Click here to receive your FREE subscription to Campus Technology
3/11/2008
Ed tech developer Blackboard this week launched a new video surveillance solution for its campus management system called Blackboard Video Surveillance. The new tool, announced at the BbWorld Commerce conference in Phoenix, AZ March 10, will become part of the Blackboard Commerce Suite, a payment and security management system designed for higher ed.
The announcement comes on the heels of of Blackboard's acquisition of NTI Group, a security software company that provides emergency notification tools.
According to Blackboard Commerce President Russ Carlson, "Universities have historically had to conduct separate evaluations for the various components of campus security, ultimately implementing technology from multiple vendors and performing their own system integrations. With the addition of video surveillance to our existing access control and mass notification capabilities, Blackboard now has a complete security offering. Our mass notification and video surveillance solutions take advantage of recent advances in technology. Mass notification is moving from text-based to multi-modal communication, which has shown to be more reliable and effective. Video surveillance is moving from analog cameras to cameras based on standard internet protocols, which allows campuses to manage the system using the same network, server infrastructure, and management techniques already in place for their other enterprise applications."
Blackboard Video Surveillance integrates with the Commerce Suite and provides support for recorded and live video from up to 80 cameras simultaneously, motion detection and event triggering, automatic electronic notification (e-mail, text, etc.), zooming, customizable views, and frame by frame playback. It's compatible with surveillance cameras from 30 manufacturers.
Further information can be found here.
About the author: Dave Nagel is the executive editor for 1105 Media's educational technology online publications and electronic newsletters. He can be reached at dnagel@1105media.com.
Have any additional questions? Want to share your story? Want to pass along a news tip? Contact Dave Nagel, executive editor, at dnagel@1105media.com.
copy text (above) for proper citation
In May in San Francisco, experts from leading universities, libraries, and research institutions around the world met as part of an ongoing effort to address a pressing issue: archiving the world's history, right up to today.
The Quilt, a coalition of 28 regional network organizations, has added XO Communications Services to its authorized vendor list. The Quilt represents 200 universities and thousands of other educational institutions across the United States. With this new relationship, Quilt members can purchase XO's high-speed IP transit and network transport services at competitive rates.
At the NECC 2008 conference in Texas this week, Wimba launched a new version of Wimba Classroom, the virtual classroom component of the company's Collaboration Suite. The new 5.2 release expands options for classroom capture and adds a variety of other functional and ease of use features.
The lure of automating workflow online so human intervention is minimized is continually reinforced in the minds of higher education administrators by examples of automated campus systems such as financials, student information systems, and other enterprise systems. But what's good for management is not always good for learning.
Cognos, which IBM acquired in January, has released an update to its business intelligence software that will run on the Linux operating system on IBM System z mainframes. IBM Cognos 8 BI was being developed by the two companies prior to the acquisition, but assimilation of Cognos into IBM accelerated development.
Facebook is a way to greet a colleague as if she or he is on your own campus: a wave at a distance, a hello at the corner burrito place, a honk as you both leave the campus parking lot. Informal collegiality has been extended over the miles.