Background

The National Center for International Schools (NCIS) houses both the Chinese American International School and French American International School in San Francisco. Both these schools are pre-kindergarten through 12th grade and pride themselves on rigorous academic training, combined with cultural awareness and investigation. The Chinese American International School, founded in 1981, and the French American International School, founded in 1962, joined in an educational and bond-generating venture known as the National Center for International Schools in 1994 and purchased the former Caltrans building located in the middle of San Francisco at 150 Oak Street. After considerable remodeling and upgrades to the building, the two schools now share a vibrant and functional campus, where security is a major priority in order to deter criminal activity and protect both students and staff throughout the property.

Challenge

Security concerns in and around the perimeter of the school have become a challenge, and deploying security cameras in strategic positions to deter inappropriate conduct and preserve potential evidence for reported incidents has become of prime importance.
With its many students and staffs at the schools, exterior monitoring, such as on the sidewalks and streets within and around the property, has become as important as security measures taken within the campus itself.

Solution

Recently, the NCIS launched a project to update and improve visual monitoring of the overall campus. Now, NCIS’s overall video surveillance includes a multitude of VIVOTEK solutions including FD8361, FD8362, FD8363, FD8377-HTV, FD8372, FD836BA-HTV, FD9381-HTV, FD816CA-HF2, MA9321-EHTV, MA8391-ETV, MS9390-HV and MS9321-EHV. For special circumstances and requirements for the exterior of the campus, NCIS’s new video surveillance system features five VIVOTEK network cameras, including two multiple sensor adjustable cameras, the MA9321-EHTV for the exterior corners of the main building, a FD9381-HTV for the main building rooftop, and two multiple sensor cameras, MS9390-HV for the exterior low-height on property lines. NCIS chose the MA9321-EHTV for the camera’s desired high resolution and 360° coverage of property, street frontages and street intersections/crosswalks. As the MA9321-EHTV is one of VIVOTEK’s most versatile product, it provides NCIS with high resolution video recordings through four independent sensors and remote focus lenses. By having each sensor independent of each other, the MA9321-EHTV views four different regions simultaneously, therefore reducing the total number of cameras needed for surveillance and lowering total installation time and costs.

NCIS chose the 5-megapixel H.265 fixed dome, the FD9381-HTV for the desired high resolution coverage of a 13,000 square foot playground across the street from one of the installed cameras. VIVOTEK's FD9381-HTV professional H.265 high-efficiency outdoor dome network camera offers NCIS with 30 fps at 5MP or 60 fps at 1080p with outstanding image quality. By employing H.265 technology, the camera is able to provide higher and more efficient image compression rates than previous H.264 systems. In addition, the FD9381-HTV employs VIVOTEK's Smart Stream III technology and H.265 compression codec, reducing bandwidth more than 90% while still maintaining excellent image quality compared to traditional H.264 without Smart Streaming technology.

Lastly, NCIS chose the multiple sensor camera, the MS9390-HV for the camera’s 180° coverage of building frontages and sidewalks in a constrained-space location, without requiring twice the number of cameras. Through the use of two wide angle lenses, electronic image stitching, and high resolution sensors, the 8-megapixel 180° MS9390-HV is in a new class all by itself. With its unique dual-sensor design, the MS9390-HV can maintain a higher vertical field of view (FOV) than most traditional multi-sensor panoramic cameras using four sensors. This higher vertical FOV enables NCIS to have more video coverage, thereby enabling the school to capture more evidence below the point of camera installation. The MS9390-HV goes even further with WDR Pro technology for high contrast environments, 30fps at full resolution, and 180° IR illuminators up to 20 meters, ensuring NCIS with 24/7 comprehensive panoramic video surveillance.

Customer Feedback

“Clear video from VIVOTEK’s cameras have been of great assistance to NCIS and the San Francisco Police Department in the course of investigating a wide variety of security and safety incidents, including some criminal activity,” said Daniel Klingebiel, NCIS Executive Director. "We have worked with various brands of IP cameras. Ultimately, we have standardized on and now only use VIVOTEK cameras due to their superior quality, standardized configuration, and ease-of-installation. We met our VIVOTEK Regional Sales Manager at ISC West 2019 and have been greatly assisted with camera selection and trialing of new camera technology at our campuses.”

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Special Thanks

• Chinese American International School