Hudson Park High School CCTV System
In January 2007, Hudson identify a person on our
Park High installed a 88
channel CCTV system. As
an education institution with
security / behavior chal-
lenges, the acquisition of this
system has proved to be of
great benefit to the learners,
teachers and parents.
The information that follows
is a report on the current
Special points of system to date.
interest:
Classroom Camera’s.
 Improved classroom
behavior. An immediate improvement
was found in pupil behavior
 Reduced general after the cameras were in-
theft problems. stalled. Prior to the CCTV
system, certain pupils would
 Improved teachers aggravate and belittle staff.
moral. The inclusion of the audio
facility has helped prevent
 Quicker to resolve this. Teachers are now able
discipline issues. to play back the lesson and
demerit the pupil. Aggres-
sive behavior has resulted in
Governing Body hearings.
The classroom cameras have
www.hphs.co.za/cctv.htm also proved effective to help
prevent theft. Common items
stolen were; cell phones,
books and stationary. These
items are easily picked up on
camera, and so the incidents
of theft have dropped. An-
other benefit is the control of
tests and punctuality of
teachers. The head of Aca-
demics is able to view the
test procedure from her of-
fice using the remote view-
ing software. Overall the
classroom cameras are a
great success, and will be
even better when hard drive
storage increases.
The system has the ability to
increase the quality of the
recorded video, however it is
limited to available server
space.
Passage Camera’s.
The initial benefit of these
cameras was the ability to
track a persons movement
around the school, especially
learners who are out of class.
The other benefit is trying to
verse system.
campus when not easily seen
in a particular area. The
synchronized time between
cameras allows us to do this.
Recently a teacher suspected
that a learner’s request to go
to the toilet had become an
extended event. With the
passage cameras, we were
able to track the learners
route around the school, and
demerit them for a school
infringement.
These cameras are also used
to monitor lockers, however
the fluctuations in light and
the number of learners using
the lockers simultaneously
has proved difficult to single
3 CCTV Servers
out individual learners lock-
ers.
Ground Camera’s.
When first installed, the PTZ
cameras were used to moni-
tor the school grounds dur-
ing break. Without a full
time security staff member,
this eventually proved inef-
fective and so they were set
onto a tour. The ability to
zoom in on learners using
cell phones during school
hours, and other problematic
behaviors has proved very
useful. Our gate cameras
have helped track vehicles
coming in and out of our
grounds. These have helped
prevent and solve cases of
vandalism to our property.
Incident Management.
One of the biggest chal-
lenges for a school is the
management of such a di-
We have found that an inves-
tigation officer is essential
and that the system be run-
ning all the time to effec-
tively collect the relevant
data. The amount of time
spent investigating an inci-
dent often exceeds the value
of the item. The collection of
the data is however ex-
tremely valuable, as it allows
us to study the behavior
patterns and incidents on the
school grounds.
Governing Body
Hearings.
With the installation of a
camera in the mini-hall in
the near future, all future
hearings can be recorded
thus saving much time in the
transcribing of audio re-
cordings if requested by the
department.
The ultimate CCTV solution
would be a permanent guard
behind the console, and an-
other on foot using a radio.
This way we would be able
to combat issues in real time.
The new system has proved
extremely effective and has
helped improve our schools
credibility. The parents and
public have only given
praise to Hudson for invest-
ing in this new system.
Sean Udal
Director Electronic Systems,
Head of ICT.