Open Options provides an integrated approach to security for US school district

Customer

Littleton Public School District - or more commonly known as LPS - is located just 10 miles outside the bustling downtown Denver area, and serves several communities within the southern Denver metropolitan area. LPS is the fifteenth largest school district in Colorado, operating three high schools, four middle schools, 13 elementary schools, a preschool, two charter schools, and several alternative programs that span over 29 miles.

The district is responsible for more than 15,000 students day-to-day and employs over 2,500 faculty and staff. Managing security and access for this amount of people can be a challenge - especially given all other security factors campuses face - but the LPS campuses are also open for use within the Littleton community.

Challenges

LPS’s former access control provider was proprietary was not PoE (Power over Ethernet) compatible. PoE describes the cabling that passes electrical power and data, allowing a single cable to provide both the data connection and electrical power to devices such as door controllers and IP security cameras. PoE infrastructure results in lower cost, greater exibility with installation, and overall more functionality than traditional wiring. As a result, the school district is able to adjust to and decrease new vulnerabilities.

The staff was adamant about implementing technology that would provide and integrated approach to a safer school by utilizing PoE to ultimately achieve a full-fledged Physical Security Information Managment, or PSIM, system. PSIM is a category of software designed to integrate multiple, unconnected security applications and devices and control them through one comprehensive user interface. Although DNA Fusion is not generally categorized as a PSIM system, it serves as the primary interface for all other systems to tie into. ​

Solution

Open Options’ flagship access control platform, DNA Fusion, interfaces with a host of other systems and also has web and mobile applications. Open Options and Mercury Security have worked together for two decades to provide a true open architecture access control solution. 

LPS also utilizes other elements of the DNA Fusion platform to enhance their security, including OpenDX, Open Options’ database exchange software, and their Fusion Web and Fusion Mobile applications. Open Options also had to do some customization and development to ensure all facets of the integrated solution were seamless, and to provide LPS with the features and functionality needed to adequately monitor their security. This included redesigning the alarm automation component of DNA Fusion to accommodate the Bosch and Inovonics integration, as well as designing custom graphics maps to be used across the entire district. 

LPS believes that a security system must be deployed in a manner that is customizable for the school and its daily operations that enhances the abilities of teachers to teach and students to learn. A security system must ultimately have the ability to be deployed and work eciently around the clock for many different needs. With this in mind, LPS currently has 29 sites utilizing the DNA Fusion platform with plans to have over 150 operators district-wide.