ABLOY USA’s Padlock Passes ATF Test
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) recognized ABLOY USA’s high-security PL340 padlock for meeting regulations as a locking device for securing explosives magazines. Only padlocks that are constructed with at least five disc tumblers and a case-hardened shackle that has a diameter of at least three-eighths of an inch are substantially equivalent to the regulations of 27 CFR 555, Subpart K.
“To my knowledge, we are the only security lock company that has had ATF inspect and verify their cylinder design. This validation is important for explosive safety and compliance personnel in the mining, blasting, wireline, and construction industries,” says Shayne Spears, ABLOY’s vertical market manager for Oil & Gas and Mining.
The ATF determination acknowledges that the PL340 is effectively pickproof because of the capabilities of ABLOY PROTEC2 CLIQ, a hybrid system that combines industry-leading mechanical disc technology with electronic components. Spears says the specific information that ATF requested should reassure any potential user who is considering CLIQ, PROTEC2 or any older key system used in the PL340, which was introduced in 2001.
“Having this critical determination clarifies the overall picture for end users,” Spears says. “Our PL340, PL342, PL350 and PL362 padlocks can be confidently used to secure various explosive types, such as dynamite, blasting caps, display fireworks, black powder or ANFO (ammonium nitrate/fuel oil).”
The PL340 and PL342 series meet and exceed grade 5 ASTM standards, while the PL350 and PL362 are grade 6. These models provide maximum resistance to physical attack because of the case-hardened, free-spinning protection plate that prevents drill bits from penetrating the lock. The unique rotating-disc cylinder system ensures that it’s pickproof and provides for a vast range of comprehensive masterkey options. The padlocks are equipped with a 10 mm or 15 mm diameter case-hardened boron steel shackle.
More info: www.abloyusa.com
Saffire LX-M Removes the Access Hassles of Multifamily Living
dormakaba’s Saffire LX-M was the chosen access solution by Rhapsody Property Management Services for its sophisticated RFID technology in a contemporary design, ease of use, flexibility and security. The Saffire LX-M Series enhances access control convenience for residents and improves operational efficiency for property managers.
“When it comes to access control, our residents are mostly focused on ease of use and security,” says Rob Martin, senior vice president of Rhapsody Property Management Services. “We wanted to provide one-key access for residents through an integrated system that is easily maintained and reliable.”
dormakaba’s Saffire LX-M Series mortise locking solution was installed in Rhapsody Property’s Central Parc property in Laval, Quebec, Canada. The property is composed of six buildings and a community center. Central Parc’s access solutions had to provide security and convenience.
“The Saffire system provides several benefits,” Martin says. “We appreciate the ease of use, integration and dormakaba’s customer service. Its quality surpasses all its peers. As with any new luxury product in the market, details are important, and the Saffire system allows us to have an elegant and functional aesthetic in a curated living experience.”
Available in a suite of versatile models, Saffire harmonizes with progressive building technology and amenities, including the option of issuing mobile, fob, wristband or keycard credentials.
Rhapsody chose dormakaba’s Saffire LX Series locking solution for Central Parc for its key advantages, which include:
- Mobile access, which allows residents to use their smart devices to enter their residence, as well as perimeter, elevator, parking and other common areas, securely.
- Sophisticated RFID technology in a contemporary design.
- Elegant fascia colors, finishes and lever selections, making it versatile to complement any décor.
- Completely scalable and can include panic bars, parking gates and electronic access.
The Saffire LX-M is managed by dormakaba Community access management software. Community is an intuitive access management software that allows managers to manage access of residences, amenities, common areas and perimeters easily from a single platform. It also provides the convenience of RFID credentials and BLE mobile-access keys, with no need for additional software.
Millennials Prefer Homes with Mobile Access Control
An Allegion U.S. survey found that almost three-quarters of millennials have long-term plans to live in an apartment building, and that safety and security are top priorities. However, only 26 percent feel secure in their current dwellings, and few (less than 10 percent) have electronic door locks.
The national survey, “Home Safe Home: How Millennial Preferences Are Redefining Multifamily Living,” provides insight into millennials’ preferences for multifamily living and how they prioritize safety and security.
In the survey, 52 percent of respondents would prefer to access their home using tech-based entry methods, including a smartphone, pin code, biometric solution, key fob or card credential.
“Property managers and developers can benefit from looking to new, innovative means of access control to keep pace with tech-savvy millennials,” says Robert Gaulden, director of multifamily channel strategy at Allegion U.S. “The survey reinforces the value of mobile-enabled systems — not only do they bring building residents, service staff and guests convenient all-in-one mobile access control, but they can also simplify and streamline scheduling maintenance requests, managing packages, visitor management and more.”
Multifamily Matters — When looking at millennials’ current and planned living accommodations, respondents indicated that multifamily living will be a mainstay:
- 72 percent of millennials live in an apartment building.
- 75 percent plan to stay in their current residence six months or longer.
Sense of Safety — The majority of millennials don’t feel secure in their home nor have the technology installed that they require to feel safe, according to the survey:
- 74 percent of millennials don’t feel secure in their home.
