Fast forward to January 2022, and Tyler was on a call with CDW. He had met with a number of CIOs at other higher ed institutions over the previous months, and one had suggested he consider a video surveillance system from Verkada. Tyler had done some research of his own and liked what he saw in the Verkada solution. Now he wanted to know if CDW could help him deploy the system at Bowie State.

Tyler’s contact at CDW, Jeremy Walker, principal field solution architect for physical security solutions, remembers their initial discussion and his impressions from a subsequent visit to the Bowie State campus.

“It was a smorgasbord of devices and systems,” Walker says. “What they had was extremely inefficient and had become a potential safety issue.”

In his meetings with Tyler and his colleagues at Bowie State, Walker explained how CDW could design a new surveillance system that would leverage a fleet of specialized Verkada cameras controlled through the Verkada Command platform. The cloud-based technology provides single-pane-of-glass monitoring capabilities from anywhere on campus.

Tyler and other Bowie State leaders signed off on the plan, and soon Walker was onsite, conducting a full survey of the 300-acre campus. Together with the university police, he assessed the existing technology, and determined which devices should be removed and where new cameras should be positioned. They toured every building and surveyed “every nook and cranny,” Walker says, focusing on entrances and exits especially. They also looked at common areas and outdoor spaces that served as gathering areas for students, and they evaluated the school’s numerous peripheral parking lots.

Ultimately, Walker designed a system that included more than 200 cameras. He submitted the plan to Tyler and his colleagues, made some alterations based on their feedback and eventually received the green light for implementation.

“They were very fluent in how everything worked and the capabilities of the overall system,” Tyler says of CDW. “It wasn’t a quick process, but we didn’t expect it would be. This was a big and complicated project.”

The project spanned everything from evaluating existing camera installations to positioning and wiring new devices. In many cases, the team relied on the existing infrastructure — taking advantage of a perfectly good cable, for instance, if it ran near the spot where a Verkada camera would go. Elsewhere, including in some parking lots, “we were literally boring under the roads and tearing up the concrete,” Tyler says.

At several points during the deployment, Bowie State police requested additional camera installations in places they hadn’t considered earlier. On one part of campus, for example, they realized it would be wise to ensure the system covered a new lab containing expensive equipment.

Similarly, Tyler says, there were several outdoor “hotspots” they hadn’t recognized were magnets for student activity. “We’d say, ‘Hey, we know this wasn’t part of Phase 1, but can you take care of it anyway?’” Each time, he notes, the answer was yes — all it took was a change order, and the cameras were installed.

With each installation, the team ensured that the device’s settings were refined to take advantage of the key features in the Verkada Command platform, Walker says.

“We made sure the resolution, the frame rate and everything else was set properly, and we configured and tested the analytics tools and notifications they’d be receiving through the system,” he says.

Likewise, every camera angle was adjusted to optimize the field of view, and CDW provided training to the Bowie State staff to ensure they understood how to use the platform and could easily make adjustments in the future.

“We’d verify ourselves that it showed what they originally wanted, and then we’d sit down with the Bowie State team to confirm it was good and make changes as needed,” Walker says.

Tyler, for his part, says the Verkada platform is “intuitive,” and not just for the campus police. Because the system is hosted in the cloud, IT no longer has to worry about platform maintenance tasks such as software upgrades or patching. And because all the cameras now connect to one place, if there’s ever a technical issue with the Verkada hardware, he’s confident that his team members will know exactly which device requires their attention.

From the police department’s perspective, Tyler adds, the system now provides a “God’s-eye view” of nearly every inch of the Bowie State campus. They’re able to use the platform from the comfort of their command center or in their vehicles when they’re out on patrol. And they now have access to features like face recognition technology and tools for night vision and license plate scanning. In one recent incident, they turned to the system to track a suspect who was fleeing across campus with a monitor stolen from a university conference room. The police eventually apprehended the thief, who “never had a chance,” Tyler says.

Moving forward, Tyler says Bowie State has already begun the project’s next phases. With CDW’s help, IT team members are installing more surveillance cameras across the university’s interior public spaces, and they’re deploying a door security system that integrates with the Verkada Command platform.

“We’re taking a layered-security approach,” he says, explaining how Verkada Access Control works. The system allows a student to use face recognition or a mobile device app to gain entry to his or her dormitory, for example. It also serves to keep would-be intruders at bay, alerting campus police instantly if an unauthorized person attempts to break in.

“We’re excited about what these technologies are going to mean for Bowie State University,” Tyler says. “We do know that they’re going to help us ensure the safety of our community.”

Story by Chris Hayhurst, a freelance writer who covers educational technology and healthcare, among other topics. He's a regular contributor to the CDW family of technology magazines.

Photography by Chris Gunn