Customer Study

The City of Calgary Relies
on Open Platform Videofor Innovative, Smart City
Integrations

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The City of Calgary Relies on Open
Platform Video for Innovative,
Smart City Integrations
With a population of nearly 1.2 million, Calgary is the largest city in the Canadianprovince of Alberta and is Canada’s third-largest municipality. Consistently
recognized for its high quality of life, The Economist ranked Calgary as the fourthmost livable city in the world in its 2018 Global Livability Ranking.
Much of that livability can be attributed to the fact that technology plays anintegral part within Calgary City management. With a large ‘smart city’ portfolio oftools, City managers continue to build on an innovative tech and data foundation
to provide efficiency, safety and security in their services.
Legacy Challenges and Data ROI
About five years ago, City managers decided they needed to replace and upgrade
their legacy video management system (VMS). At the time, The City had about 1,800
cameras in use, with 300 network video recorders (NVRs) spread throughout The City.
“Our previous system wasn’t meeting our needs in terms of connecting tocentralized security operations, viewing all the video and performing investigations,”
said Alex Lee, City of Calgary, Security Advisor of Technical Operations. “The City’s
Corporate Security business unit needed a system which would allow us to be much
more proactive in dealing with incidents around The City.”
With a focus on City of Calgary operations, Lee explained that his team took theapproach of outlining how they intend to use their video system over the next
several years. Beyond needing to capture and share high-quality, reliable, live andrecorded video data, The City wanted to be able to integrate with other technologies,
including access control, video analytics and building management systems.
“Return on investment (ROI) for a city isn’t always just based on money — ROI
can be data related,” said Lee. “Information is key to any city, so collecting data is
one of our most important missions. We needed to deploy a software solution tocollect data for solving city issues.”

September 2019
Organization
The City of Calgary
Location
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Industry Segment
Smart Cities
City Surveillance
Solution
Milestone XProtect
Corporate Open PlatformVideo Management
Software (VMS)
AXIS Communications
Network Cameras
LiveEarth Visualization
PlatformCustomer Study“Return on investment
for a city isn’t always justbased on money — ROI
can be data related.

Mark Sheahan, Account Manager, Convergint, Canada (left);
Alex Lee, Security Advisor of Technical Operations, The City of Calgary (right).

Information is key to anycity, so collecting data is
one of our most important missions.

The Open Platform
City of Calgary officials worked with Milestone Technology partner Convergint
Technologies’ Calgary team to plan The City’s new solution. Convergint
Technologies is a global systems integrator that designs, installs and services
integrated security solutions for a wide range of industries. Mark Sheahan is theConvergint Account Manager for The City of Calgary project.

We needed to deploy asoftware solution tocollect data for solving
city issues.”“Selecting the video management system was a big decision that impacts thecurrent and future performance of the system. Having a truly open platform withthe ability to deeply integrate third-party systems was a critical requirement,” said
Sheahan. “Calgary needed an open platform where any camera or device could
be installed, and where we can integrate with other data systems. Milestone wascertainly the right choice.”

Alex Lee,
Security Advisor ofTechnical Operations,
The City of Calgary

After a year-long evaluation, competitive and fair selection process, in 2016
The City of Calgary began deploying XProtect Corporate open platform VMS
from Milestone Systems as the core of its new, citywide, enterprise-class video
monitoring system.
“Our upper management did a great job of explaining how video can provide
information to smart cities and how to apply that data,” said Lee. “When you think
about it, there isn’t any better data collector than a camera. We can talk aboutaudio detection, gunshot detection, temperature sensors, water level sensors,
humidity sensors — all good data, but nothing compares to the informationcollected by a camera. And if you can tie all that data together, you really have aneffective and usable system.”
The Milestone open platform, IP video management software supports morethan 8,000 security devices from more than 150 manufacturers. Alliance partners
include providers of network video cameras, encoders, digital video recorders andnetwork video recorders, storage equipment, access control, alarm and detection
systems, video analytics, GPS technology, laser scanners, emergency call boxes
and much more.
With the Milestone open platform, systems integration is easy via Application
Program Interfaces (APIs) to share data between systems, devices andCustomer Study

components for an efficient, unified solution. It also scales from one to thousandsof devices in increments as needed, so installations can be done in stages. As atraining-certified Milestone Partner, Convergint knows how to leverage this flexible
and scalable technology.
A Variety of Uses
For the first phase of the new VMS deployment, Lee explained that the city has
installed the system to cover public utility facilities, recreation facilities, electricalsubstations, parks, critical infrastructure sites, and operational work centers which
include storage lots.
“We cover sites like the Transportation Infrastructure storage compounds because
they’re extremely large, and we often have people breaking in stealing copper,
fiber, and other roads supplies such as road pickle (A rock and salt mixture for icy
roads). For this location, we needed sound video and perimeter detection,” saidLee. “The same kind of protection is needed for some of our other sites such as
warehouses, parks and outdoor storage compounds who have valuable equipment
and supplies, including — tools, heavy equipment, and industrial supplies — thatneed to be monitored 24/7.”“Selecting the videomanagement system
was a big decision that
impacts the current andfuture performance ofthe system.
Having a truly open
platform with the ability to deeply integrate
third-party systems was a
critical requirement.”
Mark Sheahan,
Account Manager,Convergint, Canada

