Brown County in Wisconsin, U.S, has upgraded disparate, time consuming and unreliable DVR systems to an improved system designed to keep workers and public property safe with streamlined efficiency. The county installed a fiber communications network with an IP-based surveillance system. Network cameras from Axis Communications are interconnected through Milestone Systems' VMS. Brown County now efficiently monitors public buildings including the museum, library, courthouse, jail, community treatment center – even the solid waste facilities. At the county’s Austin Straubel International Airport, Agent Vi analytics was integrated with the VMS platform for critical alerts. Technology Resource Advisors (TRA) installed and designed the future-proofed VMS with multi-phase scalability, and could be integrated with third-party systems.
Brown County in Wisconsin, U.S, has upgraded disparate, time consuming and unreliable DVR systems to an improved system designed to keep workers and public property safe with streamlined efficiency. The county installed a fiber communications network with an IP-based surveillance system. Network cameras from Axis Communications are interconnected through Milestone Systems' VMS. Brown County now efficiently monitors public buildings including the museum, library, courthouse, jail, community treatment center – even the solid waste facilities. At the county's Austin Straubel International Airport, Agent Vi analytics was integrated with the VMS platform for critical alerts. Technology Resource Advisors (TRA) installed and designed the future-proofed VMS with multi-phase scalability, and could be integrated with third-party systems.
The county covers 1,372 square kilometers (530 square miles) and is home to the Green Bay Packers, 13 townships, nine villages and two cities. With departments scattered throughout, the new surveillance system had to be centrally administrated and controlled with restricted access from specific areas, enabling all departments to share video, with fast and efficient views of security related events.
“When the information came from TRA about Milestone's IP open platform allowing analytics integrations and other security systems for access control, we were very impressed,” said Kevin Raye, Network Support Manager, Brown County. The Milestone technologies pricing, compatibility with a large variety of cameras were the main reasons why the county chose the surveillance solution.
For users logging in from multiple sites, the central administrators securely and rapidly allow or deny access to views as needed. For example, the community treatment center is a state-licensed psychiatric facility where surveillance may be used for medical instances. Patient privacy concerns are considered, so the assigned roles set up in the system mean that unauthorized users are blocked.
The system's storage capabilities give the flexibility to determine video backup on a camera-by-camera basis. A minimum of 30 days of full video backup is kept for the entire county and can be adjusted if archived images are required for longer periods.
"We were able to develop a solution that combined multiple aspects including Milestone federated architecture and Agent Vi analytics to fit the large-scale needs of Brown County,” stated Tom Reminga, CTO, TRA.
Throughout the international airport, an analytics system from Milestone Solutions Partner Agent Vi has been integrated with the VMS. Rather than stationing TSA agents or security guards at additional checkpoints in the airport, Agent Vi's real-time detection and alert software monitors the video footage for predefined security scenarios. When an event is detected, an alert is sent to the VMS, which triggers various actions including live video pop up from the relevant camera.
Agent Vi's analytics are used in other applications at the airport, including ‘sterile zone' monitoring where the analytics system alerts security personnel of movement by people in restricted areas. This enables an immediate response in line with the level of threat associated with the event.
The runways also use Axis thermal IP cameras to monitor the movement of airplanes, service vehicles and personnel. The analytics system analyzes the images provided by the thermal cameras to differentiate between people, vehicles and static objects. Here the system has been predefined to detect and alert when there are people present in a vehicle-only lane, while disregarding the movement of vehicles in that area.