Balby Carr Community Sports College is a new educational facility in the Balby area of Doncaster. Prior to it receiving special ‘Sports College’ status in September 2003, the college was a secondary school primarily teaching students of 11 to 18 years of age. Since receiving official sports college status, the college has been redeveloped and includes several new additions to the campus such as all-weather sports pitches, campus wide WLAN access points.
Whilst the college specialises in sports courses and sports related science courses, the old ‘Balby Carr School’ still functions as it did before 2003 with students from 11 – 18 years being able to continue to study as it were a school, whilst at the same time, the college is able to offer more ‘advanced’ courses to older students.<br><br>Over 1400 pupils and staff use the college grounds each day and as Andrew Smith, facilities and security manager for the College explains, "The primary objective and paramount concern of the College is the welfare and security of the students and staff but also to respect and ensure their privacy."<br><br>As part of its ongoing strategy to continually review and improve security, Andrew Smith approached Proxis, a local security installer, for a demonstration of a new biometric fingerprint access control system. The system would alleviate the problem of people "lending" or losing traditional door entry fobs and the time consuming task to sign up to 300 sixth form students off and on site with the facility for parents to check if their child had arrived and signed in to school via a secure internet portal without any possibility of spoofing the system. <br><br>The system has three elements, an entry point terminal fingerprint scanner, a MOBOTIX High Resolution IP camera, and user database When a finger is placed on the entry pad, the information is sent via the camera to the backend control software that confirms the person’s identity before signalling the MOBOTIX camera to commence recording and open the electronic door lock. Avideo clip of every person who passes through the door is then saved in a time and date indexed archive.<br><br>The MOBOTIX High Resolution IP camera is an integral part of this system. Alongside its IP-based control interface (web server) which is used by the biometric fingerprint scanner, it also has a built in two way intercom to allow people wanting admission to contact the main reception. The reception can simply click on a browser button to check the video feed of the camera and confirm the situation before remotely opening the door. <br><br>It was the quality of the image and the range of features offered by the MOBOTIX camera used within this biometric Access control system that first piqued the interest of the college as a possible replacement for its existing CCTV. <br><br>The multi acre campus has been covered by a network of 40 fixed analogue CCTV cameras, but as Martin Craig, Head Teacher says: "We have had our existing analogue camera system for about eight years and the system suffers from delivery of poor quality images, camera failures and expensive maintenance charges due to the antiquated technology,"<br><br>In addition to poor quality, the existing system was also difficult to manage as all 40 cameras needed to constantly record, even during times of no activity. The system was only accessible from a central security desk, which made out of hours monitoring impossible. With the biometric door lock system working well, the college approached Proxis for a proposal to replace this old CCTV system with a newer MOBOTIX alternative.<br><br>The college had a few criteria. Firstly, it needed to improve the quality of CCTV images that had proved ineffective at identifying people in the few incidents of vandalism captured on cameras. Secondly, the College needed a more reliable solution with lower maintenance costs compared to its analogue systems. Lastly, the college needed more flexibility in where and by whom its CCTV system could be accessed as well as streamlining its archiving and replay facilities. <br> <br>"We arranged a demonstration of the MOBOTIX system and after seeing the quality of the camera images, the multi function capabilities and the meeting of our objectives we were very impressed." comments Andrew Smith, "We were also pleasantly surprised by the cost of the system and the savings in maintenance."<br><br>Over the summer holidays, technicians from Proxis installed the biometric access control system and 8 MOBOTIX cameras including several MOBOTIX Q22 models, the world first low cost, 360-degree panoramic camera that was used for high traffic areas. In fact, due to the Q22’s ability to cover larger areas with a single ceiling mounted unit, the college has actually reduced the number of cameras needed by 20% while increasing the area and quality of its coverage. <br><br>Proxis also trained College staff on both the new CCTV and biometric systems, which went live at the start of the school year in September. "Proxis has taken the time to understand the College’s requirements and to make the best use of the site’s infrastructure which resulted in an efficient and tidy installation." comments Andrew Smith, "they ticked all the boxes when it came to installation and service and they delivered to our expectations a system to cover the initial problem areas, whilst being able to grow with the College and its day to day security requirements.<br><br>The new hi-res cameras have proven to be a major success as Andrew Smith says: "The MOBOTIX system is user friendly and makes site security more manageable. Incidents are instantly monitored and archived for their appropriate use. Student and staff welfare is now more controlled and secure because of the intelligent camera system."<br><br>Over the next term, the College is planning to replace the 20 remaining analogue cameras with a lower number of MOBOTIX Hi-Res IP cameras. Paul Sayner Managing Director for Proxis added, "The versatility of the MOBOTIX camera makes its indispensable when integrated with these types of biometric Access Control systems as getting each element to communicate and work in sequence can be incredibly complicated."<br><br>"This is the first instance of CCTV controlled biometric Access control within an education facility but the success of this installation will hopefully serve as a template for other similar projects" Paul Sayner adds.<br><br>Why Mayflex?<br>"We have worked with Mayflex for a number of years and they have consistently delivered both the training and support to enable us to meet our obligations to our clients. In this instance, they were able to source and deliver an extremely new model in the Q22 to us to meet our deadlines in respect to the start of academic year." <br><br>Paul Sayner<br>Managing Director, Proxisuk.com<br><br>Contact – http://www.proxisuk.com
