large number of products of their brand installed in the headquarters of Bogotá, with different security cameras, for open and closed spaces, as well as access controls to buildings, which have not only been cheaper to acquire and maintain, but also simple to integrate with the existing infrastructure, thus achieving the prevention of theft of laboratory equipment, loss of student elements and in general affectation to the University community ".
The National University of Colombia is implementing modern video surveillance technologies initially at its headquarters in Bogotá, whose campus has about 120 hectares and about 125 buildings that house 11 faculties that receive between 40,000 and 50,000 people daily. Among which there are about 35 thousand students. Likewise, it is contemplating the provision of the new headquarters in La Paz, near the Colombian coast, with this technology, to later add other headquarters.
So far, at least 30% of the video surveillance equipment at the Bogotá headquarters is already owned by the Hikvision brand, according to Pedraza, although the plan is to replace a greater number of existing equipment and add new equipment to finish covering the extensive campus. In just over two years, an investment of close to 1,500 million Colombian pesos (about US$500,000) has been made, a fraction of what similar equipment cost, with the brand they used previously.
"With the previous brand we also had many problems, especially in terms of video recording, because we never managed to make a convenient solution work, resulting in video losses that made it difficult to consult in case of incidents," adds Pedraza.
But it wasn't just high costs and the absence of a proper video logging solution that forced the university to make the switch to Hikvision's solutions. "The proprietary technology of the European cameras that we have, made it very difficult to integrate with other systems, while the open architecture of Hikvision has been ideal for us" continues Pedraza, "we reached the point that some solutions of the previous brand were not even compatible with each other, and we as an institution looked for the opposite".
Within the University Campus there is a Control and Monitoring Center for all the electronic security systems installed at the National University of Colombia, Bogota Headquarters, from which it generates a work of surveillance and active management achieving the prevention and reduction of insecurity events in the facilities.
In this monitoring center there is Hikvision's Enterprise management software which allows integration of different security platforms such as CCTV, Access Control and Intercom, allowing total management in real time, receipt of alerts and monitoring of the status of remote equipment.
Additionally, the Control Center has 24-hour security personnel, with arrangements of multiple monitors of more than 60 inches to form a Video Wall that allows visualization of the aforementioned systems.
Beyond "simple" surveillance
The university is considering, as peraza announces, the use of more Hikvision technologies in the scope of its campus. One of the uses is the automation of goals, where you want to implement automatic license plate recognition. They also propose to regulate the control of the consumption of prohibited substances in solitary and isolated areas, through the installation of supervisory cameras in these places, as well as the control of perimeter areas – which, in such an extensive campus, are many – especially at night.
Hikvision's software for managing and managing the cameras, the IVMS 5200, also plays an important role in emergency control. The more than 900 existing cameras – both from the previous brand and from Hikvision – are organized in a digital tree that allows the easy location of the right cameras when an alarm is presented in a specific area, which in turn facilitates the monitoring tasks, in contrast to the previous process that took large amounts of time, only to identify the cameras that cover the area of interest.
From the monitoring center, four operators – two for video surveillance and two for alarms – have access to the 900 cameras on demand, attending scheduled events and emergencies that may arise. In addition, the compression technology of Hikvision products allows to have a historical archive of videos that covers between 30 and 45 days for each camera, which allows forensic consultation by the University Community, after an event occurs.
"The most important thing is that Hikvision's technology allows you to configure recording systems in a simple way. A system for a building with high traffic of people is not the same as for a building with restricted access with a hundred employees. Hikvision has given us advice and we have been able to configure very economical recording systems in low-traffic buildings and in the case of areas with greater circulation of people, we have achieved low-budget solutions, especially when compared with the costs of other brands, "explains Pedraza.
Accompaniment and advice
Finally, Pedraza highlights the importance for them of the help received from Hikvision and its integrators when making not only purchases, but also when designing new projects, as is currently the case in the design of the new Science building at the headquarters in Bogotá or the project of the new headquarters in La Paz. "They constantly accompany us and work alongside our engineers to achieve the best results."
Security beyond limits
The CCTV system not only makes the university campus area safer, but also the surrounding area. A Hikvision PanoVu camera recorded even when a University employee left the campus at night and boarded a Taxi, whose driver ended up stealing a certain amount of money. By reviewing the video, and despite the fact that the nearest camera was more than 500 meters from the place where the employee took the taxi, the resulting images were able to reveal the license plate of the taxi, which served the authorities to make the arrest of the suspect.
A truly National University
The national campus of the University is made up of a complex set of buildings and headquarters spread throughout the geography of the country and includes:
• In the Bogotá headquarters there is a historic nucleus known as the University City or the White City, with 17 constructions that have been declared a national monument and that are representative of the last 60 years of Colombian architecture.
• In the Medellín headquarters there is a building designed by Pedro Nel Gómez,
• In the Manizales headquarters is the former Manizales-Mariquita Aerial Cable Station, today the Faculty of Architecture, designed by Leopoldo Rother.
• In the Palmira headquarters is the building of the Faculty of Agronomy, also designed by Leopoldo Rother.
• At the Amazonia headquarters, architect Santiago Moreno collects local and indigenous elements.
• In the constructions of the Orinoquia headquarters worked the architects Santiago Moreno, Armando Duque, Álvaro Neira and Pedro Juan Jaramillo.
• The Caribe headquarters is located on the island of San Andrés (Caribbean Sea) in the San Luis sector.
• The Tumaco headquarters has been created since 1997, but only until 2011 was a plot of land of 44.7 Ha annexed.
• The headquarters of La Paz was created by the Higher University Council through Agreement 250 of 2017, with the aim of developing academic, research and extension programs for the new generations of the region.
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