Westminster Kingsway College has selected and installed a Salto Systems solution as part of a major security access control package at its five centers across the city.It is one of the largest colleges in London with centers in Kings Cross, Regent's Park, Soho and Victoria, with a separate administration center in St James' Park, Westminster Kingsway College. The college awarded the contract...
Westminster Kingsway College has selected and installed a Salto Systems solution as part of a major security access control package at its five centers across the city.
It is one of the largest colleges in London with centers in Kings Cross, Regent's Park, Soho and Victoria, with a separate administration center in St James' Park, Westminster Kingsway College. The college awarded the contract to Salto business partner Beaver Access. Westminster Kingsway College offers a wide range of further, adult and higher education programs to meet the needs and interests of a diverse range of students of all ages from 16 years upwards.
"As the manufacturer of education tailored access control solutions, the Salto system was an excellent choice for Westminster Kingsway College," said David Wileman, Divisional Manager of Beaver Access, a division of Beaver Architectural Ironmongery.
"Working in consultation with the college we designed a highly secure and flexible 'keyless' access control system to meet all their needs," Wileman said. "Management of students, staff and visitors was crucial and a ‘one card solution' was to be the key application."
To achieve it a secure system was needed to control access via standard issue student and staff photo ID cards. The college, having already taken the decision to go with Mifare smart card technology, needed an access system that could provide them with everything that a hard wired system would deliver but in a mix of online and offline standalone wireless formats but at lower cost.
To accomplish this, a highly secure and flexible access control system has been designed. It uses 272 offline electronic locks, two panic bolts and 21 online wall reader units all utilizing the power of the Salto Virtual Network.
This allows the locks to read, receive and write information via the college's photo ID cards. Since most access related information is kept encrypted on these cards, the wall readers are able to update and receive information from the cards at any time. So not only is the system easy to use, but its outstanding functionality also provides 90 percent of the benefits of a fully online access control system at the cost of a stand alone system.
The "smart" ID cards build up "on-card" audit trails through normal use giving the college complete control over access and enabling them to track the movement of staff, students and visitors through both the offline and online parts of the system as required. This enables a complete access profile of each individual to be established and updated as necessary at the up date wall readers," Wileman said.
"We chose Salto because it gives us so much more control over our campus security. It meets our dual aims of having the ability to run a totally keyless college and gives us maximum benefit from the technology by offering card integration such as cashless vending and photocopying capabilities on a standard issue ID card," said Ian McDonald, Head of Information and Learning Technology. "Such built-in flexibility means we can get maximum value from our investment while providing a secure learning and working environment for all the students and staff."