- Few have connected electronic door locks (9 percent).
Delivery Dilemmas — The use of delivery services is significant among millennials, but those surveyed indicated they aren’t immune to package thieves:
- 57 percent of millennials use delivery services, such as Amazon (mostly for retail and food deliveries).
- Most receive an average of 1–2 packages per week (63 percent).
- 39 percent had packages stolen from their front door at some point.
Seamless Security — The on-demand millennial generation values seamless convenience and integrated solutions for home security:
- A residential portal app to pay rent, submit maintenance requests, etc. is of the greatest interest for a future residence when it comes to amenities (56 percent).
- 3 in 5 respondents would be more likely to live in a place that provided mobile access control.
- 52 percent prefer to access their home using alternative entry methods (pin code, smartphone, biometric, key fob or card credential).
- 58 percent are comfortable and have given out 1–2 keys or access codes to family or friends.
Property managers, security integrators and developers can help increase multifamily security by incorporating electronic access control. Beyond secure access, these solutions also allow for streamlined visitor management, package delivery and concierge services.
More info: multifamily.allegion.com
Kirkland’s Home Décor Stores Choose Hanwha Cameras
Home décor retailer Kirkland’s chose Hanwha Techwin America security cameras to improve security and business operations across hundreds of U.S. stores.
Protecting assets and people is always a top priority for Kirkland’s, which operates more than 400 stores in 37 states. When Kirkland’s evaluated its security solutions, it determined it had to upgrade the analog video surveillance systems in use at existing locations and plan for new stores.
Saraya Charlton, Kirkland’s loss-prevention investigator, says the analog video surveillance cameras the stores had in place were acceptable, but the company desired cameras that had wider coverage and better resolution. The amount of time it took to investigate incidents for loss prevention and personal-injury claims also was frustrating. Each time Charlton’s department was called to investigate an incident, each individual store had to extract the footage from the analog digital video recorder (DVR) at that location and send it to loss prevention at Kirkland’s headquarters.
Charlton says Kirkland’s sought an IP-based solution that could be accessed remotely that would make the loss-prevention investigation process more efficient and would provide additional benefits. Management wanted a camera that provided a clear picture, while minimizing bandwidth use, and had analytics capability.
Working with several systems integrators, Kirkland’s chose to deploy an IP video surveillance solution consisting of Hanwha video surveillance cameras managed by Salient Enterprise Video Management Software (VMS).
The first phase of the security upgrade included the deployment of 1,800 Hanwha Wisenet X series XNV-6011 2-megapixel HD dome cameras and Wisenet Lite vandal-resistant dome cameras at 200 Kirkland’s locations, as well as the company’s distribution center and e-commerce building. As new stores are built, they also will include the Hanwha-Salient security solution. Kirkland’s expects to have a full migration to IP at all locations by 2021.
Each Kirkland’s location is outfitted with about eight cameras, positioned to capture the entrance, the sales floor and back-of-house operations. Charlton says Hanwha’s cameras provide the most comprehensive view of the store possible.
“The wide-angle capability, as well as the quality of the camera, is really what sold us on Hanwha,” Charlton says. “We are getting the best views possible, and they are allowing us to see the entire sales floor, which is exactly what we wanted and needed.”
Hanwha’s Wisenet X series of cameras is a perfect fit for the retail environment. The wide-angle 2.8 mm lens captures a 112-degree horizontal field of view. For a retailer, that means doing more with less.
Charlton says the Hanwha cameras are particularly useful at store entrances, because, thanks to the WDR feature, video images aren’t affected by the bright sunlight that often shines through windows, and faces still can be seen clearly. And because many of Hanwha’s cameras provide license-free analytics, Kirkland’s will begin to explore that capability to gain information on people counting, heat mapping and dwell time.
The Hanwha-Salient solution has improved Kirkland’s loss-prevention investigation efficiency, because the team is able to pull recorded video from any camera via the Salient VMS rather than wait for information to be extracted from an analog DVR. The loss-prevention team also appreciates being able to use Hanwha’s Device Manager to troubleshoot and resolve any camera issues remotely rather than unnecessarily send out a service technician.
In addition to providing quality images, improved field of view and more-efficient operations, the Hanwha solution also helped Kirkland’s to conserve valuable bandwidth through Hanwha WiseStream II compression technology, Charlton says. WiseStream II dynamically controls encoding, balancing quality and compression according to the movement of the image. Combined with H.265 compression, bandwidth efficiency can be improved by up to 75 percent compared with current H.264 technology.
“We share our video surveillance and security bandwidth with our Point of Sale system and we don’t ever want to take away from the bandwidth of POS transactions or impact the speed at which they go through,” Charlton says. “Hanwha’s WiseStream compression technology fits our business model and along with Salient helps preserve and efficiently manage bandwidth. It’s really helpful to have a camera that’s smart enough to be able to tweak and regulate itself.”
HID Global Emergency Badging Solution
Organizations face an urgent requirement to onboard hundreds of key employees, such as medical, nursing and other staff members, on a daily basis across multiple facilities. HID Global introduced an emergency-badging solution to help manage the secure issuance and administration of staff badges and access control credentials as companies navigate the current health crisis.
