Improved access control for Institute

Edited by the Buildingtalk editorial team Feb 28, 2008

Stand alone electronic locks from Salto Systems now form the core of a campus wide keyless access control system for the protection of students and staff at Cork Institute of Technology.

The institute awarded the contract to approved local Salto business partner; DoorWare and their partners One Card Solutions.

Cork Institute of Technology is one of Ireland's major higher education institutions and has four principal Campuses: CIT Bishopstown Campus, CIT Crawford College of Art and Design, CIT Cork School of Music and the National Maritime College of Ireland.

The institute has almost 17,000 full and part time students and courses span five main fields: Science, Business, Engineering, Art and Music.

Qualifications awarded by the institute vary from Post-graduate Doctorates, to Degrees and Higher Certificates, as well as thriving and internationally recognised trade craft courses.

Kieran Gorey of DoorWare comments: "We've designed a highly secure and flexible access control system using Salto technology to meet all of the requests of CIT and it has been installed in a variety of locations".

"Initially it was retro-fitted in locations where doors had previously been controlled by a mechanical keyed system, these locks being replaced by modern electronic escutcheons".

"This was principally in the administration building and in the main building".

"In the administration building it has been fitted to the perimeter doors as well to access doors into the various sections; Buildings and Estates, Admissions, Grants, Registrars, Presidents Office, Finance, HR, etc".

"In the main building, it has been used on the doors of the communications closets, managed by the IT department".

"In all of these locations control units have also been fitted, mostly a mixture of off-line CU5000 and on-line CU50EN.

At the same time, a wing of the main building had been undergoing refurbishment and so Salto escutcheons have also been installed here to handle access control for all the office, classroom and laboratory doors".

"In addition to these doors, various other departments throughout CIT have been retro-fitting doors in their areas, replacing traditional keyed mortice locks and handles with Salto.

There are now 99 doors on the new access control system, a mixture of escutcheons, and both off-line and on-line control units." Aidan McDonald, IT Projects Manager at Cork Institute of Technology, says: "Our new Salto campus access control system now enables us to manage our security needs in a much more controlled way".

"Previously most of our access control has been with and for the use of the staff, but new Mifare cards have now been issued to both staff and students and we have widened the scope of the system this semester primarily to allow certain students to access certain project laboratories".

"We also hope to upgrade our library access to use Mifare readers as well as the staff and student car park facilities in the short and medium term respectively".

"And, in addition to this, we are also working with Onecard Solutions to look at our printing and photocopying solutions, and will expand on this to include cashless vending in our canteens and shops over the coming 12 months.".