Samueli Academy, a nonprofit educational institution in Santa Ana, California, has enhanced its security infrastructure in collaboration with Everon. Founded in August 2013, the academy aims to deliver free quality education to students from grades 7 through 12.
The campus spans 7.1 acres and features cutting-edge facilities, including interactive classrooms, a student innovation centre, and accommodation for foster students.
Security and innovation
The academy places a strong emphasis on student safety, especially in its unique housing facility for foster children. Initially challenged by under-performing security systems implemented by a previous vendor, Everon was brought in after an unsatisfactory first phase.
With a proactive approach, Everon customised a security solution aligned with Samueli Academy's needs, integrating advanced technology to secure the campus effectively.
Addressing key challenges
Situated in one of Orange County's inner cities, Samueli Academy caters to a high-need community
Situated in one of Orange County's inner cities, Samueli Academy caters to a high-need community. During the transition, Everon encountered infrastructural challenges with temporary buildings in use.
The team spent the first six months diagnosing and innovating by transitioning the campus from proprietary to integrated technology, ensuring a uniform security platform.
Strategic collaboration
Everon's team collaborated closely with Samueli Academy pioneers, including the CFO, IT Director, and Facilities Director, to address existing security concerns. Key focuses included developing a comprehensive, integrated security solution.
Despite obstacles presented by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Everon remained committed to the project, synchronising efforts across various disciplines to achieve timely, within-budget results.
Comprehensive security solutions
The security components integrated across the campus encompass:
- Cloud-Based Access Control: Protects all perimeter doors, IT rooms, student housing, and elevators, covering around 50 doors with over 200 badges, integrated with a third-party gate control system.
- Video Management System: Features both indoor and outdoor cameras, upgrading existing equipment and expanding to over 100 cameras campus-wide.
- Integrated Intrusion System: Separates the residential and wider campus areas with communication links to the Everon central station.
- IP-Based Audio/Video Intercom: Linked to the access control system for efficient visitor management at campus entry points.
- Account and Reporting Services: Providing real-time system insights and remote management across access control, intercom, and video systems.
Project execution and results
Over 12 months of even meetings were held to ensure smooth project execution, with construction
Over 12 months of consistent meetings were held to ensure smooth project execution, with construction and design changes addressed promptly.
Everon's adaptability, despite the ongoing pandemic, allowed the project to continue unimpeded, with attention to health and safety guidelines at the forefront.
Partnership and impact
Everon's collaboration with Samueli Academy has enabled the school to sustain its mission of high-quality education in a secure environment.
John Luker, CFO at Samueli Academy, noted, “Everon has worked closely with our team every step of the way to design and install a truly integrated security system to help protect our students, faculty and campus. This past year has been challenging on many fronts but their team never wavered in their commitment to deliver this project on time and on budget.”
Welcoming its first class of students in August 2013, Samueli Academy is a nonprofit organisation funded through private donations that is focused on providing a free, quality education to students in grades 7 through 12. The campus resides on 7.1 acres of land in Santa Ana, CA and consists of six buildings, including a Student Innovation Centre and student housing.
Campus highlights include state-of-the-art interactive classrooms with cutting-edge technology for all students, an expansive multi-functional student union, an extensive college and career resource centre, a black box performing arts theatre and a newly constructed athletic gymnasium.
Live and learn in a secure environment
Unique to Samueli Academy is its student housing facility, where children from foster care can live and learn in a secure environment. Student safety remains an extremely high priority for the school, so it has deployed an extensive security system to provide excellent security campus-wide.
Dedicated experts at Everon had worked directly with John Luker, CFO for Samueli Academy, on other projects before he joined the Orangewood Foundation, which oversees and manages the campus. Given this longstanding relationship, Everon was engaged after the first phase of the project when a local integrator had failed to deliver the expected results.
Challenge
The Samueli Academy campus is positioned in the epicenter of one of Orange County’s largest inner cities where the needs are the greatest. The campus is designed as an innovative facility, equipped with the most advanced learning technology on the market today.
