Issue link: https://securitytechnologyexecutive.epubxp.com/i/656764
48 SECURITY TECHNOLOGY EXECUTIVE • February/March 2016 www.SecurityInfoWatch.com CASE STUDY: EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS T he University of Kentucky (UK), nestled in Lex- ington, is home to over 29,000 students, 2,000 faculty members, and 12,000 staff members. The 813-acre campus is adjacent to downtown Lex- ington and includes residence halls, classrooms, offices, athletic and recreational facilities as well as the Chandler Medical Center. In 2012, the school sought to consolidate its security under a more uni- fied system with University of Kentucky Police Depart- ment (UKPD) leading up the project. "There were 72 legacy systems on campus when we started," said Tom Sorrell of CMTA Inc., the security design consultants for the project. "We wanted to set a security standard for the university going for- ward. Now all ongoing and new projects that are added follow this standard that includes Talkaphone towers." The project scope included integrating sepa- rate Security Management Systems (SMS), Video Management Systems (VMS) and Mass Notifi- cation Software (MNS), Cisco UCM/Singlewire InformaCast, into one cohesive system. The cam- pus also decided to address their current anti- quated emergency call stations. "The towers were unsightly and not strategi- cally placed to reflect the modern day University pedestrian traffic flow," explained Joe Monroe, Chief of Police at the University of Kentucky. The existing towers housed analog emergency call stations. As part of the university's initiative of transitioning to a more unified system, proj- ect leaders decided to migrate to a Voice over IP (VoIP) call station system that would integrate with the new SMS, VMS, and MNS platforms – this initial rollout included 28 towers. "The UK Alert Blue Emergency Notification Towers are comprised of Talkaphone's VOIP-500 Series Call Stations and WEBS-MT/R Towers. The Talkaphone solution is integrated with UK's VoIP phone system; this close tie-in results in a much more streamlined and robust notification system," said Talkaphone Vice President of Prod- uct Management, Clarence Wong. Blue light emergency towers, such as the Talkaphone WEBS towers, have several main benefits. First, they promote awareness. Such as the case at UK, students, and parents, as well as faculty and staff, feel safer with a visible security presence throughout the campus. During their research, UKPD discovered that the emergency blue light towers were a big positive for both stu- dents and parents. "The units have been instrumental in mak- ing our students feel safer as they walk at night," remarked Captain Monroe. "[They] see the blue light on top of the towers and realize that they are on cameras and within a close distance of one button push calling for help." Second, blue light towers and emergency call stations serve as a deterrent. While stopping all crimes from happening is an impossible goal, deterring them from happening in the first place is achievable. One of the main goals of the UKPD prior to deployment was to utilize the WEBS towers as threat deterrents and to help improve response time to emergencies. Third, the WEBS towers chosen by the campus Emergency Communications is a Blue Light Special at UK University of Kentucky unified its video and emergency management process with Talkaphone's communication towers "The towers were unsightly and not strategically placed to reflect the modern day University pedestrian traffic flow," explained Joe Monroe, Chief of Police at the University of Kentucky.