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Chapter 4: ISDN Puts Video To Work Video Security ISDN today offers an economical, high-speed alternative to the digital microwave and satellite connections that have traditionally been used for video security installations.
Perhaps the most aggressive implementation of this new technology has been in the Huntsville, Alabama, school system. From a single headquarters location, security personnel can monitor television images from 41 separate school locations throughout the area. Video images from each school are multiplexed, and forwarded through ISDN BRI connections to a central site where they are displayed on standard PC monitors. The system also incorporates a wide array of access-control devices, heat sensors, motion detectors, and magnetic stripe badge readers. Signals are sent directly to the central location through the D-channel links. School system superintendent Ron Saunders notes that the innovative security installation has saved his school system some 24 percent on its annual insurance premiums. In addition, it has significantly reduced the number of security personnel physically needed at each site, while dramatically improving security coverage. "ISDN has proven to be more reliable than either microwave or satellite systems," Saunders noted, "because telephone lines are not affected by severe weather or distance limitations. ISDN also lets us expand our system more quickly and much more inexpensively. The same system also gives us powerful back-up channels when and if we need them."
Other Sections Of This Chapter:
Better, Less Costly Meetings Video Equipment: An Overview Putting Video To Work Video Collaborations Video Banking Distance Learning Video Security A Video Revolution
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