Blackboard announces surveillance solution Allows campuses to monitor, record live video

Washington, DC – Blackboard Inc., has announced a new campus security solution, Blackboard Video Surveillance™, which will be part of the Blackboard Commerce Suite™, a suite of applications supporting campus payment and security management.

Blackboard Video Surveillance is part of a complete security management suite offered by Blackboard that also includes access control and mass notification modules. Blackboard Video Surveillance allows campus administrators to view live or recorded video over their campus network. With sophisticated image zooming, frame by frame playback, and a configurable screen layout, Blackboard Video Surveillance is an easy-to-use solution that meets the growing need among college administrators to secure their campus environment.

“Universities have historically had to conduct separate evaluations for the various components of campus security, ultimately implementing technology from multiple vendors and performing their own system integrations,” said Russ Carlson, Blackboard Commerce President. “With the addition of video surveillance to our existing access control and mass notification capabilities, Blackboard now has a complete security offering. Our mass notification and video surveillance solutions take advantage of recent advances in technology. Mass notification is moving from text-based to multi-modal communication, which has shown to be more reliable and effective. Video surveillance is moving from analog cameras to cameras based on standard internet protocols, which allows campuses to manage the system using the same network, server infrastructure, and management techniques already in place for their other enterprise applications.”

Blackboard Video Surveillance is a powerful and highly flexible solution:

• Images can be mapped to any authorized desktop on a continual or exception basis and stored locally, on network drives or Digital Video Recorders (DVRs);
• The system can also initiate automatic notification of events via email, PDA or text message, and can include an attached video clip of the event;
• Supporting cameras from nearly all major manufacturers, Blackboard Video Surveillance can provide real-time customizable views of live pictures, with the ability to deploy an unlimited number of cameras across campus.

About Blackboard Inc. Blackboard Inc. (NASDAQ: BBBB) is a leading provider of enterprise software applications and related services to the education industry. Founded in 1997, Blackboard enables educational innovations everywhere by connecting people and technology. Millions of people use Blackboard everyday at academic institutions around the globe, including colleges, universities, K-12 schools and other education providers, as well as textbook publishers and student-focused merchants that serve education providers and their students. Blackboard is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with offices in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia.