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Smartcards integrate access control and security systems

East Los Angeles College is a community college committed to offering a comprehensive, open access, learning environment.

Serving approximately 30 000 students each year, the college provides academic transfer courses and workforce education programmes, along with many community service programmes. Located in the centre of a vibrant community close to the cultural and civic centre of Los Angeles, East LA College serves an international, multicultural student body. The 88-acre campus has 58 buildings including a library, multimedia instructional centres, bookstore, cafeteria and a 20 000-seat sports stadium.

Security and access control at odds

While at its core, East Los Angeles College is an educational community, the safety and security of its students, faculty and staff is a top priority. With increasing Homeland Security pressures placed on colleges and universities across the country to strengthen campus safety, East LA College needed a solution that would meet its unique security needs, protect existing investments and allow for seamless future technology upgrades.

The college offered classes year-round during the day, evening and on weekends, so it was challenged to secure its buildings but still allow, for example, a professor to enter a classroom at night without triggering an alarm and to go home without leaving the classroom unprotected. The college's desire to create smart, digital classrooms added another security challenge of protecting its high-tech multimedia and digital equipment.

The old security system consisted of components from several different manufacturers and did not provide the detailed level and type of security and monitoring the college was looking for. Few of the buildings even lacked any readers or access control system. "We are in a new environment where we not only need to increase security levels, but also our safety levels in terms of who has access to our buildings and at what time," explains Richard Guy, East LA College director of facilities. "We can only do that with an enterprise-wide networked system that integrates the alarm system with access control."

Guy says an integrated system would allow a professor to deactivate the alarms when he or she walks into a classroom and, subsequently, upon leaving after a late-night class, one swipe of a card could reactivate the system. The college invested heavily in a lot of computer and multimedia equipment that it wanted to be able to monitor more efficiently and effectively.

Partnering process

In 2002, East LA College went through a public bidding process that involved several security dealers and vendors. After a lengthy bidding and evaluation process, the college chose to work with Stewart and Associates, a Los Angeles-based security dealer, and Honeywell Access Systems. Richard Chiang, part owner of Stewart and Associates, says Honeywell was chosen for its reputation and overall knowledge of access control.

"Honeywell demonstrated it understood the issues the college faced," explains Chiang. "Its proven integration of technology, support and responsiveness was geared toward dealing with the college's unique demands. They knew Honeywell could step up to the plate with the right solution at the right time and the right price."

In August 2004, Stewart and Associates began the installation of several Honeywell products into the college's two multimedia classroom centres, including: WIN-PAK Pro integrated access control system, OmniSmart card readers and high-security smartcards. The seamless integrated system would tie in the access control with the Honeywell burglar alarm system allowing the college to monitor any problems with any of its alarm points, have a record of any incidents, and still have the access control it desires.

With students coming and going year round, Stewart and Associates was also challenged with the time sensitivity of implementing the solution without interrupting class schedules. "We have a history of working with clients in sensitive implementation environments," says Troy Riedel, regional sales manager for Honeywell. "We are careful to meet their technology enhancement needs with minimal disruption to their 24/7 business operations."

Providing access to classrooms while maintaining security

By the end of January 2005, 22 Omni readers were installed on nearly half of the multimedia buildings' 44 classrooms. The implementation was ahead of schedule and the number of readers had doubled to 44 by mid-February of that year. Smartcards are also being issued to more than 120 faculty members who use the two multimedia centres.

When faculty members want access to a particular classroom, they simply scan their smartcard for entry. Because the installation integrated a variety of security components - including access control, intrusion detection, user identification and fire/life safety - the cardholder can enter the classroom at night or on the weekend and bypass the security system.

The card also contains personal information about each holder allowing the college to keep track of who went into what classroom and at what time. "It gives you a complete audit trail of what goes on from a security point of view," says Guy. "That is also valuable in the event of an emergency to know who is still in the building." When it comes to protecting supplies, Guy says the security and intrusion controls will also help to minimise theft.

Open standards allows for seamless integration

Perhaps the biggest benefit of the Honeywell solution is its open standards with smart technology. The college has more than 100 non-Honeywell readers installed in one of its other buildings. Chiang says with open standards, they will be able to modify or convert any existing reader and have all access cards enabled to read the frequency. "So instead of someone replacing a panel, the smart technology can take us to another level as a systems integrator," explains Chiang. "That makes our job easier and it is more cost effective for the college."

"Smartcards are the wave of the future for colleges and universities across the country," says Kathleen Stewart, partner at Stewart and Associates. "Seamless integration offers such a value to the customer."

Smart technology creates endless possibilities

Beyond access, smartcards are upgradeable to perform a number of other valuable functions, so the college plans to add additional features to its cards in the future. "Each card can go beyond basic credentials and, for example, serve as a credit card," says Riedel. "Students could use them in the cafeteria or bookstore and charge items to their account." In addition, the smart technology can give the college an extra security precaution with computer access. A reader placed next to a computer would only give access to authorised cardholders. The college could then track who was using the computer at what time.

Chiang says the open standards solution helps meet the college's ongoing challenges. "Once we have set up the underpinnings with an integrated platform, the college can easily take it to the next level to start gathering important information," says Chiang. "It is a way of empowering students and faculty with where they can and cannot go, and again, providing an audit trail of what is going on at their school."

Guy says creating an environment with a model tracking system will ultimately help the college serve students better. "We can make future assessments if we know how many students are in a particular area at any given time," explains Guy.

Paving the way for future project upgrades

The successful implementation in two of the college's buildings led to other projects. Stewart and Associates installed readers and smartcard technology to a third building with 24 classrooms in March 2005. At that time the college also upgraded its camera surveillance system from its current standalone VCR-based method, to a digital video and transmission system, combining digital recording, remote viewing and alarm detection.

The college currently has over $250 million worth of construction scheduled through 2008, including a new campus centre for students, foreign language building and two new parking structures. Guy says all the upgrades and new buildings will incorporate the integrated access, alarm and environment control systems.

From a security standpoint, the integrated network helped solve the college's business issues with reliability, availability and more control over its ever-growing facilities. In closing, Guy says the Honeywell solution makes his job of overseeing all aspects of the facilities that much easier - "it is convenience through technology."

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