"The Milestone XProtect Enterprise solution has allowed security personnel to be able to perform remote intelligence work without having to travel personally to the site, which has increased the efficiency of human resources." Carlos Solano, Sonivision - Costa Rica
by Milestone Systems*
At the end of 2011, the Costa Rican integrator Sonivision completed the first implementation of a modern IP CCTV system in 31 of the most important buildings of the Judicial Power of the Republic of Costa Rica. The main objective of the modernization of the security system was due to the need to monitor the buildings and protect them, as well as their officials and users, against vandalism and other acts of violence.
Costa Rica has not traditionally been a violent country, but in recent years there has been an increase in crime rates that has resulted in both the Judiciary and other institutions being threatened by the underworld. According to reports published by the newspaper La Nación, between 2009 and 2010 two out of 10 Costa Rican families were victims of violence, which represented a total of 255,000 affected households; the crime that most affected the population in this period was street assault followed by residential theft.
Being the first link in the public defense against violence, the Judiciary could not run the risk of leaving its buildings, officials and visitors unprotected. The question then was how to implement a solution that was highly effective, that could control all the video infrastructure that would be installed. That offered high quality images and perfect integration with the main suppliers of the security industry. All these questions had the same answer: the Milestone XProtect Enterprise platform.
Multiple locations: multiple challenges
In order to contextualize, it is worth noting that the Judiciary is the body that controls all the legal destinies of the Central American nation and has, of course, locations throughout the country.
Determining the number of users per day can be somewhat complicated, however, according to engineer Carlos Solano, Sonivisión's Project Development Manager, throughout the country the institution can employ around 10,000 people. "The Judiciary has a variable number of employees depending on the geographical location where the building to which the IP CCTV system was installed is located, so the number of employees per building can range from 10 in small buildings to more than 300 in main buildings in provinces," Explained.
The buildings have different sizes and vary between small buildings of one level with surfaces of 400 m2 and properties of eight levels with areas around 24 thousand 750 M2.
On average, the 31 main buildings where the solution was implemented in the first stage receive around 181 thousand visitors per month.
Real management of the video solution
As was the intention with its implementation, the Milestone XProtect Enterprise platform represented a significant advance in the generation of video records and the ability to view areas of interest without requiring additional human resources. Carlos Solano noted that another important advantage of the system is its ability to offer "powerful remote viewing from monitoring centers."
Two types of IP camera were used for the system: the SNC-RS86N reference high-speed (36X) high-speed (36X) PTZ dome and the 1.3-megapixel HD fixed units, with integrated IR illuminator and vandal-resistant enclosure (reference SNC-DH180). Both devices are of the Sony brand.
Dome equipment was installed in areas of wide coverage, while fixed cameras were mounted in areas with small spaces. In total, 164 capture units were used in the first stage of the project.
Solano explained that the Milestone XProtect Enterprise NVR Building IP CCTV systems installed in the perimeter buildings communicate through the institution's WAN network to monitoring centers with client stations, from which their administration and supervision is also carried out. Each building has its own local monitoring center through a dedicated client station; the system has about 30 operators in total.
Although at the moment it is not possible to speak of numerical data in terms of savings due to the smaller number of personnel used (this first stage was barely completed at the end of 2011), in terms of operation the community has been given the impression that the institution has raised its level of protection, which is expected to generate a deterrent effect on possible sources of threat and that this feeling extends to the interior of the buildings for the benefit of employees and visitors.
In this regard, an authoritative voice is that of Mr. Germán Rojas Monje, director of Security of the Judicial Power of Costa Rica, who hinted at some of the benefits of the application. "The Milestone XProtect Enterprise system has a very intuitive Graphical User Interface that allows access to remote viewing of multiple points of interest simultaneously, as well as historical records. With the intelligent search tool we can easily search for evidence that we then export as documentary evidence that serves as evidence," he said.
Ease of operation, the paradigm of new technologies
One of the fears or reservations of security managers when implementing new technologies is their ease of use. In the processes of technological updating, questions abound such as whether system operators will be able to adapt to the new features of digital platforms, in contrast to the seemingly simple operation of the analog environment.
In this project, the difficulty of operation was not a determining element. At the end of the first stage, training was provided to both the system operators and the IT staff who would be in charge of supporting the application. The training was divided into two parts, one in which both groups (operators and IT technicians) coincided and another in which only the IT staff was present and in which they were basically trained in the best practices for the maintenance of Milestone XProtect Enterprise and Sony cameras.
Carlos Solano recalled that "all users expressed a very favorable concept about ease of use due to its graphic and intuitive design of the user interface for the realization of the different routines of visualization, operation and generation of video evidence, in addition to its great flexibility in the definition of custom views".
Real impact of a security solution
With the growing relationship between the world of security and that of information technology (IT) that began to occur after the year 2000, one of the benefits that are often asked of security technology is to go beyond its primary function of surveillance and protection to become one of the aspects of business efficiency. Hence the idea of video analysis or analytical video, in which these devices begin to fulfill functions related to productivity and quality process control in organizations. In businesses such as supermarkets, for example, analytical video has been associated with the control of losses due to theft.
In the case of the platform installed in the headquarters of the Judicial Power of Costa Rica, the advantages that emerge from the system are more related to the optimization of human resources, the savings for the same item and the functionality to control the operation of the complete security system.
According to engineer Solano, the solution has allowed security personnel to be able to perform remote intelligence work without having to travel personally to the site, which has increased the efficiency of human resources, in addition to making available to the remote client pointer of Milestone XProtect Enterprise both real-time and simultaneously recorded evidence from the same place or from different places for their analysis.
Mr. Rojas Monge confirmed the above and pointed out that the solution implemented by Sonivision and Milestone Systems is an advanced surveillance system with state-of-the-art technology and open architecture that has allowed them to cover surveillance needs with high-resolution HD IP cameras that they could not have covered with analog technology. "In addition, its power in terms of remote surveillance through the Smart Client has improved the ability to see and record events that occur in and around buildings, which results in greater security and has allowed us to strengthen our position in the face of potential threats that may arise," Said.
The ideas expressed consolidate the idea of information analysis, in which a client no longer limits himself to observing an event recorded by a camera, but also makes decisions based on the observation of multiple images.
And it is that one of the most practical aspects of technology is that it by itself demonstrates its operation or failure. If a solution works, it is maintained and it seems that this is what is happening with this application of the Judicial Power of Costa Rica, since at the close of this article the first expansion of the system had begun, consisting of the replacement of the analog component by IP technology in the 1st Judicial Circuit of San José (capital of Costa Rica, with about 1.8 million inhabitants), the most important of the entire system. In total this new phase will have 234 IP cameras, distributed among the three buildings of the complex.
As Solano pointed out, in the future the number of cameras in the buildings already protected by the system will increase and gradually the analog technology will be replaced by IP technology in the remaining buildings of the institution and will be implemented as a standard in the new buildings that are built.
*Milestone Systems, founded in 1998, is the global market leader in management software for open IP video surveillance platforms. The XProtect® platform offers powerful surveillance capability that is easy to manage, reliable and proven in thousands of customer installations around the world. With support for the widest variety of networking hardware and integration options with other systems, XProtect provides you with world-leading solutions for bringing video systems into organizations, managing risk, protecting people and resources, optimizing processes, and reducing costs. Milestone software solutions are distributed through authorized and certified partners. For more information, please visit: www.milestonesys.com
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