Year: 2019

The Bradley Business Center, located in Chicago, has installed a 3xLOGIC infinias Cloud access control system throughout the redevelopment project. HTML Global, an IT managed services provider (MSP), oversaw system installation and continues to provide remote system management. Bradley Business Center (BBC) is the largest redevelopment project on Chicago’s north side, comprising over 500,000 square feet, spread over 22 acres. The BBC offers a unique shared office environment for entrepreneurs and professionals, and boasts a wide array of features and amenities. At present, the 3xLOGIC infinias system manages a total of 43 internal doors throughout the complex, split between BBC managed doors and those for a tenant company, Compass Health Center. The two organizations manage their own access separately but use some of the same network and PoE switches. BBC managed doors are mainly those controlling common areas and shared amenities – parking, fitness facility, rooftop terrace, and others. They also includes data rooms and other sensitive areas within the office space. Both organizations do the day-to-day administration of the system, with HTML Global providing back-up and higher-level functions when requested. “When we started with BBC, they were looking to us for our knowledge base, and we installed a few doors at that time. Then, we built out the system as they added new offices and common areas to be managed,” explained William Hunt, Managing Director, HTML Global, “The distributed Ethernet network can easily handle all the doors and that simplified installation and on-going management. The BBC property management staff don’t want a server onsite, so a cloud solution nicely fits their needs. Another advantage for BBC is our RMR services, and the fact that a cloud-based system is mainly operating expenses, not hardware capital expenses – that’s economically advantageous for a property management business.” “There are so many other advantages to a cloud-based system, especially our ability to add doors when any of the resident companies want to join the system, or to expand the number of doors for existing customers. We can add one door or hundreds of doors upon request,” said Hunt, “Compass likes the system functionality and ease-of-use so much, they recently expanded it to their Northbrook location, too. That way, when staff move between the two facilities, they only need one set of credentials.” BBC controls access by zone and/ or amenity for each credential holder. Administrators can add zones and close access to other zones with a few keystrokes. Door control is granular, making it easy to provide all areas access to senior staff and highly-limited access, for example, for contractors and temporary workers. Such high-level control and ease of use is accomplished with minimal hardware on site. Many administrators were up and running on the infinias system with very little training, if any. With a cloud-based access control system, new tenants can join the system with ease, or a tenant can be removed from the system in a matter of minutes. Hunt said, “As an MSP, we are overseeing a system that updates itself automatically, and because BBC management doesn’t have a full-time IT person, that’s where we come in.” The future looks bright for HTML Global with the Bradley Business Center. Current office space is nearing fully-leased status, and BBC management is looking to expand their property offerings into additional buildings located on the same parcel. Hunt is impressed with another feature of the cloud-based system, “The network is set up on PoE switches, so if a door isn’t acting properly, we can fix things remotely, we don’t need to roll a truck – that’s very cost-effective.”  

Tasmania’s Old Kempton Distillery (OKD) has deployed HID Internet of Things (IoT) enablement platform, HID Trusted Tag® Services, to combat counterfeiting of its world class whiskeys, gins and other liquor products. HID’s innovative IoT platform for brand protection, combined with the web application developed by local integrator AusNFC, enables Old Kempton Distillery to guard against grey market activities and allows customers to authenticate their product at the point of sale. It also strengthens the appellation registration for the Australian island state of Tasmania, which boasts some of the most pristine water and climate conditions for manufacturing premium, top-shelf liquor products. “Old Kempton Distillery makes one of the world’s finest whiskeys, and with counterfeiting in our industry becoming a global issue, we recognized the need to take proactive steps to protect our brand,” said Robbie Gilligan, Business Manager and Brand Ambassador for Old Kempton Distillery, “We were seeking the best brand protection technology available and a solution that would also allow us to securely engage with our customers, long after a sale. We believe that HID Trusted Tag services and the support provided through AusNFC provide just that.” Beyond its anti-counterfeiting features, HID’s IoT offering opens a new and powerful avenue for Old Kempton Distillery to stay connected with customers via direct and hyper-personalized communications that helps the distillery build brand loyalty in a privacy preserving, closed environment. “We find HID’s solutions to be applicable to many different industries,” said Larry Hower, CEO of AusNFC, “HID Trusted Tag services is changing the game for authenticating brands and staying connected to buyers through a mobile experience.” How it works The distillery’s solution incorporates HID Trusted Tag services into the AusNFC web application that drive the front-end mobile experience on customers’ phones. An HID cryptographically secure near field communication (NFC) tag is embedded into the label of every liquor bottle, which links to HID’s