Safety in the Air

Laura Chervenak and Kevin Brown weren’t looking to become wireless pioneers. If you ask either of them what their day-to-day jobs entail, wireless likely would not even enter the conversation.

For Chervenak, the more critical concern is keeping students and faculty safe at the Tomorrow Center, a school for students with behavioral problems located in Mount Gilead, Ohio. And if there’s a technology Brown is most comfortable with, it’s IP telephony, not wireless. Brown, who is president and CEO of IPcelerate, in fact, recently authored a book on how IP telephony can radically change business operations.

The story of how wireless came into play between their two entities, and how both ended up using wireless technology in unique ways, requires stepping back from talk of the intricate details of standards, spectrum and algorithms.

“This was a school that listened to the story behind IP telephony and what it could ultimately do for people,” Brown said. “Once they made the decision to move to IP telephony, they said, ‘How can we solve problems we’re facing every day?’ Wireless just rose to top.”

Although development of IP telephony applications is its primary focus, IPcelerate is finding that asking customers to look at their own daily routines is the most effective way to come up with new ideas. For the Tomorrow Center, wireless happened to be the only effective technology solution.

“They told us that every day, there’s the possibility of a dangerous situation developing,” Brown said. “We found that teachers were being assaulted, students were fighting and they were stealing equipment. The real key for them was that, if they’re a teacher and something is happening, they don’t have time to run around and look for help.”

Using Wi-Fi enabled “panic buttons” worn as necklaces or belt clips, teachers and other faculty at the school can call for help with the push of a button, regardless of where they are on campus. When activated, the button--which is nothing more than a small Wi-Fi transmitter--connects with the nearest access point and sends a distress signal to several locations, including the office of Chervenak, who is the school’s director.

Software within the IP telephony platform, which was developed by Cisco Systems, also locates which access point is receiving the signal, automatically opens up the line of every handset nearby and begins saving a digital audio recording of anything picked up by the IP phones that are placed throughout the facilities. Under the original plan, wireless wasn’t considered a crucial part of the network. Instead, teachers were instructed to go to the nearest IP phone and punch in a panic code at any signs up trouble.

The wireless epiphany came for Chervenak at a trade show.

“We were putting in the Cisco IP phones already,” Chervenak said. “That was something we were doing district-wide to reduce costs. I was at an educational show and saw a panic button feature on the phones. At the time it didn’t have wireless integration. The problem with that is teachers are not always next to a phone, and they need to be able to call for help if they’re being physically attacked.”

Given the mission of a facility like the Tomorrow Center, keeping track of teachers’ locations takes on even more importance. Home to two separate schools (the Tomorrow Center and an online school called the Goal Digital Academy), the facility has a number of programs under the same roof, including one that takes in students with prior substance abuse problems and one for severely emotionally disturbed or disabled students who simply can’t be placed in traditional public schools. What’s more, the same building caters to students as young as third grade and as old as high school seniors. And while administrators try to segregate older kids from the younger ones and each program has its own area of the school, there are inevitable times when mixing will occur.

As part of the new wireless system, access points were set up across the campus, including ones that cover outdoor areas such as playgrounds and the baseball field.

“Sadly, they got a lot of use out of it,” Brown said. “It’s one of those things you hope never gets used, but it’s good to know it’s there.”

A couple of emergency calls within the school also pointed out some ways to improve the system, Chervenak said. When originally implemented with the access points, software within the Cisco framework would seize an analog phone line and place a call to Chervenak’s wireless handset, reaching her even if she was off campus. While having the benefit of notifying the head of security of a situation, the whole process took too long, she said.

“It was taking around 45 seconds to complete the call, and 45 seconds in a physical danger situation is a long time.”

Using its Internet appliance, which was recently renamed the IPSession Convergence Appliance, IPcentric was able to reroute distress calls so the signal never actually leaves the building but instead goes over the facility’s existing LAN.

Either Chervenak, a probation officer or some other school authority also must now acknowledge calls by hitting a short code into their IP phone or wireless handset. If an emergency call is not acknowledged within 30 seconds, the system will begin going through a fallback cascade pattern, immediately placing a call to Chervenak’s cell phone. “I actually can pull up a list and have it call six different people at the same time,” Chervenak said.

The next planned enhancement for the system will be the addition of a visual element via the installation of Wi-Fi enabled cameras. If completed, the appliance would automatically open phone lines in the area while awakening cameras in the area, sending a live video feed back to a security office and recording the event. The feature would give those responding to an emergency a picture of what is happening before they enter into a potential physical confrontation.

“They want to know what they’re getting into before getting there,” Brown said. “The video surveillance will give them that final mile of information.”

Among the more technically advanced possibilities is sending a streaming video image to a PDA. Such an application is feasible with current technology, but isn’t being implemented in the school, Brown said. In fact, before Wi-Fi enabled cameras can be installed at all, the school must ensure that using them won’t violate the recently enacted Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which requires health care facilities to follow specific standards aimed at safeguarding patient data.

“We’re running into some problems because not only are we a school, but we’re also a mental health facility,” Chervenak said. Legal problems aside, using Wi-Fi as an element in security applications is becoming more and more common, said Bob Egan, founder of Mobile Competency. “People should expect a pretty exponential and organic growth of a whole set of peripheral applications that leverage Wi-Fi in all sorts of venues, especially wherever you have a dynamic environment like this,” Egan said.

IPcelerate also is looking at an attendance application in which kids would swipe their school IDs through readers when they board the bus. The readers would be attached to wireless routers, which could transmit attendance information to the school or be downloaded when it arrives at the campus.

“[School administrators] are looking for ways to get the kids in school, and if they’re not, find out where they are,” Brown said. For now, security applications like the one in place at the Tomorrow Center are proving that Wi-Fi can be used as just one ingredient in an overall technology solution to a pressing problem.

“I like working with these kids, but you never know what sets them off,” Chervenak said. “This gives us the security that we were looking for.”