There was a time when Sentry Security Systems Inc., a nationally recognized leader in video surveillance solutions, designed and shipped all their servers with a variety of hard drive models. That time came to an abrupt end in November 2016, when they tested Seagate SkyHawk purpose-built surveillance hard drives.
Since 1999, Sentry dealers have installed IP, hybrid and analog surveillance for commercial, residential, retail and government customers. Their mission: to help their clients protect people and monitor assets. As such, they’ve built their reputation on delivering high quality, competitively-priced products backed by solid technical and sales support.
Sentry Security Systems converts to Seagate SkyHawk
In 2016, when Sentry tested a number of different hardware scenarios using Seagate SkyHawk against competitor drives, they discovered that SkyHawk drives support up to 20% more video throughput.
In a RAID 5 and 6 configuration, this meant Sentry could build systems to support a higher camera count while still using the same server specs and storage capacity. The result? Sentry could offer their clients higher performing systems at a lower cost. And that’s exactly what they’re doing today.
Ultra-high security needs at large casinos and at prisons
Turning to Sentry and SkyHawk is one of the largest casinos in Canada. Armed with 120TB of hot swappable SkyHawk drives, the casino streams data from 108 cameras to multiple workstations, enabling security personnel to replay and back up footage as needed.
A Canadian prison is able to maintain strict security standards by relying on Sentry and SkyHawk for three separate server systems: A video wall server streams footage from specific areas to large displays in guard shacks; a directory server directs footage to storage area network servers and workstations; and a workstation server enables personnel to replay and back up footage.
Keeping kids safer, school security system can stream footage from up to 64 cameras
School systems also use Sentry and SkyHawk for comprehensive security. Using network video recording servers streaming footage from up to 64 cameras (with one SkyHawk drive per eight cameras), school personnel and authorities can view live recordings, deploy cameras and replay or back up footage.
“All NVRs built by Sentry Security Systems Inc. now feature Seagate SkyHawk Surveillance drives because of their proven reliability, increasing performance and recording throughput on our servers,” noted Nick Keller, manager of technical services at Sentry.
Seagate SkyHawk is growing a reputation of its own as the surveillance drive of choice for companies like Sentry. That’s because scalable, affordable and robust hard drives amount to security for all of us, when and where we need it most.
