Boston Music College Boosts Campus Safety With Intelligent Security Platform

Boston's Berklee College of Music is unique among other institutions of higher education. Founded more than 60 years ago, its guiding principle is that the best way to prepare students for careers in music is through the study and practice of contemporary music. In fact, Berklee is the world's largest independent college of contemporary music. With prestigious alumni that are a virtual “who's who” in the music industry, including such Grammy award winners as Melissa Etheridge, Bruce Hornsby, Quincy Jones, Diana Krall, Branford Marsalis, and John Mayer, it's hard to argue with Berklee's success.

The Berklee Public Safety Department's mission is to provide professional expertise and standardized state-of-the-art technology products combined with superior responsive customer service, ensuring a safe and secure environment for the protection of its people, property and assets. Towards that end, the department maintains a constant presence, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

With a large number of access points and thousands of people walking in and out of buildings on a daily basis, Berklee needed to create a safe environment for students, faculty and visitors, while protecting its assets, equipment and property. When looking for a centralized access control and security system to meet its demanding requirements on campus, Berklee turned to Lenel Systems International.

According to Nicholas Costa, Systems Manager at Berklee, the college's access control equipment is constantly being run through its paces and requires a robust system. To keep up with this demanding 24/7 environment, Berklee is adopting state-of-the-art security technology.

The linchpin of Berklee's security system is Lenel's security platform, which includes a full suite of security management capabilities based on an open architecture, providing the college with a comprehensive and robust security solution that is seamlessly integrated into a single system. Berklee relies on GS Security, one of New England's leading security systems integrators, for installation and integration support. GS Security provides top-tier expertise in Lenel products and has worked closely on an on-going basis with the Berklee public safety department to implement a comprehensive, best-in-class security solution. Armed with the OnGuard platform, Berklee is able to effectively manage a wide range of security functions including access control, alarm monitoring, video surveillance and analysis, as well as ID credential issuance and management.

The college's security system includes almost 200 card readers around campus. Perhaps the most interesting deployment of a Berklee card reader is at the entrance of walk-in vault cage housed in an old bank building that the college owns.

In addition, entry and egress doors are equipped with door contact sensors that set off an alarm when the door is forced or held open for an extended period of time. These intrusion alarms are monitored at the Berklee Public Safety Department's control center. There are 25 panic alarms on campus and a mix of video motion and intrusion sensors.