Media group Granada has upgraded its swipe card access control system.
Proximity cards have come to Coronation Street. OK, maybe not on Britain?s most famous soap opera street, but media group Granada has upgraded its swipe card access control system to a HID prox card system at its Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool and London bases. The firm is looking to expand its system into TV newsroom branches – about 200 buildings – around the UK. The installation took 13 months, completed in October 2001. Granada reports it was facing unsolicited visits on its TV show sets, which were a concern to TV crew and actors. The media firm sought to give employees access to multiple sites, while keeping unauthorised people off sets. Installer Initial Electronics Security proposed access control manufacturer NAPCO?s Excalibur Access Control system used with Windows NT software to allow multi-site control from all locations. IES networked the access control system to Granada?s wide area network. Thus Granada staff can produce their own access cards throughout the company?s network of offices – which includes LWT, Yorkshire TV, Tyne Tees TV, Meridian and Anglia TV. The Manchester installation is so far the largest, with 160 doors and 200 HID MiniProx and ProxPro readers (with and without keypads). HID MiniProx readers offer extra security provided by a keypad. Granada is using HID?s ISOProx and ProxCard II cards with photo-ID. HID MaxiProx readers were placed on vehicle barriers, so staff no longer need to get out of the vehicle to pass through a barrier. The end user attaches a self adhesive PVC label with the ID information to the prox card – a cost-effective solution, Granada says, as it employs many temporary staff. By not printing photographs directly on the cards, the cards can be returned after three months. If only Coronation Street bad boy Terry Duckworth had been wearing his, he would never have given the court security guards the slip the other month!
In April 2000, a Wigan man allegedly infatuated with Coronation Street actresses was warned under the Protection from Harassment Act after actresses complained that he loitered outside the Granada studios in central Manchester and their homes, and sent them letters.
