The Merseyside-based installer MEC Electrical Integrated has fitted Panasonic door stations at Wayne Forsyth’s UK Military School. That Bootle-based organisation helps ex-military personnel to use the skills they developed in service to work in schools. They’re also expanding into corporate work and employ around a dozen former servicemen and women. Its own post-16 academy is opening in September 2017.
Wayne Forsyth said: “Looking at the product that Panasonic offers, and what MEC does, I think there’s such a niche in the market for the MOD, with all of its facilities, especially in light of what’s happening at the minute.”
The system’s recordings are tied into calendar dates and times, so that the user can scroll back through past events and visitors that have been captured and see when events occurred. The system stores recordings on an SD card, as a way to offload and copy footage.
Wayne Forsyth said: “From our own experiences of entry systems elsewhere, with staff going into schools, you can be sitting at the gate outside pressing the bell for half an hour, so I think there’s a lot of potential in those kinds of environments for a wireless DECT system as well.”
The organisation operates out of an industrial unit, but people and equipment are always coming and going. An access control system serves not only as security but as a resource for Wayne to see who has been into the building and when.
“Our storeman might be upstairs, so if the door goes he can take the handset and answer it. Once he was out collecting post from the central building, which is about 80 metres away, and was worried about it still working, but it was fine,” said Wayne.
The DECT wireless handset part of the system works at up to 100m, the makers say, and more with the addition of an optional wireless range extender. The building previously had audio-only entry with fob access. MEC retained the card reader and included the Panasonic video entry alongside, removing the limitation of audio-only as well as giving the freedom of the wireless DECT handset, which sits on the office manager’s desk.
Andrew Morris, MEC’s CAD engineer, said: “When our Managing Director first came across the Panasonic Video Entry System at an exhibition, he instantly recognised the potential this system could provide, not only for the commercial market but also for a wide range of residential applications. In short, both the Panasonic system combined with MEC Electrical Integrated’s additional features have been a huge success for both us as a company and end users.”
