Smyrna High School Case Study

Mikell Reed: Smyrna High School is a high school of about 1400 students from a very large district. With the community events that we host, there is something going on at Smyrna High seven days a week.

Edward Fayda: The Smyrna High School project was the third of a series of school expansion projects with the Smyrna school district after they passed a referendum. It's the largest project and the intent was to double the size of the school due to the student enrollment.

Tony Soligo: Educators, specifically administrators as well as teachers, by law have a higher duty to care as far as their student population is concerned. Foremost in our minds is always the safety of the students, coming and going to school.

Edward Fayda: We started this project about four years ago and we had very successfully worked with Advantech on a previous large school project. To integrate all that with intrusion detection, hard access, access control, and CCTV into a single platform that's reliable is very challenging.

Dave Sweeney: The challenge with Smyrna High School was securing such a large facility. Their facility currently has over 70 exterior doors and it has 11 stairwells. It was a very difficult thing to keep the functionality of the facility in mind, but also provide some form of security. We were actually able to leverage the existing analog-digital video recorders, and bring them back into MAXPRO in conjunction with the new high-definition IP cameras, to provide a system that is recording and displaying up to 200 cameras.

Clarence M. Davis: We have a unique situation in that we still are using some of the old cameras that were in place here before and we are using the newer cameras in the HD that Advantech and Honeywell have installed here in our school, and the great thing is that you see a drastic difference between the two, to the point where you could see dirt on the floor. I mean it is that clear.

Before when administrators were called to a situation, you would walk into a situation blind. Now we have the ability, when a situation is called into the main office, one could instantly be able to pull up that particular area to assess what's going on, to see what is actually needed, to deal with any type of problem that may have occurred.

Mikell Reed: The key card system that we have in access control now, at a moment's notice we can pull a report, and see exactly who has entered the building, and at what time and what day. If we need to go back and look at video camera footage, with our Honeywell system we can use Access Control to kind of shrink up the time frame and the amount of footage that we have to look at on our video camera system.

Dave Sweeney: Advantech and Honeywell have partnered on this project to deploy a very unique application using the HSDK. The application includes the display of VISTA Intrusion points on a graphical platform that was developed via the Niagara framework, which allows the user to see their burglar alarm in an instant, graphically.

John Gampp: We're using it for two primary reasons. To monitor the instruction points, so that rather than trying to decipher via a numeric keypad with a very short description, trying to figure out where one or more of these 125 points are via description, it's graphically shown on a map with a color indication. The other primary use case here is for cameras, that you know if I see that there is a door propped open, and it shouldn't be, that I can call up a nearby camera, and see that maybe a student's loitering, or someone's put a rock in the door.

Dave Sweeney: Honeywell's integrated security platform is extremely important when designing and deploying this solution. The ability to go to market with an integrated solution across multiple subsystems that's provided by the same manufacturer is extremely important. Many people talk about integration often, but simply they just talk about it. They rarely actually deploy it, and Smyrna High School is a great example of a functioning, useful, integrated security management system.

Clarence M. Davis: Any type of technology that can enhance what you do on a daily basis, to make you job more efficient is great, and I believe the products we currently have in place is a plus for Smyrna High School.

Edward Fayda: The challenges of phasing were well thought out, and the students were minimally affected. Overall, it's a beautiful school. It's a great asset for the students, for the citizens of the Smyrna school district and the students will enjoy the benefits of this project for years and years to come.

Mikell Reed: Technology is ever changing, and with the help of Advantech, and the Honeywell technology and equipment we know in the future, we have the ability to get upgrades, and adjust, and expand if we need to.

Tony Soligo: If you don't have a secure learning environment, then you're going to run into issues, and the kids feel safer. If the kids feel safe then they're going to do better academically.