cloud authentication service. By tapping their iPhone or Android phone to the bottle, the customer activates a secure communications channel that authenticates the provenance of their premium product – down to the actual bottle number. Each tap generates a unique URL, preventing counterfeiters from copying, spoofing or manipulating the URL for false verification. “HID’s IoT technology is enabling mass adoption of brand protection by major brands worldwide that are seeking to address more sophisticated attempts by fraudsters focused on imitating their products,” said Mark Robinton, Director of Business Development and Strategic Innovation at HID Global, “Manufacturers and consumers alike can rest assured that their product can be authenticated at every stage of its lifecycle – from production to the shopping bag.” The power of HID Trusted Tag services HID Trusted Tag services combine HID’s cloud authentication services with its trusted NFC tags that come in many form factors for variety of product shapes and sizes requiring brand authentication. HID’s trusted NFC tags are embedded into each product during the manufacturing process, and are easily read using NFC-enabled smartphones (both Android and iOS v11, and newer). The advanced cryptographic capabilities of the embedded tags make them virtually impossible to be cloned or copied, and the extended security features in HID’s cloud authentication service provide privacy-preserving brand authentication and consumer engagement in a closed and trusted environment.  

Genetec Inc. has recently announced the immediate availability of a new unified solutions bundle for financial institutions, an all-in-one offering, specifically tailored to help banks with small and mid-sized branches and automated teller machines (ATMs) manage security, make more informed decisions, and collaborate to close incident cases more quickly. The unified solutions bundle combines several easy-to-install, enterprise-class Genetec products, at an affordable price for financial institutions. “Traditionally, financial institutions with small or midsized branch locations and ATMs worked with multiple physical security technology and analytics suppliers to combine solutions that were not designed to work together. This created inefficiency and introduced cybersecurity vulnerabilities, challenging maintenance, and operational situations which increased costs. Our unified solutions bundle solves that problem by bringing security, operations and business intelligence together into one single interface, reducing operator overload and improving efficiency. With Genetec Security Center at the core of this bundle, banking customers can be confident knowing that their solutions are deployed following cybersecurity best practices,” explained Rob Borsch, Commercial & Practice Lead at Genetec. With this new bundle, and the Genetec Security Center unified platform at its core, financial institutions will be able to make the most of their existing security infrastructure to develop strategies to attract and retain customers, reduce fraud losses, and close cases quickly. By using embedded analytics tools to analyze the vast amounts of data and video already being collected, they can make better-informed decisions about staffing and how to manage the flow of people. This can help them become more competitive and have a significant positive impact on their customers’ journey. A unified system can also improve overall branch security by giving personnel all the information they need including alarms and associated video footage, on mobile devices or at their central operations center so they are ready to respond quickly. In an emergency, an IP-based physical security system that includes a map-based interface showing a location’s cameras, doors, and other devices, can make all the difference. The Genetec unified bundle features a Streamvault™ turnkey appliance, pre-loaded with the Genetec Security Center unified platform, and other software including: Omnicast™: An IP-based video management system that goes beyond simple monitoring. Combined with video analytics, it helps secure and better understand banking environment with real-time access to surveillance video from any computer or smart phone. Synergis™: IPbased access control to manage the movement of people throughout buildings, while securing doors and restricted areas in bank branches and administrative offices. AutoVu™: An automatic license plate recognition solution that facilitates vehicle identification. This can assist your marketing and operations team to link specific vehicles to customer or employee profiles in the database, or identify unknown vehicles in your parking area. Camera Integrity Monitor module that alerts customers when a camera is either moved (pointed in a different direction), covered, or tampered with. Retail Sense™ advanced consumer intelligence to empower banks by using existing security data to deliver insights and help transform customers’ in-branch experience. These new insights enable one to make informed, real-time decisions, that increase consumer engagement and profitability by analyzing the data your system already gathers. A free 90-day license of the Genetec Clearance™ digital evidence management system to speed up investigations by securely collecting, managing, and sharing digital evidence from various sources with others. Optional add-ons include: ATM transaction integration (to correlate ATM activity with video footage), Intrusion alarm panel integration plug-in (efficiently respond to intrusion breeches), Sipelia™ intercom hardware & licenses (SIP-based communications between operators and intercom devices), Federation connection license (Connect different sites together), Extended 5 -year warranty, Analog encoder card(s) for 8, 16, 24 or 32 channels.  

