Customer
Heathfield Community College is a secondary college and sixth form located just outside the market town of Heathfield, in the heart of the Wealden district of East Sussex. Founded in 1950, the college was initially envisioned to include an average of 800 students, but the college now finds itself receiving an average enrolment of 1,700 students between the ages of 11–18 years old.
It prides itself on high quality teaching conducted within an excellent learning environment. At the centre of the college ethos there is a highly effective system of pastoral care, where students are well known to teachers, which enables each one to develop and fulfil his or her full potential. Student wellbeing and safety is of paramount importance to the entire college community.
Challenge
Previously, the college had an existing analogue CCTV system in place as one of its security measures, but it wanted a solution that it could manage in-house with better picture quality than it had been achieving.
It had also experienced a number of lead thefts from its roof and therefore wanted not only improved
pictures to help police with their enquiries, but also something that would act as a deterrent and would protect its property successfully.
Therefore, in order to improve the security of students, staff and property at the college, network manager Lee Geering turned to Probrand, a UK leader in end-to-end IT provision and a trusted partner with whom the college has enjoyed a nine and a half year relationship.
Solution
As part of the overall security solution, the college selected a range of 60 D-Link IP Surveillance cameras, which include those suitable for both indoor and outdoor use.
“We needed a solution that would provide us with a smart, practical and proactive approach to college
security – one that would provide us with excellent picture quality, be easy to install, upgrade and
maintain, and also be able to act as a deterrent to any potential intruders to the college. D-Link offered
us great value for money for what are excellent, high quality products.”
Probrand’s Adele Hope-Urwin added, “D-Link is recognised as being at the forefront of technology evolution, which is changing the face of physical security. We are always impressed by the breadth of
D-Link solutions available that support an end-to-end solution ethos.”
D-Link offered us great value for money for what are excellent, high quality products.
Lee Geering, Network Manager
Probrand undertook the installation in two phases. Each phase took approximately one week to complete with minimal disruption to the college.
For the exterior of the building, the college selected a range of full HD, power over Ethernet (PoE) day/night cameras with built-in infra-red LEDs.
The cameras use a high-sensitivity 2 megapixel progressive scan CMOS sensor to deliver superior quality video under a wide range of lighting conditions.
They are in compact, weather-proof housing to protect them from any inclement weather and the PoE enablement ensures that they are easy to install with minimal cabling.
Inside, Heathfield Community College has chosen full HD dome and fisheye cameras to provide peace of mind inside its corridors. The cameras are ideal for monitoring large areas with their fisheye lenses, meaning more coverage with fewer cameras.
It’s also a real benefit to be able to show the parents images of their children as hard evidence of what has been happening and the software we use makes it incredibly easy to blank out the faces of anyone we don’t want identified so that we are able to protect the privacy of staff and students
Lee Geering, Network Manager
Benefits
Heathfield Community College finds the quality of images it now receives a real bonus as, if any incidents occur in the college, it is extremely easy to identify the culprits and establish who was at fault. Lee added.
“It’s also a real benefit to be able to show the parents images of their children as hard evidence of what has been happening and the software we use makes it incredibly easy to blank out the faces of anyone we don’t want identified so that we are able to protect the privacy of staff and students.”
He continues, “Knowing that we now have high-quality, reliable security cameras to keep a vigilant eye on our community and campus, even when we’re not on the premises, provides us with tremendous peace of mind.”