To cover these expansive, multi-acre areas, the team has standardized on a mixof IP cameras from Axis Communications, including high-resolution cameras,
multi-sensor cameras, pan/tilt/zoom (PTZ) systems and thermal imaging
cameras, including the bi-spectral network cameras that combine visual andthermal video streams in a single PTZ camera for a powerful combination ofshort and long-distance surveillance, day and night.
Integrating AXIS network radar detectors and AXIS Perimeter Defender video
analytics with the Milestone VMS allows The City to create a virtual “fence”
around designated areas. Working together, the solution automatically detects
and alerts when people or vehicles are intruding on a property. The systemreinforces physical access controls and is suitable for efficient responses in highsecurity sites such as power plants and prisons.

Customer Study“At our Highfield compound, we’re installing eight thermal cameras to cover theperimeter and using AXIS Perimeter Defender video analytics integrated into
Milestone for reliable detection,” said Lee. “We’re very happy with how the system
is performing, and we’re looking to extend it to other such areas.”
Interactive Map Integration with Multiple Data Sources
With the goal of best leveraging the strengths of the open platform, The City justcompleted a proof-of-concept evaluation with Milestone Technology Partner Live
Earth. Live Earth is an Internet of Things (IoT) visualization platform that allows
users to seamlessly synchronize data from multiple sources and combine live data
feeds into an interactive map. The Live Earth solution contains a variety of realtime, Graphic Information System overlays that update automatically, empowering
managers to understand scenarios quickly.
Mark Sheahan learned about and met with representatives from Live Earth at the2018 Milestone MIPS event in Las Vegas.
“We are extremely impressed with the Live Earth-Milestone integration and its
capabilities,” said Sheehan. “It has a great user interface, amazing data, and if you
show it to any mayor or city council member, or anyone in such positions, they
immediately understand what Live Earth does and how it can be used in a smart
city situation.”
The team is beginning to map out most areas of The City, including all roadways
and transportation systems, as well as operational concerns such as sewer
and electrical systems. Lee added that his team is working to include other Citybusiness units to demonstrate how they could use Live Earth, not just from asecurity standpoint but from an operational perspective as well.
Lee and the Technical Operations team plan on using the Rules Engine within
XProtect to further integrate a range of data systems and sensors with Live Earth,including data from IoT devices.
“We want to get to a point where, when a fire alarm goes off, we receivea notification and can instantly see the alarm location on the map as well
as responders within the area,” said Lee. “The Live Earth system can thenautomatically bring up surrounding cameras for visual verification of the incident,
and begin an appropriate response.”“We need our team toconcentrate onmonitoring a single pieceof software, not a dozen
different platforms: thisis a crucial end-point goalfor us right now.”
Alex Lee,
Security Advisor ofTechnical Operations,
The City of Calgary

Customer Study

A deeper integration with The City’s Lenel OnGuard Access Control system,
covering some 3,600 readers throughout The City, is also in the works.
“We need our team to concentrate on monitoring a single piece of software, nota dozen different platforms: this is a crucial end-point goal for us right now,” said
Lee. “We have custom alarms for almost every Lenel reader. Milestone’s support
within this entire process has been great.”
The High Watermark for Training and Support
The City of Calgary currently has about 90 people who access and use thevideo software regularly, and many of the users, especially those from other
City business units, have never used a surveillance system. Lee explained thatMilestone’s online library of e-Learning content has been critical to their success.
“In 2013 we had a massive flood that caused $5.4 billion worth of damage, so wetake water level monitoring very seriously. We now use video to monitor riverlevels in real time,” said Lee. “We’ve installed a network of cameras for use by
Calgary water engineers, so instead of sending one of my Security or Systems
Administrators to teach them how to use the software, I just forward them a linkto the Milestone e-Learning web page, and they can learn at their own pace. It’s agreat training system.”Cities like Calgary face many different security and operational challenges. Cityassets include thousands to millions of people, government buildings, parks,roads, maintenance equipment, utilities and other infrastructure. There is nodowntime for a city. The systems used must be designed to handle and prevent
vandalism, burglary and all other forms of crime around the clock, 365 days a year.
Only a flexible, scalable video monitoring system based on an open platform canhelp a city manage all of these concerns efficiently and effectively.

“Calgary needed an open
platform where any
camera or device could
be installed, and where
we can integrate withother data systems.
Milestone was certainly
the right choice.”
Mark Sheahan,
Account Manager,Convergint, Canada“All our partners at Milestone and Convergint have been great to work with,” said Lee.
“We’ve done so much together already, but we still have a long list of things we wantto accomplish. We look forward to continuing to deepen our system’s capabilities toprovide better services for The City of Calgary for many years to come.”
About Milestone Systems
Milestone Systems is a leading provider of open platform video management software; technologythat helps the world see how to ensure safety, protect assets and increase business efficiency.
Milestone enables an open platform community that drives collaboration and innovation in thedevelopment and use of network video technology, with reliable and scalable solutions thatare proven in more than 150,000 sites worldwide. Founded in 1998, Milestone is a stand-alonecompany in the Canon Group.

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