DADS security staff monitor campus activities to determine if any incidents are occurring. Additionally, when a parent or guardian approaches staff to complain about an incident or lack of care, or a resident is injured, the Ocularis software enables security staff to quickly and easily locate relevant video and then burn a disk of the video related to the complaint. Another department within DADS has investigators who then review any incidents and bring about an expeditious resolution.
New System Is ‘Light Years’ Ahead
“The video surveillance technology has proven to be very, very effective,” concluded Hugman. “Previously, DADS wasn’t doing anything like this — what they have now is light years ahead of what they were doing before. The new system is allowing them to accelerate their caseloads, and they are able to handle complaints based on factual information and observation, instead of interviewing participants trying to get a straight story. DADS’ senior staff believe the system is working well and is enabling them to meet the objectives set down by the Texas legislature.&rdqu
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“You cannot put a price tag on providing DADS personnel such highly enhanced capabilities to monitor and better ensure the well-being of the residents who have been entrusted to their care,” commented Pete DeAngelis, IQinVision president and CEO.
Knight Security’s hard work and commitment does not end here. They have a three-year support agreement with DADS, backed up by quarterly maintenance visits, as well as an SNMP-based monitoring capability that alerts Knight on overall system status. Hugman reports they are involved with DADS personnel on a daily basis, providing key assistance from their centralized support center.
Campus at a Glance
The Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services (DADS) was 
established in September 2004 by the Texas Legislature, when it consolidated the mental retardation services and state school programs of the Department of Mental Health; community care, nursing facilities, and long term care regulatory services of the Department of Human Services; and aging services and programs of the Department on Aging. DADS administers long-term service and support for the aging and for persons with cognitive and physical disabilities. DADS also licenses and regulates providers of these services. The Mission of the Texas Department of Aging and Disability is to provide a comprehensive array of aging and disability services support, and opportunities that can be easily accessed in local communities.
Resident population varies at each campus, ranging from 50 to 400. In total, the DADS network of campuses cares for approximately 2,000 residents. Residents run the gamut of conditions, from a complete vegetative state to highly-functioning mildly-handicapped individuals who live on a campus. One location serves as a state school for troubled youth.
Project Highlights
- The overall project was completed on budget, ahead of schedule, and the reports from DADS to date are that the primary project objective to ensure quality care for all residents is being met in full.
- Knight Security re-organized its entire company to form a project team dedicated solely to the DADS project. The team was led by one of the company’s owners, a vice-president, bringing focus and commitment to project management and keeping this enormous project separate from the rest of the company.
- The integrator created staging locations away from its Austin corporate headquarters in order to receive large amounts of equipment; then test and prepare equipment for installation over 12 months at 12 different locations.
- IQinVision HD megapixel camera technology was installed to achieve project objectives in terms of areas of video coverage and image quality to ensure accurate observation of staff activity, and to reduce the overall number of cameras needed. This reduced installation time, cost and future maintenance.
- Knight selected OnSSI Ocularis video management platform for video management and monitoring, ease of use, and partitioned and tiered access capabilities.
- The IQinVision cameras selected feature H.264 Main Profile compression, the highest performing H.264 compression profile with the most efficient bandwidth consumption — helping to meet DADS’ ambitious transmission and storage goals and budgets.
Wendi Burke is the director of global marketing communications for IQinVision.
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