Australian seniors secured by SALTO multi-site RFID access control system

As Western Australia’s largest not for profit aged care and retirement village provider, Bethanie is committed to providing a warm, social and engaging environment in which seniors can enjoy a vibrant, energetic and social lifestyle.

The company’s mission is to make a real difference to people’s lives, and one of the ways they strive to achieve this is to offer a range of retirement living options for all budgets from care in the home and social centre’s for seniors, to retirement villages, affordable housing and residential aged care across Perth and regional Western Australia.

The challenge

Having taken the decision to upgrade their security from a traditional mechanical keyed system and all the hassles that entailed such as replacing locks and cutting keys to something that provided far higher levels of protection, the search began for a reliable and economical electronic system that could efficiently run and manage multiple displaced sites that were up to 230km distant from one another.

This included 3 Lifestyle Villages in Yanchep, Bunbury and Eaton and 2 Apartment Housing developments in Dalyellup & Mandurah. The essential requirements were the flexibility to secure existing doors without having to alter hardware; an ability to easily track and replace key cards in use and be able to remotely manage the access control systems across the various properties from one central location.

Through a partnership with SALTO Systems (Australia); local SALTO dealer GWA Group and installer Blue Force Pty Ltd., Bethanie was able to find a system that delivered on all of these requirements and more.

The solution

The SALTO Access Control system installed by Blue Force Pty Ltd provides an excellent balance between cost and control. Its use of SALTO’s unique XS4 and SVN access control platform now provides a standalone networked locking solution for over 130 doors including apartment front entrance doors, club house front entrance doors, miscellaneous lifestyle village internal doors and perimeter gates without the need to hardwire or run power to each lock.

Neil Armstrong, SALTO Business Development Manager Western Australia, says “Our XS4 electronic escutcheon platform in a mix of offline and online handle sets, together with its associated control units and wall readers provides the means to operate a totally keyless environment thanks to their unique ability to distribute card holder and system information to access controlled doors by using Mifare /DESFire key cards to upload and download information between the on-line and off-line doors.

The SALTO Access Control system gives the ability to deploy access control to remotely situated developments

The client needed the ability to deploy a solution to remote buildings where network infrastructure is limited and where it would be both difficult and expensive to install it in the required locations. This meant going for a stand-alone system was the obvious choice as it was less expensive and faster to deploy than traditional hard wired solutions without any need to compromise on safety or security. Such a system also helps them overcome the challenges associated with managing remote sites and improves service levels to staff and end users and facilitates the company becoming more efficient through reduced capital and operational expenditure.”

With the installation, Bethanie management staff now has remote access to all the above sites from their head office location via Salto Systems Pro Access software which is professionally hosted within a data centre facility in Perth WA.

This software allows them to manage their multiple sites through one common platform via an in-built departmental feature. What’s more its remote door open tool also saves Bethanie time in deploying resources to provide physical access to contractors or delivery people requiring access to remote sites. It is also useful in instances where end users are accidentally locked out and need access quickly - saving in time and cost associated with providing resources to re-actively travel to and from site.

The result

Seniors accommodation, particularly in retirement communities, can face a number of special and sensitive security issues so ensuring the safety of residents is a high priority.

Controlling access therefore plays a hugely important role and the industry leading SALTO access control solution supplied by GWA Group and Blueforce Pty Ltd now provides a comprehensive, future-proof service to Bethanie. From assistance with the specification, to supply, install and commissioning, both companies knew it was essential to deliver an outstanding service from start to finish.

Bethanie’s Contract & Building Services Administrator Alan Sheehan said: “SALTO has exceeded our expectations on the versatility and ease with which actions can be undertaken. It gives us the ability to deploy access control to remotely situated developments during both construction and operational phases, and its SVN technology can be deployed quickly as there is no dependency on physical network infrastructure, or even power supply. This allows us to provide a safe and secure environment to all our stakeholders at all phases of site development.”

Neil Armstrong concludes: “The combination of the SALTO XS4 wireless product together with motivated, competent installation engineers and clarity of direction from such a professional client ensured we delivered the project on time and fully met Bethanie’s security expectations.”