For schools, campuses & facilities
Own your security stack. Stop renting the hallway.
Most schools already have cameras and door readers that work. Pioneer Overlay keeps that gear and adds Care OS — a local brain for alerts, cases, and review, without renting another cloud hallway. Day to day: watch an alert, open a case, find the clip, rewind any camera by time. Video stays on campus. Student Wi‑Fi stays off the security network.
Most schools pay under ~$3,000/year for Care versus roughly $8–15K+/year for a typical cloud stack (larger campuses cost more). Mac Mini runs the brain; add disk or NAS if you need 30–90 days of video.
The problem: forever rent
Category examples schools already pay for — Meraki, Umbrella, Verkada, Lenel, AnyConnect — lock you into annual cloud subscriptions. Cameras, filtering, VPN, and access become recurring line items that never stop.
Rent forever
Cloud license stack
Separate vendors for NVR, DNS filtering, VPN, and access — each with its own contract and annual renewal.
$8–15K+/yr in licenses
Data and features live off-site — where vendors get breached. Costs climb as you add doors and cameras.
Overlay first
Care OS on what you own
Keep the cameras and door readers (badge readers) you already paid for. Add a local Care OS brain — ops, alerts, and monitoring in your building.
Significant yearly savings vs cloud rent
Safer local ownership. Care sized to campus. Greenfield rebuild only if gear is thin — optional later path, not the default.
Cloud school platforms get breached constantly
Student and staff data is among the most sensitive anything a district holds — SSNs, health records, IEPs, home addresses. Attackers (and AI-assisted phishing) make this worse, not better. When a cloud vendor is the weak link, districts get sued — and when cloud cameras are reachable from outside, a breach can turn your own surveillance into a live map of the building.
Education is heavily attacked
In 2025 education ranked among the most-attacked sectors globally. Ransomware recovery for K–12 averages about $2.28 million per incident — before downtime and litigation. Student records in cloud SIS are one blast radius.
Cloud cameras can become a live map
When camera systems live in a vendor cloud, a stolen login or breach doesn’t just leak files — it can expose live video of your building. Anyone who reaches that feed can see hallways, entries, and where people are in real time. That is reconnaissance on your campus.
Local-first cuts remote recon
Pioneer keeps video and access events in the building — not on a forever-rented cloud dashboard. Cameras are not opened to the public internet. Remote Care uses keys on approved devices, not a password anyone can phish. Staff can watch on site. Outsiders don’t get a public camera website.
Figures drawn from industry reporting summarized in Pioneer’s school security technical materials. Not legal advice.
Day-one Overlay value
Plain English — what you get when Care OS plugs into gear you already own. Deeper stack details: The System.
Keep cams & door readers
Most schools’ existing cameras and door readers already suffice. Add the Care OS brain on a Mac Mini — keep the gear, no rip-and-replace.
AI person alerts
Person / motion AI on your feeds — flag what matters, text and email when it counts.
Cases
Incident folders with notes, linked cams/doors, and clip trail — pack a situation without cloud cam rent.
Find clips fast
Search alerts and events by time, camera, or keyword — get to the moment in minutes.
Review / Rewind
Scrub continuous local video by camera + date/time even if nothing alerted. Files stay in the building.
Student Wi‑Fi stays separate
Kids’ phones and guest Wi‑Fi cannot reach staff systems or the camera network. Included in the job.
Video stays on campus
Recordings live in the building. Care can check in remotely with keys on approved devices only. Mac Mini runs the brain; add disk if you need 30–90 days of video.
Badge / door events
See when staff enter (and more) when electronic access exists.
Locked-down network
Student Wi‑Fi, staff systems, and security each stay on their own side. Cameras are not opened to the public internet. Remote Care uses a private keyed path. This is part of the install — not a tip in a FAQ.
Care under ~$3K/yr for most
Most schools under ~$3,000/year vs ~$8–15K+/year cloud stacks. Larger campuses sized up.
Where most schools start
Same Overlay either way — keep the cameras and doors you have, add Care OS.
1
Paying for cloud cameras every year
Annual software fees for cameras and doors that never stop. Keep the gear that still works. Stop renting the hallway. Run Care on campus instead.
2
You own the gear — the network is messy
Cameras and doors are already yours, but student Wi‑Fi mixes with staff, cameras may be open to the outside, or nobody gets a clear alert. Overlay locks that down without a rip-and-replace.
Coming with your doors / policy (next phase): panic/button lockdown sequences · soft lockdown vs drill (labeled) · fire = egress OUT only, never unlock ingress. Not required on day one.
Overlay economics
Keep the gear. Cut the cloud rent.
Lead with Overlay
Care OS on cams & door readers you already own
Stop paying forever for cloud camera and access dashboards. Keep your cameras and badge readers; add Care OS Overlay locally, then Care sized to campus — cut cloud rent without tearing out what you already paid for. Most schools are under ~$3,000/year for Care versus roughly $8–15K+/year for a typical cloud stack; larger campuses are sized up and cost more. Full greenfield rebuild is only when gear is thin — an optional later path.
- Existing cameras and door readers usually already suffice — keep what you have
- Add Care OS (Mac Mini brain) + sized local store for video + required Care
- Significant yearly savings vs cloud rent
- Grants can help — optional, not required
Pioneer Care
Required with Overlay: remote monitoring, updates, and backup checks. Most schools are under ~$3,000/year for Pioneer Care versus roughly $8–15K+/year for a typical cloud stack; larger campuses are sized up and cost more. The brain stays local.
Ready to talk Overlay
Tell us what cameras and door readers you already run. We’ll map an Overlay path (and a greenfield option only if gear is thin) — grants only if you want that accelerator.