The National University of Colombia simplifies the operation of its video surveillance system with Hikvision

Bogota's headquarters have a control centre from which the more than 900 Cameras, as well as video recording systems, CCTV and intrusion solutions.

The National University of Colombia is headquartered in more than nine different cities in the country. Over time, has been equipping the different areas with security cameras and other devices, creating a complex environment for management and use.

Over time, video recording systems, CCTV circuits, intrusion detection systems and everything related to their integration, have become an increasingly difficult problem to solve.

Thanks to the technology of Hikvision have been able to solve much of these problems, while en allow them to experiment with new features. "There are a lot of products of this brand installed in the headquarters of Bogota, different security cameras for open and enclosed spaces, as well as building access controls, who have not only been cheaper to acquire and maintain, but also easier to integrate with existing infrastructure", says Iván Fernando Pedraza, head of the University's Surveillance and Security Division.

This campus, of 120 hectares and some 125 Buildings, Houses 11 faculties that receive daily between 40.000 And 50.000 People, among those who are close to 35.000 Students.

So far, at least the 30% of the video surveillance teams at Bogota headquarters are already from Hikvision, says Pedraza, although the plan is to replace a larger number of existing equipment and add new ones to finish covering the sprawling campus.

In just over two years, an investment has been made close to the 1.500 millions of Colombian pesos. "With the previous brand we had a lot of problems, especially when it comes to video recording, since we never managed to make a convenient solution work, resulting in loss of videos that made it difficult to consult in case of incidents," adds Pedraza.

The high costs and the absence of a suitable video logging solution were not the only factors that forced the university to make the switch to Hikvision solutions. "The proprietary technology of the European cameras we have, made it very difficult to integrate with other systems, while this manufacturer's open architecture has been ideal for us. We got to the point that some solutions from the previous brand weren't even compatible with each other, and we as an institution seek otherwise", explains Pedraza.

Monitoring and control

Within the university campus there is a control and monitoring center for all electronic security systems at Bogota headquarters. From this, active monitoring and management work is generated, achieving the prevention and reduction of insecurity events in the facilities.

Hikvision Enterprise management software is available at this monitoring center, that allows the integration of different security platforms such as CCTV, access control and Intercom, allowing total management in real time, receiving alerts and monitoring the status of remote computers.

Additionally, the control center has security personnel 24 Hours, and a video wall, configured with multiple screens of 60 Inch, from where all systems are displayed.

Beyond video surveillance

The university is considering, as announced by Pedraza, the use of more Hikvision technologies on campus. One of the uses is the automation of goalposts, where you want to implement automatic license plate recognition. They also plan to regulate the control of the use of prohibited substances in solitary and isolated areas, by installing monitoring cameras in these places, as well as the control of perimeter areas that, on such an extensive campus, there are many, especially at night hours.

El software de IVMS 5200 to manage and manage cameras also plays an important role in emergency control. The more than 900 existing cameras, both the previous brand and Hikvision's, are organized into a digital tree that allows its easy location when an alarm is presented in a specific area, which in turn facilitates oversight work, in contrast to the previous process that took large amounts of time, just 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 900 cameras on demand, attending scheduled events and emergencies that may arise.

In addition, with the compression technology of Hikvision products it is possible to have a historical archive of videos that covers between 30 And 45 days for each camera, allowing forensic consultation by the university community, after an event occurs.

"The most important thing is that Hikvision's technology makes it easy to set up recording systems. It is not the same a system for a building with high traffic of people as for a restricted access building with a hundred employees. Hikvision has provided us with advice and we have been able to set up very economical recording systems in low-traffic buildings and in the case of areas of greater circulation of people, we've achieved low-budget solutions, especially when comparing with the costs of other brands", adds Pedraza.

The video surveillance system not only makes the university campus area safer, but also the surroundings. A PanoVu camera recorded even when a university employee left the premises at night and boarded a taxi, whose driver ended up stealing a certain amount of money from him. When reviewing the video, and even though 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, which served the authorities to carry out the arrest of the suspect.

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