Lakeland secures the city under a unified platform of Genetec

Con Genetec Security Center, The city of Lakeland has integrated its video surveillance and access control systems into a unified and centralized platform that allows managing, individually, each of the city's buildings and optimizing IP access control.

Located between Tampa and Orlando, in the city of Lakeland about 100.000 people live and in the surrounding Lakeland-Winter Haven area more than 600.000. An area whose community and culture revolve around its 38 lakes and the numerous parks and leisure centers.

Although different projects had been carried out to maintain the area's security, the wide variety of systems made the infrastructure not useful. This is why it was decided to opt for a robust and reliable IP video surveillance system that would take advantage of the existing fiber infrastructure in the city. The first to seek a solution was the Water Service Department, which opted to implement the video surveillance system Genetec Omnicast.

Later, the city's IT Department initiated a citywide expansion project to extend the system to other local organizations and improve IP access control in various buildings. The choice was the Genetec Security Center unified security platform, which includes, in a single solution, video surveillance, access control and license plate recognition systems. The integrator SiteSecure, company acquired by Miller Electric Company, was hired to carry out the installation and maintenance of this project.

Control Center

While the system for the entire city is constantly evolving, the Security Center is distributed across 53 different sites in the city of Lakeland, including water facilities, the police and fire departments, City Hall, bibliotecas, parks and recreation buildings, public works facilities and the regional airport, inter alia.

An integrated structure consisting of 700 cameras, which are managed by the Omnicast video surveillance control system; while with the Synergis access control solution more than 450 doors. All cameras and access control devices are within the same platform, but the city of Lakeland has implemented very granular segmentation so that each department has exclusive control of the video and access to its buildings.

“The scalability and flexibility of the Security Center has been optimal. With the new unified platform, we have been able to adapt each application to the needs of each of our organizations, explains Alan Lee, Security and Safety Systems Supervisor, Public Works Facilities of the city of Lakeland.

The city of Lakeland chose network cameras Axis Communications in most locations, as well as video encoders from the same manufacturer for analog-to-IP conversion. The V-100 and V-2000 controllers of HID Global were selected to manage the 450 doors that are connected to the network.

Open platform

One of the challenges they had to face for the implementation of this unified security platform was that they needed an open architecture that took advantage of existing investments to reduce the total cost of ownership.

We have been able to preserve the existing analog cameras and also the cabling, the power and card technologies of the previously installed access control systems in various locations. In this way, we have made the most of existing investments”, clarifies Alan Lee.

More than 200 system users have access to the system with specific privileges set according to their different roles, and more than 3.300 titulares de tarjetas pueden moverse libremente a través de los edificios de la ciudad.

Designados como ‘partition leaders’, estos son responsables en cada departamento de la emisión de credenciales, cambio de privilegios o el acceso al vídeo. La función Active Directory ayuda al Departamento de TI de la ciudad a agilizar el proceso, ofreciendo una gestión centralizada y sincronizada de las cuentas de usuario y las tarjetas.

Con el total control administrativo sobre los sistemas locales, el Departamento de TI puede ofrecer apoyo práctico y centralizado. “Nos hemos convertido en una ventanilla única para el servicio de nuestros departamentos de la ciudad, lo que ahorra a todos un tiempo considerable. Podemos actualizar horarios para la apertura de puertas, ajustar los derechos de control de acceso y activar o desactivar los titulares de las tarjetas. Esto ayuda a mantener la operatividad de nuestros edificios de forma eficiente y segura”, aclara Lee.

Con vistas al futuro, Lakeland está evaluando actualizar todos los sistemas eléctricos y optimizar la protección perimetral, posiblemente unificada, del Centro de seguridad. La ciudad también está haciendo del Lakeland Linder Regional Airport una prioridad en su expansión, para instalar más puertas de acceso y cámaras. In addition, también está pensando en implantar la solución de reconocimiento de matrículas AutoVu.