Brisbane Boys College in Toowong has installed a wireless TESA SMARTair access control system from Security Merchants to secure its campus. The new system incorporates 100 doors controlled by smartcards, with plans afoot for the rest of the site to transition from mechanical keys.
BRISBANE Boys College has a student body of 1550 between prep school and Year 12. Its Toowong campus comprises buildings dating from the 1930s through to the Junior School build in 2008 and new College Hall completed in 2011, which includes a 700-seat auditorium, an art gallery and music rooms. A key element of this application included the physical size of the campus and the layout of its buildings.
To meet the challenges of the site, Brisbane Boys College turned to a wireless SMARTair access control system from TESA. Nearly 100 doors in the school's new annex are now protected by electronic escutcheons and wall readers, which staff and students open with programmable smartcards. SMARTair is a self-contained access control system that meets the needs of educational premises, and allows security managers to easily extend or replace a building's mechanical key system. Because it works wirelessly, installation is quick and easy, requiring no complex, expensive cabling. Access rights are stored in the door devices, making the system more resistant to communication problems.
Functionally, SMARTair provides access control to several access points or many, via a wireless network to self-contained locksets that are embedded with MIFARE or HID iClass smart card technology. SMARTair is controlled directly from the system manager's PC, and immediately notifies managers about pre-defined events, enabling management to change authorizations and schedules and even open distant doors directly from their PC. The SMARTair system has serious potential – it scales up to 64,000 users and up to 64,000 doors per system.
“Ease of use, combined with the speed of the installation and, of course, the cost saving, sold us on SMARTair”
System management software allows functions like authorizations, time schedules, daylight savings time and holidays, deletion and replacement of lost tags, online event log, remote opening of doors, remote updating of authorizations and schedules via HUB, instant cancellation of lost user cards, temporary blockage, and 4 operation modes; standard, open, first person in and dual user (wireless version only).
SMARTair locks are powered by 3 AA batteries and support MIFARE Classic, 1K, 4K, Ultralight or iClass reader and card technologies and have 2 possible memory configurations – 1500 users and 600 events in the event log, or 1000 users and 1000 events in the log. Locks are IP54-rated, have a 2-4cm read/write distance, a privacy feature and visual indication of operational status including authorised, not authorised, out of schedule and low battery. They can be installed with a panic exit device and there are a range of fire resistant, internal and external ratings, and cylinder and handle options.
SMARTair Pro offers 4 levels of control all in one system. It’s easy to add, delete and update user rights and users can select the most efficient way to update the access rights depending on requirements and combine this capability into their installation.
“We at Brisbane Boys College take student safety and security seriously so a new security system needed to meet high standards,” says facilities manager, Geoff Bowring. “Ease of use, combined with the speed of the installation and, of course, the cost saving, sold us on SMARTair.”
Doors were fitted with new SMARTair battery-powered electronic escutcheons and wall readers. System installation was quick and caused minimal disruption to building aesthetics and everyday school life. In the past Brisbane Boys College relied on a traditional masterkey system, but lost keys often resulted in time-consuming and expensive efforts to change compromised locks.
“You only have to lose a master key once resulting in replacing all your locks and you very quickly appreciate the convenience and cost saving that SMARTair provides,” explains Bowring.
Facilities staff at Brisbane Boys College can now open doors remotely, issue smartcards instantly, and generate an audit trail for any access controlled door in the new annex. Lost keys no longer pose a security risk: they can be revoked with the click of a mouse. Staff and students just present an RFID smartcard or secure digital credential and an internal or external door opens. SMARTair is also flexible enough to expand as needed. The system has been so successful that work has already begun on the gradual replacement of mechanical keys across the entire campus.♦
