Recovery Ranch, located in Nashville, Tennessee, U.S., is a special rehabilitation center for clients with addictive, eating or mood disorders, or in need of psychosomatic recovery for improved quality of life. The ranch employs 160 therapists and administrative personnel, serving more than 75 clients at a time, with 24/7 care for different treatments; hence, it is a large facility with residents of diverse backgrounds
Recovery Ranch, located in Nashville, Tennessee, U.S., is a special rehabilitation center for clients with addictive, eating or mood disorders, or in need of psychosomatic recovery for improved quality of life. The ranch employs 160 therapists and administrative personnel, serving more than 75 clients at a time, with 24/7 care for different treatments; hence, it is a large facility with residents of diverse backgrounds.
The ranch encompasses two sites: the main campus with two buildings and a new campus with six buildings, individually located one mile apart. On land stretching over 2,000 acres and multiple campuses, it is necessary to have a powerful surveillance system to secure the community and archive records of any incidents that occur. The two original buildings, dated back to late 1800s, were not designed with network wiring. Also, they had unstable power supplies due to the age of the buildings and the location in a rural area, where bad weather could easily cause a power outage. Therefore, wireless became very important, and a good mechanism to sustain system power supply was essential, too.
Moreover, Recovery Ranch required 16 to 18 cameras installed around the campuses and a system able to store videos for two to three months. Prior to the installation, Recovery Ranch surveyed CCTV and DVR solutions, but all lacked advanced management functions and did not have sufficient storage capacity.
Road to Recovery
In the end, Recovery Ranch turned to the Qnap VioStor NVR surveillance system because of its robust, IP-based design and the many unique management features. Two units of VioStor NVR VS-6020 Pro, powered by dual-core Intel Atom processor, were installed on each campus, monitoring 25 VIVOTEK fixed domes and Mobotix fisheye cameras. “Qnap NVRs definitely play a central role in the video security for Recovery Ranch, as this is a one-stop solution that is well-integrated with multiple brands of IP cameras and hence can fulfill very diverse indoor/outdoor monitoring requirements,” said Jeff Chase, IT Manager. “Moreover, the system is very scalable in camera deployment, and with free software updates, it is open to more features at no additional cost, making it a future-proof investment for many years to come.”
The VS-6020 Pro supports high-quality H.264, MPEG-4, M-JPEG and MxPEG recording, and can efficiently stream videos wirelessly while maintaining high-megapixel image quality. In addition, the 6-bay VS-6020 Pro accommodates up to 24-TB storage capacity to satisfy Recovery Ranch's needs of storing videos for up to three months. The VS-6020 Pro also solves the problem of unexpected power outage. With support for UPS devices, the VS-6020 Pro is programmed with USB-connected UPS to ensure 24/7 service. Detailed event logs of system warning, network disconnection and the UPS status are also recorded for diagnosis. What Recovery Ranch favored most was the intelligent video analytics. By using the motion detection algorithm in playback mode, the security administrator can set up areas of interest and time frames for the NVR to automatically find events of interest. It is, overall, less labor-intensive than manually watching each channel at 16x fast-forward play. It is quick to review — for example, an individual, in a specific area, at a certain time of the day — the day's video, and reviewing evidence is more efficient than ever.
Since the two units of VioStor NVR VS-6020 Pro were installed, the ranch has required little maintenance. The Linux-based operating system and RAID storage volume are very reliable; at the same time, it is more power-efficient than running the VMS server on a PC. Therefore, Recovery Ranch does not have to keep the PC running 100-percent of the time. It shows power consumption changes from 200W to 43W (with six HDDs installed) in average, resulting in up to five times of savings in utility. “The VS-6020 Pro is an easy-to-use and intuitive product, enabling the security administrator to fully utilize the features of the surveillance system. We can spend less time on IT, and more time on running the center,” Chase concluded.
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