Everon approached the project proactively, working with the customer requirements in the planning stages of the project and was able to anticipate the needs of securing the campus, enhancing the visibility of campus security and equipping the team to be able to streamline processes leveraging the most robust technologies.
Samueli Academy’s expansion plans
The first phase of the project had been completed through vendors that did not properly counsel or serve as advisors to what the customer really needed on the campus. After Everon stepped in, they invested the first six months of their involvement diagnosing the immediate challenges Samueli Academy was experiencing and set out to move the customer from proprietary technology to an integrated system that would allow them to utilise a single platform for all their needs.
This required enlisting a team of expert consultants and engineers to work with the partners in creating the “best fit” for Samueli Academy’s expansion plans, as at the time they were working out of temporary structures and were already operational when Everon arrived on the scene.
Design and engineering, project management, install management
Everon’s team worked closely with Samueli Academy’s CFO, IT Director, Facilities Director and the Campus team to identify and address any issues they were encountering with the current security system. It was also the team’s top priority to help in developing plans to access, design and deploy a truly integrated solution that would aim to resolve problems they were experiencing across the campus on a daily basis.
Much of the work was completed in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, and yet the Everon teams remained fully dedicated to the project, pressing forward at every turn. Team members attended weekly meetings to be briefed on evolving challenges and continued to provide deliverables on time and under budget.
Everon’s team included expert professionals in design and engineering, project management, install management for efficient project deployment and lead technicians. Over the course of the project, weekly planning meetings were held with key decision makers at the Orangewood Foundation and the Everon team to ensure a successful deployment at every stage—from design to installation.
Solution
The comprehensive systems integrated across all six buildings on the campus include:
- Cloud-based access control is used to protect all perimeter doors, IT rooms, student housing facilities and elevators with floor control. The system covers approximately 50 doors with more than 200 badges. The access control system is also integrated into a third-party gate control for entrance onto the campus.
- Comprehensive video management system consists of both indoor and outdoor cameras. As part of the project, Everon also upgraded the existing server and software, upgraded the existing 24 cameras to the latest software feature set and added an additional 42 cameras to the system. The total camera count exceeds 100 for the entire campus.
- Integrated intrusion system is broken down into two sections—one for the residential/student housing facility and the other for remaining campus locations. Both sections are equipped to communicate with the Everon central station via cellular connections as the primary path.
- IP-based audio/video intercom is integrated into the access control system and is used at both entrances to the campus for visitor management and control.
- Everon's account management and reporting services offer 24-hour insight into the intrusion systems, including to oversee opening/closing schedules and remote managed services through vendor partners—and is deployed for access control, intercom and video management.
Everon to address campus issues
The installation process went smoothly, due in part to the consistency of weekly construction and owner meetings, which were held over 12 months throughout the project deployment. With these regular meetings, any field or design changes were able to be addressed immediately, and the field team worked diligently to anticipate any potential issues before they could occur.
The customer leaned heavily on Everon to address campus issues that required swift resolution, and the teams responded with viable solutions and integration that would streamline their processes—aiming to deliver on the promise for service excellence across the board.
Results
What was remarkable about this application was that the project was able to be completed during a period of tremendous uncertainty, as the COVID-19 pandemic threatened on multiple occasions to delay and stall the project. Everon's teams worked tirelessly to make sure there were no gaps in service, that the field team was fluid and provided delivery of the desired solution in a manner that prioritised the health and safety of the customer and our employees.
The field team worked closely with other contractors and safety measures were put into place and strictly upheld. As an essential business, Everon remained keenly focused on meeting evolving safety recommendations and mandates, all while keeping project deadlines in mind to ensure the integrity of the system remained intact. Everon was successful in delivering a holistic, integrated security system that was designed specifically to meet the unique needs of this client.
Everon’s partnership
With Everon’s partnership, Samueli Academy could continue to carry out its powerful mission of providing an outstanding learning experience for its students while taking the utmost precautions to deliver a safe and secure environment for the students to excel.
“Everon has worked closely with our team every step of the way to design and install a truly integrated security system to help protect our students, faculty and campus. This past year has been challenging on many fronts but their team never wavered in their commitment to deliver this project on time and on budget,” stated Luker.
