The University of Huddersfield has installed two-way IP audio-video intercom at its Queensgate Campus. The new products from IP intercom manufacturer Castel enable university staff to communicate with visitors before allowing them entry.
The Queensgate site has seen a spend of £100m over the past ten years. Castel worked with the local installer Kenyon Access Consultants. When visitors arrive at barriers, gates or bollards on the campus, drivers contact security officers using Castel’s XELLIP one or two call button full IP-SIP entry stations. These are compliant with the Equality Act. The stations have a 316-grade stainless steel vandal-proof faceplate and are IP64-rated to withstand the elements. For some places, Castel created a modified housing on posts to meet specific mounting requirements. As these units are power over Ethernet (PoE), installers and site managers were able to use the twisted pair cabling in place to connect the entry stations to the IP network. An optional external power supply is also available.
Integrated readers
The built-in colour camera uses H.264 compression and sound quality is enhanced by noise and echo-cancelling. There are three LEDs on the front panel and an integrated induction loop to comply with disability rules. Some of the entry stations on the campus have been fitted with a 125 kHz MIFARE proximity reader so that staff and third parties can gain entry for their vehicles automatically.
Atmane Bensghir is Business Development Manager at Castel. He said: “The university is using the entry stations in several non-standard ways. We helped the installer to place duplicate panels at different heights on the same post to maximise convenience, both for drivers of regular cars and for drivers sitting higher up in the cab of a commercial vehicle. Another unusual feature in the project is the use of our panels to lower retractable bollards.”
integration
The university like others aims to achieve the widest possible exchange of information; the security department wanted IP intercom that would interact with management systems on an open platform. With their codecs, the Castel IP intercoms will contribute to the centralisation of video and audio feeds, as the campus security team uses Milestone Systems’ video management software XProtect to aggregate and analyse data streams.
About the installers
Kenyon Access Consultants is a family-run installation company, based in Huddersfield and Halifax. It specialises in audio-video intercom, access control, perimeter protection and motion detection. Operational areas include education (both faculty buildings and student accommodation), cash in transit and aviation.
