Access Control

Student hall case study

by Mark Rowe

The University of Greenwich has installed smart access control system to secure student rooms within its new Daniel Defoe Hall. This new hall of residence, designed to BREEAM ‘Excellent’ standards, is near Greenwich rail and Docklands Light Railway stations, about 15 minutes’ walk from the Greenwich Campus. It provides rooms for 358 students in a mix of flat shares, studios and “mini-flats”.

To control hall access the university has chosen a SALTO access control system which has been supplied, installed and commissioned by SALTO Certificated Partner Guardian Security SW Ltd. David Wileman, Sales Manager for Guardian Security SW, says “SALTO access control is already the system of choice for the university being widely used across campus. This includes in their £76 million Stockwell Street development which is another brand new building but open to the public, and the new base for Architecture, Digital Arts and the campus Library, and purpose designed as an access controlled environment.”

At Daniel Defoe the brief was to think of the student accommodation in terms of hospitality, he says; and so was invited by the client to write the specification based on the SALTO Aelement range of escutcheons. “Working with Project Manager Adele Brookes and Hall Manager Sandeep Singh of Derwent FM who manage the building on behalf of the University of Greenwich, we have installed 480 offline Aelement units on to student bedroom doors, flat doors and miscellaneous office type doors. This gives them simplicity, affordability and a fully scalable solution that allows for instant upgrades at any time.”

The SALTO data-on-card access system lets users across campus control the building through its offline escutcheons in almost real time through the SALTO Virtual Network (SVN). This software allows the battery-operated stand alone locks to read, receive and write information via their operating ID smart cards. Data is captured from the cards at SVN on-line hot spots located at strategic points which upload and download user related information that is then used to permit, control or deny access.

Sandeep Singh says: “Living in halls is an exciting experience and a great way to meet new people and make lifelong friends. It provides an opportunity to get involved in university life and feel part of the student community. But it is important that while doing so students are safe and secure and that access to our new Daniel Defoe Hall is strictly controlled. So far we’re pleased with the finished installation and with the performance of our access control system. It delivers everything we’ve asked of it and we particularly like its audit trailing and battery status features as well as the fact that its scalable meaning we can add more doors to the system in future as needed.”

About the university

Greenwich in the grounds of the former Old Royal Naval College, but also with other facilities at Avery Hill and Medway in Kent, is the largest single university in London by student numbers, with almost 24,000 students. Its wide range of subjects includes architecture, business, computing, education, engineering, humanities, maritime studies, natural sciences, pharmacy and social sciences. It also has a strong research focus and well-established links to the scientific community.

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