Electrical Business

News

Regent University uses JVC to monitor buildings, parking lots and more – Case Study

March 12, 2011 | By Anthony Capkun


March 12, 2011

Regent University, a private, faith-based institution that shares a campus with the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) in Virginia Beach, Va., is keeping better watch than ever over more than 5500 graduate and undergraduate students, faculty and staff with V.Networks IP-based cameras and network video recorders (NVRs) from JVC Professional Products Co.

Now in his 24th year with the CBN/Regent University Campus Police Dept.,
Lt. Eddie Lawhorn recalled the earlier CCTV system on campus, which
only offered coverage inside a few buildings. It included a handful of
mostly black-and-white analogue cameras that were connected to
time-lapse VCRs. A few years ago, as the aging VCRs came to the end of
their life, university officials decided it was time for an upgrade.

Advertisement

To-date, Regent has purchased 48 JVC cameras, including the VN-C625U PTZ
dome with 360-degree endless rotation, 12x optical zoom lens, and Super
LoLux technology for nighttime surveillance. Of the 45 cameras that
have been installed, most are used to monitor building interiors, but
eight monitor exterior sites, including parking lots, loading docks,
dormitories and the plaza adjacent to the library. Lawhorn said the
remaining three cameras will be installed and tasked with exterior
surveillance later this year.

Lawhorn is very pleased with the cameras, saying their
low-light capabilities are a big improvement over the university’s old
analogue cameras.

Regent also has three NVRs, which are in a master/slave configuration
that allows dispatchers to log into one unit but access all 45 cameras
on the system. While the police department’s dispatch centre is
monitored live 24/7/365, footage from the JVC cameras are recorded as
well.

According to Lawhorn, “It’s a great product with great support and no
recurring fees,” he added. “And the overall recording technology is
great—no more tape worries. It’s like night and day”.

{mospagebreak}

JVC V.Networks equipment is in use for CBN as well. In fact,
Lawhorn says the Virginia Beach campus will soon begin monitoring the
network’s Washington, D.C., news office and its Nashville, Tenn.,
facility. The expanded surveillance effort will include four additional
NVRs and about 12 new cameras.

The department, which handles its own equipment purchasing, installation
and maintenance, has migrated to its current JVC setup over the past
several years. The latest addition, the VR-N1600U NVRs, were installed
last summer (replacing older NVR models). The IP-based CCTV system is
connected through a dedicated VLAN (virtual local area network) that
brings all camera feeds back to the dispatch center via Cat 5 cable. In
addition, Regent can integrate its JVC cameras into the C3 application
from Lextech Labs, which will allows officers to view live and recorded
footage on an iPad or iPhone.

CLICK HERE for JVC Professional Products.


Print this page

Advertisement

Stories continue below