The University of Miami, a private research university with more than 15,000 students in Coral Gables, Florida, had maintained a video surveillance system for a number of years, but many disparate systems made it difficult for campus police to monitor and investigate incidents. “Our challenge was that we had so many legacy analog systems, and we were looking to bring everything together into a unified system,” says Jose Ruano, executive director of IT security.

In order to achieve a single, unified system, Ruano and Steve Weatherly, senior security engineer at the University, knew they needed to upgrade to IP. “It was much more economical to upgrade our cameras and run them over the IP network than laying coax,” recalls Weatherly. Ruano and Weatherly conducted extensive research to identify the top technology candidates that they would contract for their upgraded IP video system.

To date, the University has installed 450 cameras to create a safer environment for students, staff and visitors. Approximately 90% of all cameras are IQeye Sentinel and Alliance Dome HD megapixel cameras. The University plans to install more than 500 total cameras when the current phase is completed.

IQeye cameras are installed where image quality is critical for identification purposes, such as areas that typically have a high density of students. The University Police also conduct regular analyses of the campus to identify high crime areas. Cameras are then moved or new ones installed to address pressing needs at the locations identified in the study.

“When I first saw a demo of an IQeye megapixel camera, I was blown away at the quality compared to analog,” Weatherly says. “Ever since then, it has been IQinVision.” In addition to selecting IQeye cameras, University of Miami also chose OnSSI video management software for its upgraded security system. Most of the newer IQeye cameras feature H.264 Main Profile compression, which has significantly reduced bandwidth and storage demands for the University.