About the client
Jackson-Madison County General Hospital is a 642-bed tertiary care center in rural West Tennessee. The only tertiary care hospital between Memphis and Nashville, Jackson-Madison cares for over 400,000 patients across 17 counties. Known for its high-tech, high-touch services and six centers of excellence, Jackson-Madison is one of the state’s flagship healthcare facilities.
In 2010, the hospital began a five-phase expansion project to improve its facilities and patient outcomes. The project team contacted us for help creating a comprehensive security solution to protect patients, visitors, and staff at its new multi-story parking garage.
The challenge
Parking garages present several unique security challenges, due to their characteristic blend of large open areas and confined spaces. This is even more pronounced at large facilities, like the Jackson-Madison hospital.
To give security operators the visibility they required, the Jackson-Madison project team quickly realized they would need to install a fleet of CCTV cameras at strategic locations throughout the facility. But to bridge the gap between its CCTV cameras and monitoring stations, they’d also need a reliable video transmission solution.
The solution
We built a comprehensive solution that takes advantage of cutting-edge video surveillance and transmission technology to secure its new parking facility.
During the project, we installed:
- 64 fixed cameras
- 22 PTZ cameras
- 4 high-resolution license plate cameras
- 96 strands of multi-mode fiber optic cable
Due to the scale of the project, we identified fiber optic as the optimal transmission medium for the new system. Our fiber optic product suite offers superior bandwidth, reliability, and security over long distances than traditional point-to-point solutions. And this allows the hospital’s security team to transmit data securely from multiple locations across the site, including the:
- Hospital’s main security center
- CCTV termination room
- Security director’s office
- Security coordinator’s office
We chose an ethernet-based encoding system to secure Jackson-Madison’s data. With unbeatable bandwidth, distance, and noise immunity, fiber optic is the ideal medium for ethernet.
An ethernet-based solution allows the Jackson-Madison security team to network all video and security data, so multiple operators can access the system from several locations simultaneously. Security personnel can then extract video footage and data from any location.
In addition, we added a second fiber to provide a layer of redundancy and eliminate single points of failure. These two features, plus the hassle-free integration, ensured a smooth integration process while retaining the benefits of ethernet-based functionality.
Crucially, our solution integrates seamlessly with the hospital’s advanced security command center. This includes its existing analog CCTV hardware, emergency intercoms, and access control solution - allowing operators to manage and monitor security from one intuitive platform.
The result
The project team was delighted with the new solution. Security operators can collect real-time data and monitor security from multiple locations across the site. The choice of ethernet-based optical fiber minimized project costs and complexity during the integration process, ensuring the team could hit the ground.
Since completing the project, Jackson-Madison continues to rely on our solution to handle all current and future monitoring requirements.
