Hanwha Vision’s Wisenet cameras help Stockholm city schools to protect their assets, staff and students

Stockholm City School

Global security company Hanwha Vision has provided 20 Stockholm schools with its Wisenet X series cameras, helping education administrators maintain a safe environment for students and staff.

♦ Challenge

Based on a framework agreement with the education department of the city of Stockholm, Nordic Alarm, a Hanwha Vision STEP Partner, had to deliver complete video surveillance systems for schools located throughout the city. Cameras needed to be installed at the entrances, corridors and other common areas of the schools, in order to deter and detect any criminal activity or anti-social behavior, such as bullying, vandalism and theft, and if necessary, provide high quality video evidence to police.

♦ Solution

Over 600 Wisenet X cameras have been installed by Nordic Alarm across 20 Stockholm schools. Just three models from the extensive Wisenet range have been needed to meet the requirements for the specified camera location at each of the schools. These include XNV-6020R 2 megapixel and 5 megapixel XNV-8020R vandal-resistant domes. A large number of Wisenet XNF-8010R 360-degree fisheye cameras have also been installed. These provide a cost-effective way to monitor large open areas where a much larger number of standard cameras might normally be required, to avoid any blind spots. All three Wisenet models have built-in IR illumination which allows them to capture superb quality images regardless of the ambiance lighting conditions. They are also equipped with a wide range of intelligent video analytics including loitering detection and an audio analysis function which recognizes critical sounds such as screams and broken glass.

Depending on the number of cameras deployed at each school, the images captured by the cameras are recorded locally on either 32 channel Wisenet XRN-2011 or 64 channel Wisenet SRN-4000 Network Video Recorders (NVRs). Both devices have internal hot-swappable hard drives which support RAID5 recording. This provides protection against unrecoverable read errors, as well as whole HDD failure.

Although the Wisenet X cameras have built-in IP network technology, at each school they form part of a closed circuit video surveillance system which cannot be accessed from outside the school. This protects the privacy of students and complies with GDPR and the Camera Security Act. In this respect, recorded video is only stored via the school’s internal network and it is deleted after a limited period of time.

♦ Result
Commenting on the value of the video surveillance installed at one of the schools, Mats Lundqvist, IT Coordinator at Fruängens School, said: “It has made a big difference in that the number of incidents of graffiti and vandalism rapidly declined immediately after the cameras were installed and it is also much quieter now in the corridors. Well behaved students tend to forget the cameras are there, but they definitely help deter mis-behavior.” “Most importantly, by being able to retrieve and review video captured by the cameras, we are able to visually verify and quickly deal with any incidents,” he emphasized. “The video surveillance system has also allowed us to review what happened during a burglary at the school. We have been able to follow the whole incident which involved computers being stolen on a Sunday afternoon. The crime was well planned, with the thieves going straight to where our computers are stored. Review of the video has enabled us to improve our security procedures in order to avoid similar events in the future.” He added, “Technically, the video surveillance system is working extremely well and since the installation, we have not experienced any problems at all. It is also very easy to search for events so that we can quickly find out what has happened.”