Find out who vaped in the toilets quickly and easily.
Aerowatch sensors sit in the toilet ceiling, next to the extraction fan. When vape aerosol drifts past, your deans get an alert with the room and the time, so you can check the corridor camera before it's recorded over.
Proudly built in Hamilton for New Zealand secondary schools.
This is what lands in your inbox.
One alert per detection, sent to the people you choose: deans, a pastoral lead, a deputy principal. It tells you which toilet and exactly when, which is all you need to find the right minute of camera footage.
Alerts only go out during the hours you set, and a cooldown stops one cloud of vapour from sending ten emails.
Vape detected: Block C boys' toilets, upstairs
Tuesday 14 October, 10:42 am
- Sensor
- C-2, between fan and cubicles
- Nearest camera
- [Camera name, set at install]
- Earlier today
- None at this sensor
- Footage kept until
- [Your CCTV retention]
From a cloud of vapour to the right minute of footage.
Most vaping happens in the toilets because there are no cameras there. Aerowatch doesn't put cameras in either. It tells you when and where, and your existing corridor cameras show who came and went.
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The sensor notices
It measures fine particles, humidity and volatile compounds in the air heading for the fan. Vape aerosol shows up as a sharp spike that ordinary toilet use doesn't produce.
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Your staff are told
An alert goes to your vape-alert list with the room, the sensor and the time, within [X seconds] of the spike.
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You check the camera
Go to the corridor footage for that minute. Every detection is kept for 60 days, so you can still look it up weeks later, as long as your footage is.
Installed in the ceiling, behind a standard wall plate.
Each sensor fits behind a 2-gang plate, so from the floor it looks like any other ceiling fitting. There's nothing for students to reach, cover or pull off.
Sensors run off the extraction fan's own circuit, so no new power runs through the building. They talk to a small receiver in each block, not your school Wi-Fi.
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Walk-around with your property manager
We go toilet by toilet to see how each fan is controlled and where a sensor will catch the airflow. Boarding houses with combined shower rooms get a closer look.
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Your electrician fits the sensors
A power point is taken off the fan circuit above the ceiling. Each sensor box has a QR code; the installer scans it to link that sensor to your school and its room.
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You choose who hears what
Detection alerts go to your pastoral staff. If sensors go quiet, your IT contact hears about it instead. The two lists are kept separate.
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It runs itself
Sensors that drop offline are flagged once, not every few minutes. When the fans switch off after hours or in the holidays, that's expected and nobody gets paged.
Your school's data stays your school's.
Aerowatch never records images or sound. All it keeps is air readings and the alerts they triggered, and it keeps them apart from every other school.
Kept in New Zealand
Your school's data, and every backup of it, is stored in New Zealand. It never sits on an overseas server.
A database of your own
Each school's readings live in a separate database, not a shared table. Another school's login can't reach yours.
Deleted after 60 days
Detections are cleared after 60 days, roughly how long schools keep CCTV. We can match your own retention period.
Gone when you leave
End your contract and your database is removed entirely. Ask first and we'll hand you a full copy as one file.
Locked to your network
Every sensor has its own encrypted login and only connects from your school's internet address.
Questions schools ask
Is there a camera or microphone in the sensor?
No. It only measures the air: fine particles, humidity and volatile compounds. Nothing it collects can identify a student.
Will deodorant or shower steam set it off?
The device has sensors to detect humidity and other organic compounds to reduce the chance of false positives.
Does it need our IT team to set up?
No Wi-Fi is used. Each block gets a small receiver that connects to your network; your IT team just needs to know it's there. We'll ask for your school's external IP address so the sensors can reach us.
What happens if there's a power cut?
Your IT contact gets one email saying the sensors are offline, and another when they come back. If they're still down a day later, we follow it up with you.
How much does it cost?
It depends on how many rooms need a sensor. Book a walk-around and we'll give you a quote.
Start with a walk around your toilets.
An hour with your property manager tells us which rooms suit a sensor and what it would cost. No obligation.