Mission Kumba, Anglo American’s iron ore business in South Africa, cemented its position as an early adopter of new technologies when it implemented automated drilling on the Kolomela Mine. This project was the first fully automated drill fleet in Africa which aimed to increase utilisation, improve safety and performance, boost reliability and productivity, and save costs. The remote command of mining equipment relies on line of sight through remote drill monitoring to honour the guidelines of the Mine Health and Safety Act, specifically guidelines towards trackless mobile machinery (TMM). As the preferred supplier to Kumba Iron Ore, Sedna Industrial IT Solutions (Sedna), were asked to provide visual monitoring to support this. “The project’s conceptual phase required creative thinking that led to custom-built products. Sedna provided basic specifications, with minor on site changes to products once introduced and thoroughly tested. Furthermore, their Axis partnership meant we had superior technology and hardware to support the project requirements. Their combined commitment and technical ability is phenomenal and contributed to the overall success of the project” – Pieterjan le Roux Technologist Engineering at Kolomela Mine, Kumba Iron Ore Solution As an Axis development partner, Sedna naturally collaborated with the market leader in video surveillance. The team has worked together on several mining applications in the past, and Sedna relies on the exceptional durability and performance of the Axis products. AXIS P3905-RE network cameras were installed on the drills in order to replace the onboard visibility during the ab sence of an operator, and the Geo-Cam was used with AXIS Q6115-E as the base platform for drill and bench monitoring, from a distance providing a 360 coverage of the entire working area of the drill. AXIS Q8722-E were used as the base for the thermal Geo-Cam for drill and bench monitoring in poor light or high dust conditions. Result The custom-built, world-class mining application reinforces the project through real-time visual monitoring for automated process optimization and early problem detecting. As a result, the Kolomea Mine is benefited from increased efficiency, improved safety, minimized downtime and lowered operating costs. Remote drill visual monitoring Automated drilling presents many benefits as it promises to increase efficiency and reliability, while improving safety, minimising downtime and lowering operating costs. It is best suited for remote and inaccessible locations, and allows for more accurate pressure control and more rapid response to drilling anomalies. Combined with visual monitoring through high definition cameras, a single person can operate multiple drills from a control room on a 24/7 basis. Axis development partner, Sedna Industrial IT Solutions (Sedna), specialising in mining-based systems was approached by Kolomela Mine Project to provide visual monitoring support. Peter Dormehl, Director of Sedna Industrial IT Solutions, has partnered with Kolomela over the years on technical mining solutions, and therefore understood the requirements and client preferences. Dormehl commented, “In making our recommendations to Kumba’s team, we put Axis forward as the IP camera partner of choice. Sedna has worked with Axis for almost a decade and we are confident in their product support. We know their hardware can survive demanding environments, as we’ve deployed their cameras in mining operations worldwide.” Superior technology and hardware A few years ago, Sedna built a Geo-Cam for monitoring operations within environments such as opencast mines, where there is no cabling infrastructure. The robust, mobile device is solar powered and locates positional information or tracks a moving object with GPS. The camera communicates via industrial wireless LAN and can be controlled (Pan, Tilt, Zoom) remotely, allowing for monitoring from remote operations. “Part of our comprehensive solution to Kolomela was to install 7 Geo-Cams, which were used with AXIS Q6115-E network cameras as the base platform for drill and bench monitoring, while AXIS Q8722-E was used as the base for the six thermal Geo-Cams for drill and bench monitoring in poor light or high dust conditions. In addition, we installed outdoor-ready AXIS P3905-RE on the drills, as they are ideal for onboard surveillance. This is recorded and managed on a Milestone platform with the Geo-Cam software,” explained Dormehl. Automatic success “ The drill project deployment was rolled out over eight months by a strong, competent team of experts who helped contribute towards ensuring that our automated drilling delivers against an ambitious growth strategy,” concluded Sipho Mathonsi, Manager Engineering at Kolomela mine.  

