Case Study

BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha®

Hindu organization expands security across worldwide locations

Client name
BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha®

Products
Genetec™ Security Center,
Streamvault™ appliances,
KiwiVision™ Intrusion Detector,
KiwiVision People Counter,
Security Center AutoVu™

Industry
Venues

Location
Global

BAPS gets quick access to new capabilities and built-in analytics with
Genetec solutions.
The BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha® (BAPS) is a worldwide spiritual and humanitarian organization that
is dedicated to community service, peace, and harmony. Motivated by Hindu principles, BAPS strives
to care for the world by caring for societies, families, and individuals.

Through various spiritual and humanitarian activities, BAPS limited the team’s ability to meet evolving security needs and
endeavors to develop better citizens of tomorrow with high slowed down access to updates.
esteem for their roots and culture. Its 3,300 international
BAPS needed a new system foundation and wanted to ensure
centers support these character-building activities. Under
volunteers could quickly access new capabilities as soon as they
the guidance and leadership of His Holiness Mahant Swami
were released.
Maharaj, BAPS aspires to build a community that is free of
addictions as well as morally, ethically, and spiritually pure.
Seeking better analytics for security
and day-to-day operations
Finding a better way to streamline upgrades
The team at BAPS was also facing issues with an existing
Managing security across many sites is challenging.
edge-based analytics solution that detected potential intrusions.
Over the years, the team at BAPS began upgrading legacy
When high winds or storms passed through, swaying palm
equipment to newer IP technology. Eventually, the team
trees on the property would constantly trigger false alarms.
installed the Genetec™ Security Center unified platform for
BAPS needed a more reliable and accurate solution.
video surveillance and access control at their Chino Hills,
California location. Since then, they’ve moved away from older More than that, they wanted a suite of analytics that could
security technologies and standardized on Genetec solutions derive insights on how many guests visited their properties,
at over 50 locations worldwide. entered their temples, and browsed their confectionary and
gifts shops. This would allow volunteers at each BAPS location
While volunteers had better visibility at each site with the
to make informed decisions about how people were using their
unified platform, system maintenance was sometimes
facilities and whether any improvements should be made.
frustrating. Existing sites used a variety of legacy servers which
Case Study | BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha®
Accessing new technology faster with
Streamvault appliances
Today, the organization is evolving its security operations with less
stress thanks to Streamvault™ appliances. Each device provides a
secure and turnkey experience and comes pre-loaded with Genetec
software and tools that make upgrades and maintenance easy.
The team has also started to standardize processes across worldwide
locations using the appliances. Now, when the latest version
of Security Center is released, BAPS no longer has to verify its
compatibility with infrastructure equipment. This ensures
volunteers can begin the update process to access efficiency-boosting
features right away.
Since the configuration of Streamvault appliances can also
accommodate up to 2,000 cameras per server with adequate
archive retention, the company can remain open to future growth.
Minimizing false alarms with KiwiVision
intrusion analytics
With Security Center deployed across many locations, the BAPS
team always stayed up to date on newly released capabilities and
features. One that stood out for BAPS administrators was the
KiwiVision™ suite of analytics that is now unified within the
Security Center platform.
At the Houston location, the team added KiwiVision Intrusion
Detector. The team now receives alerts when people cross into
critical areas with significantly fewer false alarms than their
previous camera-based solution.
“As soon as we started using KiwiVision Intrusion Detector, we
had a much more reliable and accurate experience. Even on stormy
days, we didn’t get any false alarms,” said Kaivalyamurti Swami,
Administrator at BAPS.
Gathering better business insight and
visitor data
Volunteers at the Houston location have also started using
Genetec Retail Sense™. Using this consumer intelligence solution,
staff receive valuable information such as how many people visit
their cafes per month, or what the foot traffic was like during a
special event.
The Atlanta location took a different approach to tracking visitor
behaviour. The team began trialing the KiwiVision People
Counter analytics. Directly from the Security Center platform,
they’re able to access easy-to-scan data on the number of people
visiting their site and stores to determine their busiest hours
and days.
Growing with unified security infrastructure
As early-adopters, the organization has embraced the cloud. At
some of the larger sites such as in Chicago, Houston, Atlanta,
Robbinsville, Nairobi, and Chino Hills, teams use the AutoVu
Plate Reader Cloud to track incoming vehicles and lot occupancy.
This automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) cloud engine
gives ALPR capabilities to off-the-shelf IP video surveillance
cameras, providing a cost-effective way to collect vehicle and
license plate data. With this, they cross-reference visitor data from
the KiwiVision analytics to get even more precise business insights.
At other locations such as in Dallas, Houston, Chino Hills,
Robbinsville, Atlanta and Chicago, video archives are stored in
the cloud thanks to 2TB of cloud storage included in Genetec
Advantage, the comprehensive support and services offering.
“Over time, we have come to understand that it’s worth spending a
little extra up front to get a standardized platform. It allows us to
keep enhancing and evolving our security and operations. We get
tremendous flexibility from the Security Center platform,” said
Kaivalyamurti Swami.
Making everyday maintenance tasks easier
The BAPS team is always strategizing about what they can do to
keep enhancing the security of their sites and the guest experience.
That’s why having Streamvault has been a huge relief. As soon as a
new version is released, staff can use the Genetec Update Service
to access the latest updates, without having to wait for extra
software configurations.
“Some of our locations have 25 workstations. Who’s going to
manually update all of those? It’s a lot of work and we operate on
a volunteer-only basis,” said Kaivalyamurti Swami. “The Update
Service is a very helpful feature of the Streamvault appliance. It
allows us to efficiently maintain and update our systems without
any headaches.”
Case Study | BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha®

Trusting in reliable devices and support

The Streamvault appliances are also simple to install. Each device
comes pre-loaded with software and built-in configuration
wizards that make deployment a breeze. In fact, BAPS was able
to cut costs by using their own Genetec-certified volunteers to get
the devices up and running.
While the organization has its own IT team, they don’t always
have time for security-related tasks. So, when it comes to
strengthening cybersecurity, Streamvault helps alleviate some of
the burden. The appliance provides advanced mechanisms that
keep their data and operations safe from threats.
System performance has been unwavering since the team installed
Streamvault appliances. That’s because the devices are optimized
for security applications. Each appliance also comes with a
performance guarantee, ensuring that if issues arise, assistance is
only a call away. With only one point of contact for software and
hardware support, BAPS quickly receives the answers they need.

Focused on future system unification

As the organization continues to phase out older technologies, the
team plans to continue investing in Streamvault appliances. They
are confident that the infrastructure is reliable and supported by
experts, and that they can easily grow their security operations
over time.
In the interim, the team is eager to keep evolving their platform,
adding new innovations which help boost security while also
improving operations. “As more features and modules are brought
into the core of Security Center, we receive even greater value.
Unification is what we want. It helps us expand without hassles or
headaches, and ultimately, makes it easier for our team to manage
and maintain a growing number of systems across our global
centers,” concluded Kaivalyamurti Swami.

“As more features and modules are brought into

the core of Security Center, we receive even
greater value. Unification is what we want.”

UPDATED20-JUL-20

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