An Abloy Security ARX access control system has been installed in Doncaster Education City’s new Waterfront building.
Access through 558 doors located on five levels at three Doncaster Education City buildings is managed using the access control system. Installed by BLE Security as part of a £500,000 contract, this intelligent, TCP/IP-enabled system controls about 150,000 access and egress events each year, by 30,000 RFID smart card-holding students and 1,200 staff.
The system has been configured to provide card-holding disabled students and staff with easy access through 70 automatic opening doors. The system differentiates between cards to automatically open the doors when the local card reader is presented with a “disabled card”. Linked to the College’s EBS staff-student database using bespoke Import/Export middleware written by BLE Security’s software experts, ARX runs on the College’s own IT network and is populated with student enrolment data.
Card reader
The access control system comprises 660 card readers, 102 of which are In and Out readers, and is linked to 63 local control units. These independent computers control all access and egress within their specified zones and feed real time data to 13 communications rooms. This up-to-the-minute information is particularly valuable, it is claimed, in case of an emergency that necessitates the speedy location of a student or staff member.
Registration
The integrated system’s RFID technology on the contactless smart cards and readers provides, it is claimed, benefits to the security and safety aspects. Doncaster Education City Director of IT Graeme Tizard says: “Using RFID will eliminate the need for time-consuming manual registration by lecturers and also gives us the flexibility to extend the application of a single smart card to cover printing, photocopying and cashless vending.” Abloy Security reports that its ARX control system provided Doncaster Education City with a complete, intelligent, ‘plug and play’ intelligent access control system that could be linked with a fully digital, IP-based CCTV system and fully integrated into a single network.
Key control
In the event of loss or theft, pass cards can be cancelled to prevent their unauthorised use, rather than having to send an engineer to replace any number of locks. Finally, should the need arise then it is possible to employ ARX’s audit trail facility, which can interrogate individual cards and doors, to see who had gone, and tried to go, where.