When we think about ourselves or a loved one becoming injured or ill and needing professional care, we’d like to envision a hospital or healthcare facility as a place that is welcoming, comforting and safe. In times that we’re most vulnerable, we should be able to feel confident that the room we’re in is located within a secure and organized environment. But the reality is that hospitals face a variety of challenges when it comes to streamlining security and mitigating risks, just as other types of large, complex campuses do. With so much ground to cover and people constantly entering and exiting the building, directors of security at hospitals tend to grapple with various concerns such as: Visitor management. At the core of any hospital is the goal of creating an open environment that encourages healing and patient support. But this often means hundreds of ingress/ egress points, varying levels of access and the possible exposure of patient data. Cybersecurity. The aforementioned personal data that hospitals obtain on a daily basis is unfortunately subject to breaches and cyber attacks, especially as the connected network continues to grow and become more complex. These facilities must also adhere to specific privacy laws and regulations, adding another layer to the mix of requirements. Variance. There are often many tasks and processes being performed in a hospital at one time – from controlling contagious diseases to restricting sensitive areas to rushing critical patients around, there’s no doubt that the element of uncertainty can lead to chaos. Access control in hospital security To manage the risks that hospitals face and ensure a comprehensively protected atmosphere for patients and staff, security directors must look to implementing integrated and innovative security solutions; and one of the most important components of any system that’s deployed is access control technology. Utilizing an access control solution enables hospital security officials to break down the facility’s overwhelming size into controllable, role-based zones that come together within one common platform. Access control encompasses not only main entrance doors, but also internal entrances and exits based on location and access level – meaning all methods for going in, out or throughout the facility can be actively monitored. Most importantly, hospitals demand a security system that can withstand the large volumes of traffic generated each day without disrupting critical functions. A traditional key-based system will struggle to keep up with this level of activity, but taking advantage of a more advanced solution, such as Vanderbilt ACT, can provide numerous benefits. Lockdown functionality In the event of an attempted unauthorized entry or emergency incident, it is paramount for hospital security officials to be able to control access quickly and efficiently. Access control systems allow these organizations to ensure security with the push of a button, as well as remotely and instantly obtain real-time monitoring, user management and administration. Flexibility With the many moving parts hospitals must manage, scalability and flexibility are key to maintaining a secure facility. An access control solution can help security officials constantly adjust access rights based on numerous characteristics such as areas of practice and likely working hours. Former employees can also immediately be removed from the system, eliminating the possibility of a threat. Restriction Different hallways, rooms, floors and waiting areas within a hospital require different amounts of restriction, and an access control system can make this process easy. Sensitive materials such as narcotics or sterile environments, can be given added protection, and medical files or controlled substances can be protected with electronic access-controlled cabinet locks to create an audit trail in the case of a breach. Convergence While access control is a crucial centerpiece of a hospital’s security system, the ability to integrate additional components and products can create the strongest solution that facilitates complete protection. Incorporating video surveillance, for example, increases situational awareness and allows security administrators to evaluate a situation before it may become a threat such as a door being forced open. Vanderbilt’s ACT Enterprise 2.8 The latest version of Vanderbilt’s ACT Enterprise access control software is an ideal solution to provide the aforementioned benefits to hospitals and healthcare facilities. ACT Enterprise has been designed with ease of installation and usage as primary goals, with scalability and simplicity key characteristics for enhanced efficiency and effectiveness. One of its newest features, the rules mapping engine, enables the advanced configuration of triggers, which can be actioned on events such as input and output change and card swipe outcomes across the access control system. In a hospital, an example of this functionality could include a card reader for doctor badges on the emergency room suite, which would send an alert to the ER team for immediate assistance. ACT Enterprise 2.8 also facilitates simplified integration with Vanderbilt’s SPC intrusion system, which enables hospital security personnel to view high-quality graphical maps on a single screen that shows all access and alarm points from both systems. This type of wireless integration solution makes system expansion flexible, without the disruption of maintenance teams closing corridors or priority areas of a hospital to run cabling or other installation equipment. Access control is key As hospitals aim to balance contending with security challenges and establishing a place that provides a comfortable recovery and visitation options, adopting an integrated access control solution must be top-of-mind. Learn more about how the flexibility of Vanderbilt ACT allows healthcare facilities to easily manage public areas and permit access to restricted areas while preventing unauthorized access.