Axxon Next safeguards the pupils of The Blue Coat School

Client

The Blue Coat School was founded in 1722. It is a leading co-educational independent day school situated in Edgbaston, Birmingham. With a strong tradition of academic achievement, the school offers an outstanding educational experience for all of its pupils.

The Blue Coat School thriving community gives children every opportunity to achieve and excel. The goal is to prepare them to engage effectively with the dynamic world unfolding around them, equipping them with the skills and confidence to grasp their opportunities, and the knowledge and sensitivity to recognize their responsibilities. The school is considered one of the strongest academically in the area.

Challenges

Large site
The site dominates 14 acres of Edgbaston in Birmingham. There are 12 main school blocks and the various outbuildings.

Parking issues
Local residents and employees of local businesses have been using the car park as a free facility either to go to work for the day or just to go shopping. Monitoring of parking by parents was also an issue, for instance, double yellow lines and disabled bays were being used illegally.

Public use of sports center until 10 pm every day
External sports groups use the pitches, swimming pool and sports hall throughout most days, evenings and weekends. They have coded access rights, but further monitoring was needed.

Safeguarding
Although the gates are closed for the majority of the school day, there are periods of time when the automatic time zones will hold the gates open for parental access.

Private residences
There are several properties on site which are privately occupied and, as there are people on site during evenings and weekends when the site is quieter, extra protection was required.

Solution

Axxon Next Universe VMS was chosen by the Lexicon installation company as the best tool to solve all the tasks. Moreover, the total cost of ownership and ROI are always key points when considering a purchase. With AxxonSoft and Secure Logiq there are no annual fees, no software upgrade fees and no maintenance fees providing end users with the lowest total cost of ownership when compared to other leading professional VMS solutions.

Software and hardware

• Axxon Next Universe software
• Secure Logiq Qube workstation
• 17 cameras (12 x 4K cameras, 3 x 3 MP cameras, and 2 x 2 MP ANPR for access control purposes — Wiegand protocol for integration with Paxton System)

Results

The new CCTV system provided the client with many benefits including the high-resolution images which allow identification of individuals and vehicles around the site, and the high-end artificial intelligence (AI) analytics which allows for:

• tracking of human targets
• tracking of vehicle targets (even by color)
• motion detection by direction of travel
• loitering detection
• left and removed objects detection
• time compression search — view all events from a 6-hour period simultaneously in 90 seconds
• face search — upload a photo to the system and ask it to search for that person
• search for video of a vehicle by the license plate number

The new system gives the facility ability to deny access to any vehicle not previously registered on the system. If a vehicle tailgates in through the entry gate, the exit gate will not open unless the license plate is recognized. This gives the school the chance to challenge a trespassing vehicle or issue a parking fine.

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