Immanuel Lutheran College

Smart Security for Growing Schools: How Immanuel Lutheran College Enhances Campus Safety with Verkada

Austin Telford, Director of Technology and Innovation

Cameras Air quality sensors Access control

Key Metrics

90% reduction in investigation time: What once took days now takes minutes with AI-powered search and mobile access for executive staff.
Unified security management: Single platform integrates cameras, access control, and future alarm systems across 23-hectare rainforest campus.
24/7 remote monitoring: Executive staff can investigate incidents in real-time from anywhere, closing investigation loops faster than ever before.
Seamless scalability: System expanded effortlessly from main Buderim campus to Mt Binga Outdoor Education Center with simple plug-and-play deployment.

Background

Founded in 1979, Immanuel Lutheran College stands as the longest-established independent school on Queensland's Sunshine Coast. Located on a stunning 23-hectare rainforest campus in Buderim, this co-educational Christian school has grown from 63 students to over 1300, spanning Early Learning through Year 12.

At Immanuel, success isn't one-size-fits-all—it's personal, purposeful, and deeply supported. From early learning to Year 12, students are known, valued, and inspired to grow into capable and confident young people. The school invites students and families to expand their world through academic strength, real-world learning, service to community opportunities, and individual pathways that prepare young people not just for exams, but for life.

As the school continued to grow and modernise its approach to education, Austin Telford, Director of Technology and Innovation, recognised that their physical security infrastructure needed to evolve alongside their innovative educational programs.

The Challenge

Before implementing Verkada, Immanuel Lutheran College faced significant security and operational challenges that were hindering their ability to maintain a safe, efficient campus environment:

Legacy DVR infrastructure created a fragmented security ecosystem across campus. Multiple unreliable DVR setups were scattered throughout the facilities, each requiring physical access for footage retrieval. This created significant security vulnerabilities and operational inefficiencies that made the system incredibly hard to use and scale.

The investigation process was laborious and time-consuming, involving IT staff manually going back and forth between different systems. What should have been simple investigations often took an entire day to complete. The school operated three different types of door hardware systems with a legacy platform attempting to pull them together, doing only an average job of integration.

Security concerns with legacy DVRs meant no remote access to footage, requiring physical presence on campus for any security-related activities. As the school continued to grow, the existing infrastructure couldn't accommodate expansion to new buildings or additional sites like their Mt Binga Outdoor Education Center.

"We had a bunch of legacy DVR setups around the campuses, and they were unreliable, very hard to scale, and had some security challenges," explains Austin. "The laborious process of retrieving footage and getting it to the people that needed that footage was definitely something that kept me up at night."

The Solution

After evaluating their options, Immanuel chose Verkada's integrated cloud-based platform to future-proof their security infrastructure and align with the school's reputation for innovation.

Rather than replacing their fragmented systems with another collection of separate solutions, the school invested in Verkada's single pane of glass approach, starting with cameras in 2021 and gradually expanding to access control and planning for alarms integration. Moving from on-premise DVRs to Verkada's hybrid cloud solution eliminated single points of failure while providing secure remote access capabilities that their executive staff needed.

Advanced search capabilities and real-time alerting transformed their incident response from reactive to proactive, dramatically reducing investigation times. Executive staff gained the ability to investigate incidents in real-time from anywhere using mobile devices, eliminating the need for IT involvement in routine security matters.

The Outcome

The implementation of Verkada's integrated platform has transformed how Immanuel approaches campus security and operations, delivering immediate benefits while building a foundation for future growth.

Dramatic Reduction in Security-Related IT Tickets

The most immediate impact was the significant reduction in IT support requests related to footage retrieval and access control issues. "We've seen a large reduction in tickets involving any support regarding footage retrieval or access control," Austin reports. "Executive staff members that require footage can now access the directly and in a timely manner.”

This self-service capability has freed up valuable IT resources while empowering staff to handle security-related tasks independently.

From Days to Minutes: Transforming Investigation Speed

The transformation in investigation efficiency has been remarkable. Where once a simple footage request could take an entire day of back-and-forth communication, incidents can now be resolved in minutes.

"Something that would have taken a day to go back and forth and find the correct footage can now just take minutes, and it can be addressed on the spot," Austin explains. "It closes the loop on investigations faster than ever before."

