Sight On Scene: Plum firm’s software enhances school safety

Essential to handling an emergency is accounting for everyone involved.

Thanks to a Plum software development firm, responsible parties have a new tool to do so in a particularly effective manner.

B-Three Solutions’ Sight On Scene application — yes, the acronym is SOS — offers an array of features with the primary intention of ensuring safety at schools. And as demonstrated by a recent drill using the product, it can come in handy.

“One student was having a diabetic issue,” B-Three quality assurance manager Kate Wight said. “So she had left the classroom, but no one knew where she was, because she was in the middle of walking down the hallway before she got to the office.”

Her teacher noted her absence through SOS, and the principal immediately was able to confirm the student’s whereabouts.

Of course, the optimal scenario is that Sight On Scene never would be needed for an actual emergency. But if one were to occur, the software stands to enhance the readiness factor.

For example, people attempting to enter or exit a building would have a better idea of how to proceed, thanks to interactive maps displayed on smartphones and similar devices.

“One of our primary items is the ability to draw a simple floor plan so that we can convey information to everybody,” Wight said. “Anyone who is given access by the organization will be able to see it.”

Information of relevance to first responders could include details such as the locations of security cameras, fire extinguishers and automated external defibrillators, plus temporary conditions that may serve to occlude progress.

“Probably the most times you’re going to have a fire or have an emergency is when there’s construction,” Mike Walton, B-Three Solutions founder and president, said. “We can designate that on the map.”

He stressed his product’s ease of use, as it allows for mapping by hand, rather than having to be used in conjunction with additional software.

Along with providing up-to-date diagrams, SOS has the ability to display real-time camera feeds from multiple interior and exterior points, and it stores still images with time stamps as another resource for responders.

Walton said that three schools have implemented Sight On Scene, including Holy Family Catholic in Plum and one in West Virginia, and other customers have plans to do so.

B-Three’s intention is to offer a comparatively affordable product.

“We’ve looked at some competitors, just to try to get some kind of gauge on what people charge for these apps, and a lot of them are very, very expensive,” Brooke Taylor, director of marketing and human resources, said. “They require school districts to invest in their branded hardware and their branded cameras, and it ends up coming with a really hefty price tag.

“We don’t do that. We can actually synchronize with your district’s camera system, and we charge per camera.”

The charge also is on a monthly basis.

“There’s no huge long-term contract. If it’s something they get into and, no, this isn’t for us, they can get out of it,” Taylor said. “But I really don’t think that most places would do that. Our hope is that they can see how great this is and say, hey, we really do want to make the investment in this for all of our buildings.”

Sight On Seen started as a project that a customer paid for B-Three to develop before running out of money.

“It just sat on a shelf,” Walton said. “And then about three years ago, we had some interns come in, and we said, ‘What are we going to put them on? Let’s put them on this and see what happens.’ They did a really good job on it.”

And so SOS was scheduled for a launch date of March 16, 2020, which turned out to be the day that Pennsylvania schools closed with the onset of the covid-19 pandemic.

“We kept working on it during the interim, when schools were still virtual,” Wight said. “There was less of a need for people to think about getting this set up, and so we invested the time in improving it.”

Modifications continue as feedback is received from the likes of teachers, school administrators and first responders. And members of the B-Three staff, including some of the original interns who since have been hired, are eager to make SOS the best product it can be.

“Everybody wants to work on this,” Walton said. “It’s the coolest project.”

For more information, visit www.sightonscene.com.