From stalled footage to rapid investigations, without adding complexity for staff.
Customer Snapshot
✅ Customer: Sycamore High School
✅ Industry: K–12 Education
✅ Use Case: Student safety, discipline support, investigations
✅ Segment: Public high school
“It was very ineffective.”
That’s how Steven Balster, Assistant Principal at Sycamore High School, described the school’s previous camera system. It was an unreliable platform that routinely stalled, went offline, and made it difficult to locate critical moments when they mattered most.
After nearly two decades at the school, Balster has seen how safety tools directly affect daily operations. With responsibilities spanning student discipline, school culture, and staff evaluations, visibility isn’t optional… it’s essential.
Before Coram: Slow, Unreliable, and Easy to Outgrow
Sycamore’s former camera platform had become a liability.
“It stalled out a lot. It bogged us down,” Balster said. “It didn’t record for very long… a lot of it went offline.”
When incidents occurred, the system made even basic review painful. Searching footage took too long, recordings were limited, investigations often slowed before they could start, and much of the work took more effort than it was worth.
“It took forever to try to find what we were looking for,” he said.
There wasn’t a single breaking-point incident. Instead, the frustration accumulated year after year. “It was just over the years… Not being able to find certain things, find them quick enough, being able to store them,” Balster explained. “We probably should have done this years ago.”
The Switch to Coram: A Long-Overdue Upgrade
The new system was installed mid–school year, around the winter break. Almost immediately, the difference was clear.
“Since we got access, we’ve showed our staff,” Balster said. “We’ve actually showed some of our students what we can see now. And so it’s been vital.”
While the dean of students led much of the early setup, Balster’s early exposure to Coram was enough to see the operational shift.
His experience with the Coram team stood out as well. “It’s been very positive, and very customer service-oriented,” he said. “It’s been very good.”
Life With Coram: Faster Answers, Clearer Context
Compared to the school’s old system, Coram delivered what staff had been missing: speed, clarity, and usable search.
“When you can follow somebody, make that path, when you can say, you know, ‘green shirt,’ those specific things—it’s so time-efficient compared to what we’re used to,” Balster said.
While the school initially prioritized video clarity and system performance, advanced search quickly became indispensable.
“Our biggest thing was just clarity… and speed of recognition and just not being bogged down,” he explained. “And then some of the other features, some of the AI stuff, was kind of just an add-on.”
Seeing those tools in action changed perception. “Until you see it and use it, that’s when you know: this is awesome.” What once required long reviews and guesswork can now be handled with direct visual paths and attribute-based search, helping administrators move faster and act with confidence.
Before → After
Stalled, unreliable footage → Consistent access and usable recordings
Slow manual review → Visual paths and attribute-based search
Limited storage and downtime → Reliable system staff can depend on
Why Coram?
• Clear, high-quality video without system slowdowns
• Fast search using visual attributes like clothing
• Path tracking to follow movement across cameras
• Reliable performance compared to legacy systems
• Supportive, service-oriented onboarding experience
Recommendation
Asked to describe Coram to others in education, Balster didn’t hesitate.
“A+,” he said. “Everything so far has been excellent.”
For Sycamore High School, Coram didn’t just replace an outdated system. It restored confidence in the school’s ability to see, understand, and respond when it matters most.
