Meeting the future surveillance needs of Shore Medical.
Shore Medical Center provides high-level security to its patients, staff and visitors with efficient, intuitive IP cameras and a video management system to monitor its campus inside and out.
Mission
Shore Medical’s previous video surveillance system was a combination of analog and IP cameras from different manufacturers making it difficult to manage with the video management system (VMS) they were using at the time. Given the vital importance of hospital security, Shore Medical Center decided they needed to update the surveillance system with a more modern, intuitive solution.
Solution
The hospital turned to Axis partner Corepoint Networks, who recommended an Axis video surveillance solution consisting of cameras with varying range and view, and a Milestone XProtect® Expert VMS. The cameras that Corepoint deployed included panoramic and multisensor models with four-sensor field of views of 180° and 360°. They not only allowed the hospital to improve coverage and video quality, but to do so with fewer cameras.
Result
Since deploying the Axis video solution and Milestone VMS, Shore Medical has benefitted from more efficient video management, cutting the time needed to search video from hours to minutes and allowing IT personnel to more quickly provide valuable information to the hospital’s risk management team and law enforcement as needed. Additionally, eliminating the analog-IP video system has allowed Shore Medical to reduce the hardware required for video storage and free up floor space in its Security Operations Center while also implementing a system with automatic failover in the event of an outage.
The Axis solution is leaps and bounds ahead of what we had with our previous video system in terms of quality, coverage, storage, and ease of use. It’s a pleasure to work with.
Modern video surveillance for modern medicine
Founded in 1928, Shore Medical Center in Somers Point, NJ, is a 199-bed facility that employs more than 1,500 individuals and admits more than 12,000 patients. Its emergency room treats more than 44,000 patients annually, and its proximity to the vacation destination of Ocean City means the hospital sees an increase in demand for its services during the summer months.
Before switching to an Axis solution, Shore Medical had a video surveillance system that was a mix of analog and IP cameras from a variety of manufacturers. As a result, managing the overall system with a VMS was challenging at best. Updating to an all IP-based surveillance system has allowed Shore Medical to optimize the deployment of assets and build a modern platform that will address its current and future needs.
Making easy work of sharing incident video
When surveillance video of incidents was needed, exporting it to share with law enforcement or the hospital’s risk management team was challenging. Director of Security Lawrence Phillips would have to produce a DVD, which then had to be password-protected, creating inefficiency and frustration for both Shore Medical and law enforcement.
This was just one of the many reasons why Phillips knew it was time for an upgrade. He consulted with Vice President and Chief Information Officer Fred Banner who suggested they seek the assistance of Corepoint Networks, an Axis partner.
Corepoint proposed a design to deliver an IP-based system that would eliminate the problems of the hospital’s mismatched video system. Led by the efforts of Mr. Banner, administration approved the new system which included a sufficient number of Axis cameras and a Milestone XProtect Expert VMS. The Axis/Milestone solution has significantly reduced the time and effort associated with performing the simple tasks of locating and sharing video.
“In the past, I could easily spend hours preparing video of an incident, but with the Axis and Milestone system, I’ve been able to reduce that to minutes,” Phillips says. “That makes a tremendous difference to me and to the hospital because now I can move on to other things that need to be done to maintain security.”
No more blind spots
By using Axis multisensor cameras, Shore Medical was able to strategically place assets to improve coverage with a lower camera count. Rather than installing cameras at both ends of a hallway, for example, a single four sensor model with a 360-degree field of view was deployed in the center to provide the same coverage without overlap or blind spots.
In addition to providing fuller coverage, the multisensor cameras reduced cabling and installation costs as well. “I’ve been very impressed with the camera views and coverage. Using multisensor cameras allowed us to not only reduce the number of cameras but also to improve coverage in critical areas,” Phillips says.
They also faced challenges with getting the camera coverage they needed outside. They chose a panoramic camera with a field of view of 180° to affix to the exterior of buildings to cover critical areas including the loading dock and parking lots. The 180-degree field of view was also perfectly suited for the parking garage where the camera’s forensic WDR (wide dynamic range) proved valuable in dealing with the variable lighting conditions.
Freeing up space
“The Security Operations office was just filled with multiple racks of the old analog equipment,” said Bryan McGair Jr., director of sales and marketing for Corepoint Networks. “But now that we’ve upgraded to this newer solution with all the new Axis cameras and new video management software, we’ve been able to scale it down significantly so that it only takes up maybe a quarter of the rack space.”
In fact, the upgrade allowed Corepoint to more efficiently lay out IT cabinets and reduce Shore Medical’s IT hardware by almost 75 percent while also deploying a fully redundant video system with the ability to automatically fail over to a separate data center if there is an outage.
Single pane of glass
The combination of Axis and Milestone technology has streamlined video management and control, removing much of the frustration of the previous system by pulling all cameras into a single centralized platform.
“They not only have a single pane of glass and centralized management, but now the Shore Medical team has full control over what they want to do with the system,” McGair says.
Next stop: access control
With the Axis surveillance solution solidly in place, Shore Medical can now turn its attention to updating its access control system. They plan to install Axis network video intercoms and access control card readers to replace the aging, access systems. In addition to delivering greater remote management capabilities, the intercoms and access control units will allow Shore Medical to provide individuals with proper access privileges based on their job description and duties. Best of all, the new access control system will communicate seamlessly with the Milestone video management system for a complete end-to-end security solution.
A strong partnership for the future
Phillips sees the surveillance system project as a lesson in partnership. “I’m so grateful for the introduction to Corepoint Networks and for their recommendation to use Axis and Milestone. We’re looking at a long-term
relationship here that’s going to benefit everyone involved.”
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