Schools Turn To VARs For Surveillance, Security Solutions

If you read a week's worth of college campus crime reports from past generations, here's what would turn up: Kids from a rival school snuck on campus and spray-painted the football field. A fight broke out at a watering hole on the strip. And a couple of freshmen went to the hospital after chugging too many grain punches during rush week.

But pick up a week's worth of crime reports from America's campuses today, and this is what you may find: An out-of-control crowd burned couches and flipped over cars on the strip after a big hoops win. A series of sexual assaults occurred on campus after a predator stalked female students via Facebook. And an emotionally unstable student made threats to his peers and teachers, and was found to be stockpiling weapons in his dorm closet.

It's not to say that college life in the past was blissfully idyllic. One only needs to recall the shooting rampage conducted by Charles Joseph Whitman high up in a tower at the University of Texas on Aug. 1, 1966, to realize that the prospect of serious crime and violence always existed. But, today, heightened awareness about the potential dangers of campus life--combined with the horrific shooting deaths of 32 people at Virginia Tech University last year--have forced college administrators to take unprecedented, proactive measures to ensure the safety of their campuses. Many are looking to take their campus video surveillance and emergency-alert systems into the digital age, to ensure a wider, more efficient response. And they're not necessarily solely motivated by a protective nature: These days for parents and students, the perceived safety of a campus factors nearly as large in the selection process as whether a university sends grads to high-paying jobs or top law schools. Which means safety has a direct impact on tuition dollars.

All of which has opened a promising niche for VARs.

Many are integrating IP-based technologies into campus security camera systems so data can be stored, analyzed and recalled at any given time. They're supplying solutions that can trigger instant emergency alerts that reach students on their handhelds and laptops. They're providing silent panic button systems--even what are called "robo-calls" that get word out to parents' cell phones about a developing incident--that also tap into the very latest in digital technology for enhanced efficiency. "No longer are alert and notification systems part of a 'phase two' in the process of IP communications implementation," said Greg T. Royal, executive vice president and CTO of Plano, Texas-based Cistera Networks Inc., which recently launched a VoIP-based communications/alert system with Georgia Perimeter College in greater Atlanta. "The Virginia Tech event caused everyone to pause and take stock of the implications including the legal fallout. Although we were selling these solutions before this incident, the demand has obviously increased, especially among larger campuses."

There's very little market research to statistically gauge and forecast this niche. Currently, IP-linked surveillance and notification systems are a small but growing presence in the overall surveillance/notification market for college campuses, which amounts to at least $100 million a year, according to Reston, Va.-based Input, a top government IT market-research firm. Closed-caption video still dominates. What's key will be whether these IP systems prove to be successful and whether industry-standard solutions emerge, said Chris Dixon, manager of state and local industry analysis for Input. "State budgets are tight," he said. "What vendors and resellers need to do is work with local officials and state officials to ensure this is incorporated as an overarching strategy. Right now, I'm seeing individual university campuses buying into these technologies, but not statewide university systems. That's what needs to happen for this market to take off."

VARs involved in this market, however, say the interest in these technologies is already well-established and that those who demonstrate a proven track record will be best positioned to prosper in the immediate future. While the Virginia Tech incident raised much awareness, VARs say, the actual demand for these solutions has been building for several years. Essentially, university decision-makers are realizing that they need to catch up to many of the technological advancements seen in high-security workplaces and even standard corporate campuses.

In the recent past, college institutions were relatively old school when it came to safety measures. University police patrolled the parking lots, dorms, campus buildings and intramural football fields for potential fights, break-ins, thefts and other incidents, without much thought given toward an integrated system of detection, analysis and follow-through. "Most campuses had basic security measures, but they were usually implemented in silos," said Andrew Wren, president of Jefferson City, Mo.-based Wren Solutions, which provides integrated video surveillance systems to college campus customers. "The bookstore might install a video surveillance solution, while across campus, the parking office would select an entirely different system. Even a decade ago, administrators never dreamed they'd be in the situation when they'd perform a campuswide lockdown in response to a shooting."

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