Salto Systems working together with Bristol-based business partner Gem Security Centre, has implemented the replacement of mechanical key operated night latch rim locks with a Salto electronic access control solution at Cirencester's Royal Agricultural College.
Salto Systems working together with Bristol-based business partner Gem Security Centre, has implemented the replacement of mechanical key operated night latch rim locks with a Salto electronic access control solution at Cirencester's Royal Agricultural College.
Established in 1845, the Royal Agricultural College was the first agricultural college to be established in the English speaking world. As a university college it offers more than 40 career-focused programmes within its School of Agriculture, School of Business and School of Real Estate and Land Management covering agriculture, equine management, business and rural land and property management and is home to a vibrant community with more than 1000 students.
Salto were able to offer the college a modern solution to security in its student accommodation by retro-fitting a smart card based access solution to replace its outdated keyed system. The Salto system met a vital client requirement for an up to date security solution that provided far greater control over who could access what, where and when and provide full audit trail accountability to resolve any access issues should these arise.
The upgrade is a pilot being carried out on a rolling project basis. So far the first two accommodation blocks have been completed with two online doors being fitted with Salto wall readers at "hot spots" at main entranceways to control perimeter security, and 20 offline bedroom and four back of house offline office doors being fitted with electronic escutcheons. The system uses Salto's patented data-on-card SVN technology which is capable of controlling an unlimited number of users and doors in a single system.
"The existing lock installation at the college's student accommodation did not provide the amount of protection or security information required to manage the access control movement of the students," said Jim Caola, Sales Director of Gem Security Centre. "Having security that is reliable and dependable is important for a building housing so many young people. With our ability to customize both the system hardware and software, we have designed a highly secure and flexible access control platform to meet both their current and future needs."
The handle sets read, receive and write information via Mifare cards as students enter and leave the accommodation buildings and since most access related information is kept encrypted on these cards, the perimeter door mounted wall readers are able to update and receive information from the cards at any time.
This provides 90 percent of the benefits of a fully online access control system at the cost of a stand alone system, and as the students use their smart ID cards, they build up an on-card audit trails enabling college management to track their movement through both the offline and online parts of the system as and when required. And if a card is lost or stolen it can be quickly deleted from the system, Caola added.
"We're very impressed with the Salto product. Its advanced system design gives an impressive degree of control over our student accommodation security,” said Phil Wood, Facilities Manager at the Royal Agricultural College. As this same accommodation is also used by Isis students and conference delegates during the summer months when our normal students are not in residence, the flexibility of our new XS4 system endorses the fact that we can safely and securely look after these visitors too."