Springfield Public Schools

District #186 – Springfield, Illinois

School Video Surveillance System Installation

Through a highly competitive bid process, Thompson Electronics Company (TEC) successfully won the city-wide video surveillance project for the Springfield Public School District #186 (SPSD #186) located in Springfield, Illinois. The SPSD #186 video surveillance project included the following educational facilities:

  • Lanphier High School
  • Springfield High School
  • Southeast High School
  • Washington Middle School
  • Jefferson Middle School
  • Grant Middle School
  • Lincoln Magnet School

The project technical performance specifications demanded a complete turn-key solution involving all video system devices, low voltage work, high voltage work, conduit raceway, and system cabling to be provided. The scope of the project included 325 new Ultra High Definition IP cameras and data cabling, incorporation of the 130 existing cameras into the new video surveillance system, providing new video servers at each school, installing Video Management System (VMS) software on authorized workstations and “Smart” devices across the district and providing multiple formal training sessions at each SPSD #186 educational facility.

Thompson Electronics Company worked closely with the SPSD #186 school administrators to develop an implementation plan that would allow the installation of the new video surveillance system to be executed transparently to the staff and students when school was in session.

The TEC IP Camera solution utilized cameras, video servers, and VMS software from Video Insight based in Houston, Texas. All gathering spaces and circulation corridors are monitored by Video Insight “Advidia” 3MP vandal-proof dome cameras. Critical areas and high traffic stairwells are covered by Advidia 5MP 180/360-degree Hemisphere dome cameras. Exterior sidewalks, gathering spaces, building entrances and general grounds surveillance video is provided by Advidia 5MP bullet cameras. Dell T630 Class Tower Video Servers with 60TB of video data storage were installed at Lanphier High School, Springfield High School, and Southeast High School. Dell T630 Class Tower Video Servers with 36TB of video data storage were installed at Washington Middle School, Jefferson Middle School, Grant Middle School, and Lincoln Magnet School.

TEC was challenged to monitor the remote student parking lots at Southeast High School without data cable connectivity. To solve this problem, negotiations with the local power company provided power on their poles located adjacent to the parking area. Thompson Electronics then used Ubiquiti Network 5GHz video transmission equipment with an Antaira Technologies hardened data switch and an Aazeon hardened power supply on each pole to transmit the video back to the main building.