Travis Unified School District Vacaville and Fairfield, Calif. Tyco Security Products’ hybrid PowerSeries Neo intrusion

system paired with Alarm.com’s interactive services

delivers an easy to use security solution for Travis Unified

School District, handling a complex employment roster

and associated security for a number of school buildings.

Travis Unified School District required:

• A powerful system which could handle various sites• An administrative tool that could easily handle many personnel-related changes• Control of the system through a single easy –to-use interface• Real-time alarm monitoring• A system with reduced maintenance costs

CASE SUMMARY

Location: Vacaville and Fairfield, Calif.

Systems Instal led: • PowerSeries Neo Control Panel• PowerSeries Neo HS2LCD Full Message LCD Hardwired Keypad• PowerSeries Neo PowerG Host Transceiver Module (HSM2HOST9)• PowerSeries Neo HSPA / CDMA Cellular Alarm Communicator (CD8080)• PowerG Door/Window Contact with Auxil iary Input (PG9945)• PowerSeries Neo Wireless PowerG PIR Motion Detector (PG9904)

Introduction

The Travis Unified School District in California, which

serves about 5,500 students, includes Travis Air Force

Base, portions of the cities of Vacaville and Fairfield,

and portions of unincorporated Solano County. The

district includes five elementary schools, two of which

are within the perimeter of Travis Air Force Base, a

middle school, comprehensive high school, alternative

high school and a community day school.

Challenges

In an active school district such as Travis Unified School

District, changes occur everyday. People are added to or

deleted from the employment roster, while others move

among the various schools and need to access one or

more alarmed doors. Each time there was a personnel-

related change, the individuals responsible for monitoring

and maintaining the alarm system had to modify each

school’s alarm system, a time consuming project.

The process involved generating a list of accounts and

names and the related alarm codes and then sending

that information to the security systems integrator to

update the system. Just adding a single person, such

as a newly hired custodian, could take up to an hour,

while a long list of changes could be a one- to two-

week process from submission through verification.

With time-management and streamlining systems in

mind, the district also desired to be able to make

changes—such as arming and disarming doors—from

a single location and to also monitor alarm activity as it

happens. Under its existing system, a school official

was required to physically go to the site when an alarm

sounded to determine if it was an actual event or more

likely a false alarm, such as a student trying to gain

access through a locked door.

Another challenge to both personnel time and the

school’s budget was the maintenance required on the

individual door sensors. Insufficient battery life required

batteries to be changed out every two or three years on

the alarmed doors.

Additionally, the school district was under a mandate to

eliminate phone landlines as its alarm system

backbone.

Solution

Working in concert with its integrator, Alarmtech in

Vacaville, California, the Travis Unified School District

installed Tyco Security Products’ DSC PowerSeries

Neo as its customizable intrusion system. The goal

was to simplify the management of its intrusion system

by giving district employees the opportunity to add new

employees into the system and to remotely monitor

activities and incidents.

The installation took about two to three months to

complete and involved the installation of 50 control

panels and the upgrade of 200 door sensors.

Being able to make updates, identify usage errors and

review the system for maintenance-related issues were

some of the immediate benefits of PowerSeries Neo

identified by David L. Florez, director of foodservice,

transportation, maintenance and operations for the

district, who also serves as risk manager, IPM

coordinator and energy manager.

The issue of waiting weeks for updates has been

alleviated. Through an enterprise security console

exclusive to PowerSeries Neo, Florez can leverage the

features of the Alarm.com connected technology to

modify codes within the system with a single click.

Alarm.com provides a user interface through an online

app and management system.

Unlike the old process of inputting data for each door,

now adding someone requires only typing in a name and

code and then selecting the appropriate doors from a list.

According to Phil Speck, Operations Manager for

Alarmtech. “The new PowerSeries Neo system reduces

the time involved from just a couple of minutes,

compared with an hour or more previously,” he said.

