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SA's first security city

A new concept in secure living is being developed at Midstream Estates in Midrand, Gauteng, the first of what ABSA chairperson Dr Danie Cronje calls 'security cities'. The concept is expected to explode in South Africa in coming years as a result of increasing security consciousness throughout the country.

Midstream Estates, which is being developed on 250 hectares, is sub-divided into 1500 stands.

To achieve the very high level of security required in this project, it was necessary to implement cutting-edge technology to control access to the property, as well as to a gym and school located on the property.

There are five main access points to the estate, with each entrance and exit having separate vehicle lanes for residents, visitors and contractors, as well as turnstiles for pedestrian traffic.

In a development of this size and standing, it is essential to implement technology that enables fast and accurate identification-based access control. It was also considered important to avoid the high costs and administration that would be required to manage approximately 10 000 access cards.

Fingerprint-based biometrics technology was selected as the ideal solution, providing the right mix of security and convenience. After initial tests and comparisons against other biometric systems, Sagem biometric systems were selected.

Specific challenges

The specific challenges faced at the Midstream site included:

* Very large resident population.

* Large numbers of contractors and workers on site during construction.

* The fact that construction workers typically have severely damaged fingerprints.

* High visitor traffic.

Biometric systems generally work in one of two ways:

* Identification one-to-many (1:MANY) - in this case users are required only to place a finger on the scanner without presenting any other information to the system;

* Authentication one-to-one (1:1) - in this case the user is required to first present a card or enter a personal identification number (PIN) before placing a finger on the scanner. The PIN or card is a way of directing the system to search a specific user's record in the database.

Use of PINs in conjunction with fingerprints introduces a significant delay as the user must key in the PIN before the transaction can be completed. Use of cards introduces an unnecessary cost factor, and a possible bottleneck in the system. Should a user's card be lost or stolen, he or she will not get access even with the correct fingerprint.

Customised system

To meet the specific needs of Midstream Estates, InfiniteAccess (an approved Sagem installer and the contractor responsible for security systems at the project) in conjunction with Softcon SA, developed a customised enrolment system based on Sagem's Integrators Kit technology.

The Midstream system is believed to be the largest residential biometric system in operation in South Africa, utilising 50 ruggedised Sagem MorphoAccess (OMA 300) readers and 12 Sagem MorphoAccess (MA 300) readers. All readers have the capacity to store 96 000 fingerprints, thus easily catering for all persons on the estate.

All residents, staff and contractors are registered once only at the main guardhouse. All demographic data, including stand number and photographs, are captured.

In a process that takes no more than 10 seconds, a resident's fingerprint is captured into the system and the boom is opened. After the resident has gone through the boom, his or her fingerprint is immediately removed from the in-bound reader and written to the outbound reader.

Visitors are registered automatically in the visitors' lane, from the convenience of their vehicles. On exiting, the visitor places his/her finger on the scanner, is identified in approximately one second, and the boom opens.

Images of all persons and vehicles entering the site are recorded on a state-of-the-art DVR system.

The local school and gym have also been secured using Sagem biometric technology. Among the unique features deployed is the automatic deletion of gym members' access rights when their contracts expire.

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