AI-Powered Search Capabilities Drive Real Results

Verkada's AI-powered search has proven invaluable for quick incident resolution. Austin highlights practical applications: "Even just particular vendors—when they came on-site, just knowing you could see when a FedEx van rocks up just by typing the word 'FedEx'—it is super easy."

This capability extends beyond simple vendor tracking to comprehensive incident investigation, allowing staff to search for specific clothing descriptions, vehicles, or activities across their entire camera network.

Executive Mobility Enables Real-Time Response

The ability for executive staff to access security footage remotely has been transformational. "Mobile access for our exec staff has been really beneficial, just to be able to react to incidents in real time," Austin notes. "They're just grabbing it themselves, straight from the app or the web browser, whatever device they have on them."

This independence means investigations proceed without IT involvement, and critical decisions can be made regardless of leadership location.

Seamless Multi-Site Expansion

When the school needed to extend security to their Mt Binga campus, Verkada's scalability became immediately apparent. "We were thinking of our Buderim campus, but we also run an outdoor education center as well, which was an opportunity to expand our Verkada system into it," Austin explains. "It was just POE enabled. Once we got the cables to the right locations, they were on the same system—no training required."

More Than Just Cameras: Access Control Integration

Moving beyond surveillance, Immanuel has embraced Verkada's integrated approach by implementing access control across their campus, replacing their three disparate door hardware systems with a unified solution.

The introduction of mobile NFC capabilities through Apple Wallet has been particularly well-received. Austin recalls a conversation with a staff member who was initially skeptical due to negative experiences with other systems: "When I explained it's now NFC sitting in your Apple Wallet—you don't have to open the app, it's just available, you just tap it—she goes, 'Oh, that'll be actually really great.'"

The seamless experience of walking up to doors and simply tapping a phone or Apple Watch has eliminated the common frustrations of traditional card systems.

One of the most powerful aspects of Verkada's integrated platform is the context provided when access control events occur. Austin emphasises: "Pairing the cameras with access control provides amazing oversight. If any investigation needs to happen, it's really great."

This integration means that door events like tailgating, forced entry, or held-open doors are immediately visible with corresponding video footage, providing security teams with complete situational awareness.

The platform's user-friendly approach to access management has simplified operations significantly. "The ability to send out digital passes to new employees and staff as they come into the campus—they can use it with their NFC, Apple wallets, open doors right away while waiting on even a physical card," Austin explains.

This capability has proven especially valuable during onboarding, allowing new staff immediate access while traditional credentials are being processed.

The transition to Verkada's access control has been remarkably smooth. "It's been really positive," Austin reports. "The majority of users probably wouldn't even notice it—they just continue using the same badges. But as we expanded the offering to include NFC unlock on their phones, it's been really well received."

The ability to carry items while approaching doors, using either Apple Watch or phone for touchless entry, has addressed common pain points in the daily campus experience.

A Look Ahead

Immanuel's journey with Verkada represents a strategic, phased approach to modernising campus security while maintaining focus on their core educational mission.

With cameras deployed and access control nearing completion, the school is planning the next phase of their security evolution. "We're just finishing rolling out our access control project, and that will be amazing having that campus-wide," Austin explains. "Our next thing we're looking at is the alarms product, so we can just have everything in that one platform."

One of the most compelling aspects of Verkada's platform is its continuous evolution through software updates. Austin highlights this advantage: "The system that we bought a few years ago now is so much better as a platform than when we bought it. It was great then, and it's even better now."

This continuous improvement means the school's investment grows more valuable over time, with new capabilities added automatically without hardware replacement.

Looking further ahead, the school plans to implement Verkada Guest for visitor check-in, completing their vision of a single platform managing all aspects of campus security and access. "In time we're looking at Verkada Guest for our visitor check-in as well, just to bring everything into that one single point of truth for security," Austin shares.

For other schools considering similar security modernisation, Austin offers clear guidance: "For Verkada, it's an investment—it's definitely been an investment that's been worth making for the college. We're known for innovation, and we needed a product that was aligned with the college's expectation for what a modern physical security platform looks like."

He emphasises the long-term value: "This future-proofs our sites, and as we expand and update the platform, this will grow with us and scale with us."

By choosing Verkada's integrated platform, Immanuel Lutheran College has transformed from a fragmented, reactive security approach to a unified, proactive system that scales with their growth while maintaining the innovative edge that defines their educational philosophy.