Located just one hour from New York City, Marlboro Township is a largely residential, suburban community in Monmouth County, New Jersey. More than 40,000 people reside in Marlboro Township which is served by a school district that serves nearly 6,000 students and employs 700.

Challenge
New Jersey Suburb Marlboro Township Needed Sophisticated Software to Monitor Up to 500 Video Cameras

With 11 buildings, Marlboro Township Schools began implementing a video surveillance solution several years ago with just donated equipment. But funding from a United States Homeland Security grant and the local police department jump-started the campus-wide video management system.

“We were one of only two districts to receive funding from the police department, so we were very lucky to be able to secure financial assistance in obtaining much needed video surveillance,” said Marlboro Township Technology Supervisor, John McCormick.

“We tried VCR recording and it was a complete hassle and a total mess. So when the grant funds became available and we had the opportunity to update what we had I began researching different software providers and came across Video Insight.”

McCormick said he “fell in love” with Video Insight because it was easy to- use, affordable and provided a comprehensive and organized video management system. Marlboro Township has installed 315 predominately Bosch cameras and has plans to expand to 500 within the next phase. The cameras cover all school and administration building exits and entrances, parking lots and playgrounds. They are placed in conjunction with door access control so that those in the school front offices can see the individuals prior to allowing them entry into the building.

McCormick said they like the organization that Video Insight provides them in configuring their system and monitoring stations. Each school has four monitoring stations for campus-level administrators to oversee. District-wide, there are two central command centers – one in Building and Grounds and the other in Technology.

Building and Grounds monitors cameras for content: they have witnessed a variety of incidents including automobile accidents, students pulling fire alarms, fights, and slips and falls. Technology oversees the system to ensure proper functionality and to retrieve recorded video for administration or law enforcement officials when an incident does occur.

Marlboro Township runs Video Insight software on 15 Dell Servers – a mixture of PE 840, PE 1900 and SC 440 Dell models. The district’s network infrastructure – which has a gig of bandwidth – accommodates Video Insight with “no problem at all,” said McCormick. “It’s been extremely efficient which has surprised us because it is such a sophisticated VMS.”

“Video Insight is 100 percent user-friendly. We have had different versions of software along the way and they were absolutely horrible,” said McCormick.

“We have been a Video Insight customer for years because we have found them to be the best product on the market and we look forward to a long and successful partnership for years to come.”