The customization of PowerSeries Neo also allows Florez

to share responsibilities with others in the district so it isn’t

a one-person-only job. The system enables him to set

his own parameters for actions such as auto arm or

setting specific time frames based on scheduling

needs. During the school year, the building is typically

accessible and used for a longer period during the day,

whereas in the summertime the alarm systems needs

to be turned on earlier as use of the school buildings is

limited.

The intuitive nature of PowerSeries Neo also helps with

the maintenance. As Florez pointed out: “When I pull up

the system to review, I get a notification if there is a

problem with a specific device. The wrench icon says

there is a problem and when you pull it up it will tell you

the problem” such as no connection, a malfunction with

a door or a battery issue. That information then can be

passed along to Alarmtech for maintenance.

Another opportunity presented by the upgrade to

PowerSeries Neo was the ability to use outdoor

wireless beam detectors without having to trench and

run wires. There is an area near the transportation

building and maintenance yard that was the target of

vandalism—broken fences and locks and stolen

equipment—that the district now protects with motion

sensors. Thanks to PowerG technology, the range of

The school district also leveraged the range of the PowerSeries Neo with PowerG technology to help monitor its transportation building and maintenance yard.

The PowerSeries Neo project within the Travis Unified School District involved the installation of 50 control panels and the upgrade of 200 door sensors.

PowerSeries Neo allows them to cover the maintenance

yard, which measures 300 feet long by 350 wide, without

using repeaters, said Speck.

“We decided to put up a perimeter and have two motion

sensors on the back side of the transportation building to

provide greater coverage of this area,” said Florez.

“PowerSeries Neo integrates seamlessly with this

system so we could leverage its wireless capabilities and

the range it has to offer.”

Future

PowerSeries Neo’s ability to easily integrate with other

systems will be explored in the future to enable the

Travis Unified School District to tie in its existing

exacqVision video and Kantech access control systems

from Tyco Security Products to allow visual monitoring of

alarm events. The district has about 150 cameras

covering the various schools.

The reliability of visual verification of alarms will bring a

new dimension to the plan, according to Florez. “We

won’t have to wait for Alarmtech to look at it. I can see it

whether it’s at my desk or at home,” he said. It will also

save time that might have been spent traveling to the

command station or waiting for reports to come in.

Like the monitoring of the transportation area, the district

is also looking into adding remote alarm capabilities to a

concession stand near the high school athletic fields, an

area where it will be difficult to install a wired intrusion

system.

The Customer – Travis Unified School

District

Travis Unified School District in Fairfield, Calif., was

formed in 1962 to provide education for the children of

local farmers and Travis Air Force Base

personnel. Located between Sacramento and San

Francisco and just west of the Napa and Sonoma

wine country, the district has built a high-performing

K-12 system that includes Cambridge, Center,

Foxboro, Scandia and Travis elementary schools;

Golden West Middle School; Travis Community Day;

Travis Education Center; and Vanden High School.

The Systems Integrator –

Alarmtech

Alarmtech has been locally owned and operated in

Vacaville, Calif. since 1994. The company

specializes in fire alarm systems, residential and

commercial alarm systems, wireless alarms, security

cameras, CAT-5 computer cabling, home theater

systems and intercom systems, all of which it

services and installs. Security and fire systems are

monitored through a 24-hour UL-listed monitoring

agency.

Tyco Security ProductsTyco Security Products is a unified group of the most

comprehensive world-leading premium access

control, video, location-based tracking and intrusion

solutions in the security industry. Tyco Security

Products conducts business in over 177 countries

around the world, in multiple languages and employs

over 2,800 employees globally, including research

and development, marketing, manufacturing, sales,

service and logistics teams in the Americas, Europe,

the Middle East, Africa, and Asia Pacific. Our

products, built by developers from all product

disciplines, consistently allow customers to see more,

do more, and save more across multiple industries

and segments including healthcare, government,

transportation, finance, retail, commercial and

residential. Worldwide, Tyco Security Products helps

protect 42% of Fortune 500 companies,

transportation systems on five continents, 37% of the

world’s top 100 retailers, over two million commercial

enterprises, thousands of students in more than 900

educational facilities, and over five million private

residences.

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