The College offers around 250 full and part-time courses to over 7,000 students each year so to make the new building a success much though had to be given to the design and implementation of a robust security plan that would allow for free flow of traffic throughout the building while safely and securely controlling who could access what, where and when.

To achieve the aim of creating an almost totally keyless environment for the Paddington Green site, the access control system selected was the Salto Virtual Network system (SVN).

The Salto system was selected because of its unique ability to distribute card holder and system information to access controlled doors that are not cabled to any controller, which is made possible by using the card to upload and download information between on-line and off-line doors.

Of the 264 access controlled doors in the new building only 21 are on-line, negating the need for power and containment at each door. This makes for a system that is not only effective but also considerably reduces the cost of ownership per door when compared with standard on-line systems.

Management of students, staff and visitors is crucial for the College and this would be the key application for the new access control system. To achieve it the College’s vision is to have a true multi-application smart card environment totally removing the need for traditional keys, where as required cards can be enabled for photo ID, cashless vending, canteen, library, on demand printing, use of lockers and more.

To accomplish this, a highly secure and flexible access control system has been designed using off-line XS4 E9450 handle sets and locks and a mix of on-line WRM9000 wall reader units utilising the power of the Salto Virtual Network (SVN).

This system allows the XS4 units to read, receive and write information via the College’s student and staff ID cards. Since most access related information is kept encrypted on these cards, the wall readers are able to update and receive information from the cards at any time. So not only is the system easy to use, but its clever functionality also provides 90% of the benefits of a fully on line access control system at the cost of a stand alone system.

The ‘smart’ ID cards build up 'on-card' audit trails through normal use giving the College complete control over access and enabling the movement of students, staff and visitors to be tracked through both the off-line and on-line parts of the system if required. This enables a complete access profile of each individual to be established and updated as necessary at the up date wall readers.

It can also programme keys to allow access to specific rooms or areas within the College for selected periods only, with the doors auto locking at pre-specified times as required. And if key security is breached due to the loss of a key card, it can be instantly deleted from the system without the need or cost of rekeying or changing locks – saving the College time and money.

City of Westminster College is a very forward thinking environment and with the incorporation of the latest access control technology into their new campus facilities they have taken the necessary steps to ensure they will be able to achieve far reaching and long lasting control over their security requirements.

Key operational benefits met by the technology include a more flexible and reliable system for a lower total cost of ownership, the benefits of an almost totally keyless environment and thanks to its Salto SVN system, the ability to manage up to 64,000 users and doors in a single system if required, making the college a secure and accessible environment for all its users.