Superior Technology Puts Bank on Right Track

Bangor Savings Opts for Three-Year Phased Rollout of March Networks Recorders and Cameras

Intelligence is a critical determinant of success. We demand it of our people and, just as important in today’s technology-driven world, we demand it of the electronic devices and software we use to run our lives and businesses. That’s why Bangor Savings Bank, a 56-branch financial institution serving the state of Maine, switched to a March Networks^® video surveillance solution with Visual Intelligence software.

Most financial institutions strive to retain video for a set period of time to ensure archived video is available as evidence in the event of a suspected fraud. Bangor Savings’ target for archived video is 90 days, but with its previous video surveillance system, there was no easy way of knowing if the target was being met.

“The hard drives would fill up and we had no systematic means to detect what was happening,” said Joe Scully, the bank’s Information Security and Privacy Officer. “There was no warning. The only way we would know is if we tried to pull video and discovered the data had been overwritten.”

Similarly, there was no way of knowing if there was a problem with a recorder or a camera going out of synch. “Health monitoring,” said Scully, “was pretty much non-existent.”

On top of everything else, there were multiple versions of the vendor’s system and different user interfaces, forcing security analysts to switch back and forth depending on the branch they were investigating.

“It got to the point where it was difficult to maintain because the upgrades were such radical shifts,” said Scully. “We had to keep on retraining. It was just a nightmare.”

The ability to retrieve video clips and supply them to police with the minimum of frustration is particularly important in a robbery situation. Having different systems created confusion and delayed investigations.

All of these issues are being resolved with the transition to March Networks technology. Bangor Savings’ Security Analyst Emily Gallant relies on March Networks’ Enterprise Service Manager software to proactively alert her if there is a risk of falling short of the bank’s 90-day target for archived video. The system also alerts her to hard drive performance problems, loss of camera synchronization and other health-related issues.

March Networks appeared on Bangor Savings’ radar as a result of a suggestion by a member of the bank’s IT department and a meeting with its security systems integrator Cayer Security.

“I stopped by the March Networks booth at a security show in Las Vegas and liked what I saw,” said Bob Cayer. “We arranged for a demonstration in Bangor and everyone was very impressed. Joe (Scully) and Roger Gray in IT were very adamant about keeping up to date on the most cost-effective and advanced technology, and March Networks fit the bill perfectly.”

Bangor Savings Bank opted for a three-year phased rollout of March Networks technology to its 56 branches, its corporate headquarters, business centers and other facilities. Twelve locations were equipped with March Networks Visual Intelligence software running on 4332 C Hybrid Network Video Recorders (NVRs) last year and an additional 19 locations were scheduled to be up and running by March 2013.

The 4332 C Hybrid NVR supports up to 32 IP and analog cameras, features an embedded Linux operating system, docking station architecture for easy installation and maintenance, and accommodates up to four high-capacity hard drives for a total of up to 8 TB of internal storage. March Networks’ Intelligent Video Retention functionality and Adaptive Compression Technology combine to reduce storage requirements by up to 40 percent.

Bangor Savings was able to use its existing inventory of cameras with the 4332 Cs, but has also deployed March Networks MegaPX NanoDome cameras, which offer megapixel resolution in HDTV format. H.264 compression technology allows for archiving of high-quality video for longer periods of time, while significantly reducing bandwidth and storage costs.

The NanoDomes are deployed in branch lobbies, where they can be used by security analysts to zoom in on a subject without a loss of image quality, and in out-door drive-ups, where they are positioned to capture license plate data.

The centrally managed system allows security analysts in Bangor to pull up video from any of the bank’s 56 geographically dispersed branches. “That’s the only way we can man-age it,” said Scully. “Maine is very spread out from top to bottom and east to west. Our furthest branch in Houlton near the Canadian border is more than a four-hour drive from our branch in Cornish in the southwestern part of the state. Getting to these branches from our headquarters in Bangor and back can take someone all day, so having the ability to access video over the bank’s network is very important to us.”

Branch managers are able to view live video in their office from any camera on the premises, both to keep an eye on the operation and check to ensure that all of the cameras are correctly positioned. Bangor Savings also uses monitors in break rooms and hallways to provide staff with views of the lobby and exterior exits so they know they can safely return to work or leave the building at the end of their shift.

Once the system is fully deployed, Scully hopes to also acquire March Networks’ Financial Transaction Investigation (FTI) software, which integrates video with the bank’s ATM and teller transaction data. Another example of March Networks’ intelligent video functionality, FTI allows investigators to quickly pull up video of a transaction by simply keying in an ATM card or transaction number.

“It’s very common for someone to dispute an ATM transaction,” noted Scully. “By integrating the video and transaction data, we’ll be able to quickly determine if someone other than the customer used the card.”

Without FTI, investigators need to utilize the bank’s transaction database to retrieve transaction timestamps and then go into the video surveillance system to search for the video, doubling the amount of time it takes to conduct an investigation.

“Our experience with March Networks has been very positive,” said Scully. “We have a much more reliable and intelligent system and one that meets all of the requirements we identified when we began our search for new technology. By the end of next year, we should have March Networks video surveillance systems up and running at all of our remaining locations.”