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Square One biometric system secures DCC's Jesus Dome

A computerised biometric fingerprint recognition system has been installed for the Durban Christian Centre (DCC) to secure access to some sections of the huge, octagonal, dome-structured, church building adjacent to the N3 freeway at Berea, Durban, and at the same time provide a time and attendance register for staff.

The aluminium roof of the building, known as the Jesus Dome, is the largest of its kind in the southern hemisphere and the third largest in the world. The sheer size of the building led management to examine options for secure entry and exit for staff and for the control of entry into certain administrative sections of the building.

Square One Solutions Group, the JSE-listed IT-based business enabling solutions provider, was approached to develop a solution for the DCC.

"After studying the needs of the DCC, we proposed a biometric access control system based upon three Dex optical biometric reader units which control and secure access to the required areas as well as provide a computerised time and attendance register for the staff complement of about 50 people," says Dean Johnstone, manager biometric solutions at Square One.

Two of the biometric readers were placed at the DCC's main entrance and exit with the third located at the access point to the church's administrative centre. They have rugged keypads, back-lit LCD displays and steel casings. Johnstone adds that employees then had to enrol by presenting an index finger for scanning into the biometric management system.

"This enabled us to create individual user templates for each employee and these were then selectively uploaded to the three biometric readers. For example, only the templates of staff with duties that would require them to enter the administrative section were uploaded to the administrative office biometric reader."

To gain access, each staff member has a unique pin code that is entered into the reader and this code is then authenticated by placing the 'enrolled index finger' on the optical scanner. The reader only permits entry if the code and fingerprint match.

Every time a member of staff presents a pin code and fingerprint to gain entry the transaction is date and time stamped automatically and stored in the system computer. This data can be extracted from the computer to track staff time and attendance.

"Reports can be generated on demand," says Johnstone. "The report displays logs of the times and dates staff entered and exited the premises. Reports can also be customised to individuals, to secure areas and to specific time and date fields. For example a report for all employees that entered 'Zone 3' between 15h00 and 17h00 on a specific date can be generated, or a report could specify a particular individual and display all entry and exit times for the past week, month or year."

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