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Ranked a top national university, Loyola University Chicago is one of the largest of the 28 Jesuit universities and colleges in the United States, with three campuses in the greater Chicago area. Two of the three campuses, the Lake Shore and Water Tower campuses, were the focus of the security upgrade. Lake Shore, with more than 40 buildings, serves as the main residential and undergraduate campus. The Water Tower Campus is located just off Chicago's famed "Magnificent Mile," making for an urban campus environment. Each campus is quite different from the other, separated both by distance and by different security needs and challenges.
Prior to the upgrade, Loyola University maintained a classic, patchwork security system comprised of analog cameras; VCRs and DVRs; two different, unrelated types of access control readers; and variety of different access cards that each student and staff needed to keep track of, as did the many departments administering the different cards. Loyola approached its security consulting team, led by Jim Gompers, with an initial single goal: create an integrated single-card platform to simplify life for students and create greater efficiencies in administration.
Single-card System as a Starting Point
With a single-card platform as the starting point, the team took a step back to look at this goal within the context of the entire security program and campus operations as a whole. They devised a multi-year, multi-phase program to update security initiatives across the board and to meet the one-card goal within the university's three stated objectives: effectiveness, acceptability and affordability.
The initial assessment process revealed the many stakeholders in the program. It also clearly demonstrated the critical need to ensure that all players would be involved in planning and implementation — no easy task. The main goal of the initial phase of the project was to get rid of the multiple cards and systems and put all functionality and access onto a single card. The team first determined what systems were critical for inclusion on the single card platform. Then they developed a plan to roll out the new system to the almost 20,000 "customers," that is students, faculty and staff.
A Massive Project Followed by Two Additional Phases
Phase I. What followed was a massive project to integrate disparate databases and entirely separate mainframe systems onto one database platform. Departments and functions included were security, housing and cafeteria access, library privileges, multiple retail POS systems, parking access and billing, and others. In addition, all faculty and staff data — located on a separate system altogether — was migrated onto the platform, so they too could enjoy the convenience of the single-card system. Eventually all data would reside in one PeopleSoft database.
Next, a middleware database in Oracle was created, called LUware, which has its own server to act as gatekeeper to populate the different databases used to administer the card. Throughout this process, as mentioned above, the planning and implementation was devised and overseen by multiple departments including IT/IS, parking, accounting, university liaison to retail/POS, library, housing, facilities, security, and along the way a few more. Still in Phase I, the group moved to implement a single access control technology. All legacy bar code/bar lock hardware was upgraded to proximity readers, and this upgrade was accomplished within tough budget constraints. All access control panels were upgraded to a current Maxxess Systems ISMS (Integrated Security Management System) platform. As part of the access control upgrade, optical turnstiles by Gunnebo Entrance Control were installed in parts of the campuses open to the public, such as libraries, to ensure better control and more efficient, effective administration of visitors.
At the end of Phase I, Loyola was equipped with state of the art access control with ISMS capabilities on both campuses, and a new single card system across what were once multiple silos of unconnected databases.
Phase II. The focus here was on upgrading the video surveillance system. Except for a small number of DVRs, video surveillance for Loyola in practice meant a VCR system that provided little if any useable video for ID purposes and post-event analysis. The University recognized it could be at risk without proper technology to provide enhanced security and proper event investigation. The University needed a video platform that would provide access to video from all cameras at a central command location and from multiple remote locations located throughout both campuses.
Initially, the security consulting team evaluated DVRs but that technology had future proofing problems. Network video recording (NVR) technology emerged as the way to go, but budget wouldn't allow for a full NVR upgrade across all locations and cameras. Upon completion of the initial upgrade, NVR technology, provided by Milestone Systems, was located in critical areas, covering about 200 cameras. In top-priority areas, mega-pixel cameras from IQinVision were installed. For all other areas and facilities, existing DVR equipment from Dedicated Micros was used for camera monitoring and recording. Using the new ISMS, the team was able to tie both systems together and mix and match camera views on one monitor or multiple monitors. This integration, made possible by the flexibility of the Milestone system, was an elegant solution to the necessary phasing in of cameras onto the network and the NVR system.
Upgrading to IP Camera Technology
During the project, the Loyola security office received a mandate from the university's Vice President's office to upgrade surveillance at the Lake Shore campus, so the team got to work finding the right camera technology: IP and IP mega-pixel cameras. "Our selection committee [for cameras] was looking for image and cost performance," says Frank Dale, Loyola's manager of physical security. "Among the 15 different IP camera models, our committee felt the IQeye was the best camera for the cost, but it also had the best image quality overall." Lead consultant James Gompers helped organize the competition among the different IP camera providers. In addition to standardizing on the IQeye cameras, Loyola chose Toshiba PTZ cameras for non-high-priority surveillance areas.
"Understandably, our president is deeply committed to security issues," says Dr. Bernard Ward, Loyola's director of safety and security. The university maintained a number of analog CCTV cameras, but the image quality was not sufficient. "We could tell it was a person on the video, but not much more," Ward says.
But it wasn't only image quality the committee was looking for. The IQeye cameras provide a number of important benefits: "plug and play" functionality and power over Ethernet — so not only are coax cable runs minimized, but power is not needed to every camera. Nearly 80 IQinVision cameras were initially deployed both inside and outside the Lake Shore campus buildings, covering exits and entrances, lobbies, parking areas and other key locations. Cameras have also been installed to create a perimeter of the campus, so security has views up and down the public throughways. Current plans call for additional deployments of IQeye and Toshiba cameras for the Water Tower Campus, The Fine Arts Annex, The Mundelein Center, the Lake Shore Information Center and the Athletic Field.
All camera views go to a central server, via Milestone IP video surveillance management software, and are then routed over the security network to each of the viewing stations and the central command and control center. Loyola can also send camera views to satellite monitoring stations at both their Lake Shore and Water Tower campuses and they can shift monitoring to whichever station is open and staffed. Once all video was tied back into the central ISMS, then it was time for a new command center.
Phase III. Now, it was finally time to physically integrate all security systems into a new command and control center that would cover the entire university security system. At present, the university maintains remote guard posts with advanced ISMS workstations that a security officer can monitor at that facility. In addition to monitoring and control at these separate and remote posts, all of the posts are on the network and all video and sensor data goes back to the central command post. Monitors now pop video upon incident and/or alarm, and all fire, intercom and access data flows into the ISMS for dispatcher information and action.
Through the construction of a single command and control center, the university was able to revamp campus security and the dispatch system to take advantage of new technology, new higher levels of integration, and much improved efficiencies in getting information and dispensing information and solutions — resulting in better, more efficient security and operations for all. What started as a clear, but somewhat limited goal of a single-card platform, ultimately resulted in a long-term, future proof, highly effective comprehensive security system upgrade.