In a significant security enhancement, Spanish football club UD Almería has upgraded their 18,000-capacity stadium by transitioning from traditional mechanical locks to a comprehensive digital access control system.
With an aim to streamline security management, the club opted for ASSA ABLOY's SMARTair solution, which integrates wireless locks and enables centralised access management. This innovative system not only offers the convenience of mobile keys and smart cards but also allows for the integration of eCLIQ smart keys, electronic cylinders, and padlocks, ensuring all access points are digitally secured.
Enhanced security infrastructure
The move to digital access was driven by the need for a versatile and scalable system that could be managed through a single, user-friendly software interface.
The current infrastructure at the stadium required a solution that could be implemented without extensive modifications. ASSA ABLOY, selected as the project's partner, provided a suite of devices, including SMARTair i-max escutcheons and knob cylinders for glass doors, and integrated wall readers for office environments.
Streamlined management with SMARTair and eCLIQ
ASSA ABLOY's expertise in digital solutions ensured quick installation without significant structural changes
Adding CLIQ devices to the SMARTair platform provides UD Almería with complete traceability and control over stadium access, even in remote areas. ASSA ABLOY's expertise in digital solutions ensured quick installation without significant structural changes.
This seamless integration has reduced complexity and eliminated the need for dual mechanical and digital systems, providing a cohesive approach to securing various stadium zones, including offices, locker rooms, and technical areas.
Efficient visitor and staff access
The SMARTair TS1000 Web software facilitates comprehensive online management of all users and access points. Staff use RFID cards that function as both ID badges and keys through the SMARTair Openow® app, while visitors access the stadium via time-limited mobile keys. This system enhances visitor management efficiency, offering ease of access for both internal staff and external contractors.
Convenience and flexibility
This hybrid system met all security and access needs, facilitating a seamless transition
eCLIQ smart keys, featuring programmable individual access permissions, protect sensitive areas such as technical rooms and service zones. The integration of RFID technology within CLIQ keys allows them to interface with both SMARTair and eCLIQ devices, offering a versatile credential management approach. Facility managers can choose between mobile credentials and RFID solutions for various applications across the stadium.
The retrofitting process, which involved replacing mechanical cylinders with eCLIQ cylinders, required no wiring, making it efficient and less intrusive. This hybrid system met all security and access needs, facilitating a seamless transition to a modern digital control environment. ASSA ABLOY's digital solutions, comprising CLIQ and SMARTair devices, enable comprehensive access oversight without the complexities of cabling or mechanical keys.
The collaboration between UD Almería and ASSA ABLOY demonstrates the benefits of combining different digital access technologies to address complex security challenges within a stadium setting. The implementation supports robust control and flexibility, ensuring the safety of stadium visitors and staff day and night.
Stadiums require access technologies which are versatile, durable, reliable and easily scalable. Finding a single system which meets all these needs, and simultaneously offers digital devices for the wide range of opening types in a typical stadium, is not straightforward.
In many cases, security managers resort to running two security systems in parallel. This creates added workload and complexity, especially when they must deploy a mix of digital control and mechanical cylinders at different openings.
Existing stadium infrastructure
For a security upgrade at their 18,000-capacity stadium, Spanish football club UD Almería wanted to transition from traditional mechanical locks to digital access control. They sought a solution which could accommodate these diverse needs and enable centralised management from a single, intuitive software interface. Ease of installation within existing stadium infrastructure and the ability to equip doors which receive lots of robust traffic were further criteria.
UD Almería chose ASSA ABLOY as partner to digitalise their access. Their SMARTair digital access system includes wireless locks for many access points and mobile keys or smart cards for user convenience. The same solution now also offers centralised management of eCLIQ smart keys, electronic cylinders and padlocks. This combined solution enables the stadium to secure all their different access points digitally.
Complex stadium projects
By adding CLIQ devices within a SMARTair solution, organisations gain total traceability of access in a single system – saving security managers’ time and hassle. They can manage access even at remote locations with durable CLIQ cylinders and programmable keys, all from the familiar SMARTair interface. In addition, the team at Almería benefited from technical support provided by ASSA ABLOY specifiers with expertise working on digital access solutions for complex stadium projects.
The complementary benefits of SMARTair and eCLIQ ensure Almería’s needs are met without compromising on security or flexibility. Reliable, durable eCLIQ and SMARTair devices have low maintenance requirements, minimising ongoing costs. “With our SMARTair and eCLIQ system, I feel the stadium is well protected, day and night,” confirms Ignacio Martín-Calpena Miranda, Director of Facilities and Infrastructure, UD Almería.
Convenient visitor management
All users and access points are managed online from SMARTair TS1000 Web software. Installed devices include SMARTair i-max escutcheons and knob cylinders for glass doors, plus SMARTair integrated wall readers for office turnstiles. These are supplemented with eCLIQ smart key-operated digital cylinders, CLIQ Wall PDs and eCLIQ padlocks for gates and tool cages. This entire digital system operates without cables to or around any openings: both SMARTair and CLIQ devices are wireless and were installed quickly, between home matches, without invasive structural work.
The club security team chose SMARTair for real-time control and oversight of offices, locker rooms and physio suites. Here, authorised staff use customised RFID cards which double as ID badges or mobile keys in the SMARTair Openow® app. Visitors and external contractors receive time-limited access through mobile keys sent directly to their own app, streamlining convenient visitor management.
Interior service zones
Alongside this, eCLIQ cylinders protect technical rooms and interior service zones. Maintenance staff and security personnel, including police, carry an eCLIQ smart key programmed with individual access permissions. “Managing SMARTair and eCLIQ doors within a single system, via TS1000, has greatly simplified our work,” adds Ignacio Martín-Calpena Miranda.
For added convenience, every CLIQ smart key also has an RFID chip inside which can be programmed to unlock authorised doors secured with SMARTair devices. Aligning CLIQ with SMARTair gives facilities managers the choice of mobile credentials or RFID credentials (smart cards, fobs, or badges) for SMARTair devices, smart keys for CLIQ cylinders or smart keys with RFID tags for both SMARTair and CLIQ devices.
Retrofitting existing doors
Retrofitting existing doors was simple: installers simply replaced the mechanical cylinder with an eCLIQ cylinder, without wiring or batteries. Power is carried to the cylinder via the user’s battery-powered key. This hybrid installation ensures all Almería’s diverse access needs were met – only ASSA ABLOY could provide such a connected, unified system.
“When organisations extend their SMARTair digital access solution with CLIQ battery-free cylinders, they implement complete oversight for their premises, including any outdoor spaces,” explains Gabriel García, Key Account Manager at ASSA ABLOY Opening Solutions. “There’s no cabling and no more need for mechanical keys – just smart, flexible management.”
Implementing digital access
Both CLIQ electronic and electromechanical cylinders and the SMARTair out-of-the-box system are part of a suite of connected Digital Access Solutions from ASSA ABLOY. When they are deployed together, security teams can manage even more doors from their SMARTair software interface. They can implement digital access almost anywhere, without drilling or causing damage to the building structure.
The broad range of openings already covered by SMARTair are supplemented with a range of more than 60 CLIQ and eCLIQ cylinder types, making every access point secure.
