When the RADCO team came in to manage the operations and sales and marketing of the 1,300-unit community-the largest condominium community in the San Fernando Valley-the company proposed a number of system and amenity upgrades to enhance the appeal of the property and to provide greater satisfaction for existing residents. "We're an 'asset manager,'" explained James J. Elliott, MSM, RADCO's West Coast Director of Condominium Operations, "we're brought into a project to act in a variety of capacities to refresh and rebrand a property. When we took over The Met, one of the biggest concerns owners expressed was the outdated security and lack of an access control system."

The Met comprises 17 three-story buildings, each with 69 to 179 units per building. All told, the complex boasts a community room, six tennis courts, four pools, a fitness center, spa, and a 24-hour guard presence. Bruce Gehrke, from Gemini Security, provided a demonstration of Brivo ACS WebService, and Elliott was impressed with the system's ease of use and data access. With such a big complex and Radco already handling multiple aspects of management, Elliott also needed strong support from Gemini and Brivo, "I want one number to call when I need help. The data is not on site, it's safer with Brivo, and I've got the flexibility and ease of use I need to manage the system or delegate it to someone else."

The Met represents the best of what Brivo offers for such large installations-management for more than 100 doors, 16 telephone entry systems, a visitor management system at the gatehouse, multiple cameras at entry/exit points, and more than 2,300 resident user records with plans to grow up to 5,000, a necessary expansion point as The Met is not yet sold out. All systems and data are managed through a single Brivo interface. Gemini Security's sister company, Luxe Concepts Inc., designed the new gatehouse and all the gates guarding property entrances. Gemini constructed and installed the gatehouse, masonry, concrete, custom gates, and access equipment, along with ten miles of cabling for the Brivo system.

In addition to Elliott and selected members of the RADCO staff, The Met's Homeowner's Association also has access to the Brivo system. "The remote access is such a key feature," said Elliott, "and in the future we want to provide LAPD with access to the Brivo system as well."

The Brivo ACS WebService system manages all main entry doors, elevators, and the road entrances to the property. At the guardhouse, automobile entry is monitored through the integrated access control and video, with resident information displaying on the screen upon card swipe. Residents have access to the property and the common areas and amenities, but only to their residential building; they may not access other resident buildings. Separate access control groups have also been created for RADCO staff, service providers, the security guards, and to control access to various amenities-each group with different members, access privileges, and times.

Elliott and his team are fully utilizing the Brivo system to improve overall security and residents' satisfaction, and he's found a few other innovative uses for the system as well. "California law allows us to deny access to the property's amenities if a resident is behind on monthly assessment payments. With the Brivo system, we can easily turn off access to the tennis courts and other amenities for such residents, while maintaining their access to the property and their home. In the first few days after implementing this policy, we collected more than USD 20,000 in overdue assessments."

RADCO also uses the Brivo system's alert features to inform them and the Association in the event of lockdown or power failures, upon unauthorized entry attempts, or, for example, if a security guard tries to gain entry outside a work shift.

Elliott accesses the Brivo interface every day, "I have experience with three or four different access control systems, Brivo is the easiest interface I've seen. It's a one-stop shop for creating badges and for immediate control and reporting over all access events. Plus, we don't have to have one 'expert' on a dedicated computer for the system-we can get other staff up and running on it fairly quickly. The residents have really seen the value, they feel safer, and they know they're not paying for non-residents to use their amenities."