Brivo’s ACS WebService installed by Professional Security Technologies at US housing complexes

The installation manages access to the main entryways of two buildings, each equipped with proximity readers

The Situation

Parkadon Management Inc. is a property management company specialising in Federal Section 8 housing (affordable housing), with offices located in Manhattan, Harlem, Brooklyn, and Jersey City, New Jersey.

The management of Section 8 housing is a hard financial model to make work. At one project alone, the company experienced a $100,000 cost overrun in providing security. So, Parkadon has to be creative and committed to finding cost-effective solutions that will deliver the level of security their residents need and deserve.

The Challenge

Prior to installing Brivo ACS WebService, Greg Doroski and his staff managed access and reporting for the seven-building Jersey City and the 100-apartment Brooklyn locations from their offices in Harlem. Both locations serve hundreds of residents, as well as hundreds more staff, visitors, and deliveries, etc.

With their previous access control system, Doroski and staff had to manage eight buildings with eight different dial-up modems. To perform any sort of diagnostics or maintenance on the system required logging into each modem separately. If a mistake was made in the log-on process, the log-on process had to be started again—from the beginning. Worse yet, system malfunctions required service calls, on average, every other week just to keep access control up and running.

Doroski and his team found the old system extremely cumbersome and expensive. With numerous communications and software problems and the constant need for service calls, he began looking for a new solution to better fit their access control needs and the company’s budget.

The Solution

Mike Isabella and his team at Professional Security Technologies were chosen to install two Brivo ACS5000 wireless control panels, one each in the Jersey City and Brooklyn locations.

At present, the Jersey City installation manages access to the main entryways of two buildings, each equipped with proximity readers. ACS WebService gives Parkadon the ability to easily add and remove privileges for tenants and vendors. In addition, all entry information is recorded in the Activity Log, which aids in police investigations that occur about two to three times a week. As budget allows, Parkadon plans to eventually equip the Jersey City buildings with Brivo’s DVR/CCTV integrated functionality.

Brivo’s DVR / CCTV integrated functionality is also equipped at the Jersey City buildings

The more recent installation in Brooklyn manages the main lobby and is tied to a Speco DVR. The DVR gives both Parkadon and on-site staff the ability to record and play back video clips for any event in the Activity Log, while also providing “live” viewing links to the cameras. Before ACS WebService, Parkadon had manual release doors and a 24-hour security guard manning the entrance. Now that the Brivo solution has been installed, a security guard is no longer necessary during the day—a substantial savings for Parkadon.

The Highlights

• Remote management: Brivo ACS WebService gives Doroski and his staff the ability to manage his doors and tenants from anywhere there is an Internet connection. Adding and removing tenants and vendors and running reports are done with ease through a standard Web browser. Doroski stated, “I just log into the management site and I have access to all buildings on the Brivo system—I can manage all my sites seamlessly.”

• Easy installation: With Brivo, the new system is up and running in a matter of hours, not days. And the application is so easy to use that training takes just minutes. “The competitor’s system was switched out for Brivo and Professional Security Technologies had the system up in just one day,” Doroski said.

• DVR Integration: At the Brooklyn location there is one access point tied into a Speco DVR. Each key-in takes a picture of the person entering, the DVR records 24/7, and the location holds video for 30 days. The access control-DVR integration ensures better security and post-event investigation.

• System Improvement: Parkadon plans to take high-resolution copies of resident picture IDs to populate a database that would then be compared with the DVR screen capture of a resident requesting entry.

• Email notifications: Doroski likes that Brivo ACS WebService can be configured to send automatic email notifications based on alerts and user events. “It was an added bonus when we realised that we could receive email notifications from the security staff.”

• Easily run reports: Doroski mentioned a non-security benefit, “It’s easy for us to lose track of our maintenance staff with the amount of work going on. The Brivo system allows us to track who is coming and going and what work is getting done.”