Roselle Catholic High School in Roselle, New Jersey, like many educational facilities across the country, found itself relying on outdated technology and the inability to communicate from classrooms to a main office or centralized security location — a safety risk in any educational institution.
The high school was awarded a grant through New Jersey to implement security improvements, and the school chose an Aiphone IX Series Peer-to-Peer IP Video Intercom System. This included two master stations, two video door stations and 43 audio substations to connect each of the school’s classrooms.
This system allows the school’s front-office staff to respond to visitor access requests at the main entrance, while making visual confirmation before admitting anyone inside the building. The school is equipped with two touchscreen master stations to handle access requests, one at the front office and the other in the principal’s office.
An invaluable feature for the school is it allows teachers to communicate directly to the front office. They also can initiate a lockdown to the entire school in case of an emergency. The Aiphone IX Series can send a prerecorded notification buildingwide to alert students and staff of any threats and provide instructions on what to do next.
“With the previous system being unable to talk back to the main office, teachers were left in a bad spot if they ever had to reach an administrator for an emergency,” Principal Tom Berrios says. “With these improvements, the teachers now feel more secure with what’s going on in the building, and they have an easier way to communicate.”
“This feature is considered a ‘hot button’ capability, because it allows the school to create a prerecorded message for emergencies,” says Ed Maffey, president of Maffey’s Security Group, which made the installation. “With one push of a button, a prerecorded message will play continuously and can be used for a variety of scenarios, including fire drills, emergency evacuations and lockdown situations.”
For more information visit http://www.aiphone.com/home/.
