Images courtesy of Matrix Systems

Martin Epstein, manager, Technical Operations—Protective Services, Cleveland Clinic.

Racks of DVRs in the data center.

Thirty-four-monitor video wall in the command center.

Break room with kitchen and locker space.

The incident command center accommodates 12 people with individual telephone, internet, and power connections at a conference table.

Attendees at the Serious About Security—2008 Symposium held on the Cleveland Clinic Foundation Campus, Cleveland, in April were treated to a profile and tour of the CCF’s new state-of-the-art security command center, which was designed by presenter and guide, Martin Epstein, manager, Technical Operations—Protective Services, CCF.

An advocate for security professionals being involved in new construction projects, Epstein has been involved in security design at the CCF since 1984. “You [security professionals] need to get involved in the new construction process. If you’re not—start. You know how your facility works; the architect doesn’t. You know how to create traffic patterns, where to put your card readers to create those traffic patterns; the architect doesn’t,” Epstein said.

The 3,000-square-foot command center features eight workstations in full view of a 34-monitor video wall allowing Epstein, his supervisors, and security employees 24-7 views of CCF’s 1.5-square-mile campus. The center has several banks of digital video recorders, its own dedicated uninterrupted power supply (UPS), and generator.

The command center has eight workstations, four of which make up the back row and are elevated approximately 12” to maximize the view the wall of monitors. In his original plans, Epstein wanted to go up another foot on the back row, but it wasn’t possible to safely provide enough space for the steps. With electronically height-adjustable tables, the workstations allow security personnel to dispatch standing up. A wireless dispatch headset gives staff even more flexibility.

Attached to the command center is a break room with a full kitchen, restroom, and locker space. “We actually have windows—which is unheard of for a security or police command center,” says Epstein.

An adjacent incident command center room accommodates 12 people with individual telephone, internet, and power connections at a conference table. The room features three plasma monitors, room cameras, satellite feeds, off-air broadcast, teleconferencing, and feeds to CCF’s administration offices. The room also has electronics for Ohio’s new Multi-Agency Radio Communications System (MARCS), an 800-megahertz, voice and data network for the Ohio highway patrol and other health, safety and emergency agencies.

CCF’s Matrix Systems access control system plays a major part in the hospital’s expansion. By 2009 the hospital will have expanded to 2,500 magnetic locks for entries, 1,700 ID card readers, 600 CCTV cameras with DVR capabilities, and 6,000 alarm points that monitor panic and intrusion alarms to incubators, laboratories, freezers, and many other critical areas that all culminate at Matrix’s Frontier software workstations.