HID’s offering combines its award-winning HID FARGO Connect solution for cloud-based ID card printing with its latest innovation for cloud-based identity management. This coimbination equips organizations with a convenient “touch-free” system that minimizes the effect on overwhelmed credential-issuance departments and drives a more secure work environment.
Administrative and security challenges that have emerged among health-care institutions, government agencies and other organizations that provide emergency services include:
- Inefficient access management processes that require manual sign-in and sign-out.
- Overwhelmed IT departments that have had to adjust credential issuance.
- Access restriction to in-demand items, such as medical equipment and PPE, and safeguarding against theft.
- HID’s emergency-badging solution includes the tools required to issue secure credentials to temporary employees:
- (1) HID FARGO desktop card printer for ID and card issuance.
- (1) FARGO Connect Console for badge issuance and management.
- A free, six-month subscription to HID FARGO Connect and the company’s cloud-based identity management platform.
- Consumables, cards and subscriptions to HID’s applications and secure cloud environment
More info: www.hidglobal.com.
Salto, Amazon Key Create Joint Solution
SALTO Systems has joined with Amazon Key for Business to provide a cloud-based solution that eliminates package-delivery issues for building managers by providing safe and secure entry for Amazon delivery drivers.
“Commercial and residential building managers have long spent too much time receiving and managing deliveries for residents and tenants,” says Kaushik Mani, global head of Amazon Key for Business. “That time can add up, since Amazon delivers seven days a week. We’re excited to work with SALTO to install Key for Business in multiunit buildings to streamline the delivery process and help to improve building and package security.”
“SALTO and Amazon Key for Business are collaborating to develop a seamless solution that can address and reduce these issues, freeing up property management to tend to more important tasks,” says Steve Burk, SALTO North America marketing director.
SALTO provides secure access control via electronic locks and supporting software for numerous residential and commercial buildings. To incorporate the use of Amazon Key for Business, building management installs a free smart device that communicates with the SALTO controller and the Amazon delivery app. To deliver a package, the Amazon delivery driver requests access to a building upon arrival via the Amazon Key for Business app. Amazon then validates the driver’s credentials using their ID, route, GPS location and time of request, and temporary access is granted to complete package delivery to common areas of a building, such as halls or mailrooms.
“SALTO has long provided access control solutions that not only improve security, but also add convenience,” Burk says. “We’re honored to work with Amazon Key for Business to help property managers operate more efficiently and to help ensure the security of package delivery for the buildings that rely on our electronic locks.”
ASSA ABLOY Launches Multi-Solution Door Opening
The Multi-Solution Door Opening adds to ASSA ABLOY’s long line of innovative and industry-leading life-safety products, including bullet-, attack- and tornado-resistant door-opening solutions. Influenced by ASSA ABLOY’s tornado-resistance door and hardware, the Multi-Solution Opening is third-party tested to protect against blasts, hurricane winds and fires.
“At ASSA ABLOY, we’re constantly seeking to innovate our existing products to deliver solutions for the unique challenges presented by the world around us,” says Marc Stroot, ASSA ABLOY manager of Specialty & Integrated Solutions. “We are proud to announce that after rigorous testing, this Multi-Solution Door Opening can dramatically increase safety in environments that face exposure to extreme hurricane-level winds, potential blast impact from explosions, excessive heat from a fire or a combination of all three.”
Stroot tells Locksmith Ledger that the Multi-Solution Door Opening is needed in hurricane areas and is suited for use in petrochemical and government markets but also, potentially, in cannabis dispensaries, mental-health institutions and safe rooms. “We expect this to expand very quickly,” he says.
The Multi-Solution Opening includes openings from Curries or Ceco Door, and Corbin Russwin BL6600 Series or SARGENT BL7300 Series multipoint locks, with the SARGENT or Corbin Russwin deadlocking systems factory-installed in the door. This construction makes for a “very user-friendly installation on site,” Stroot says.
With heavy-duty top, bottom and center latches, the multipoint lock provides the flexibility, strength and durability to withstand intense blasts, extreme winds and excessive heat to keep occupants and property protected.
The Curries or Ceco Door openings incorporate new technology to provide a fiberglass and steel-stiffened door core, with 12- or 14-gauge face sheets, depending on the blast category level. Fully welded edge seams and 14-gauge end channels provide superior strength. Similarly, the door frames are manufactured from heavy 12- or 14-gauge steel and have welded construction. The multiple anchoring options are designed to withstand extensive pressure.
The Multi-Solution Door Opening has been third-party tested to meet Department of Defense Minimum Antiterrorism standards for buildings and third-party certified by Underwriters Laboratories to protect against extreme wind events, including Florida High Velocity Hurricane Zones.
Allegion U.S. Unveils Site Survey Tool for Overtur Mobile
Allegion U.S., a leading provider of security products and solutions, released its Site Survey module for Overtur Mobile. Expanding on Overtur Mobile’s existing suite of tools, Site Survey joins the Punch List and Installation Status modules, simplifying the design, construction and management of doors and openings.
Site Survey elevates the door-opening information-gathering process by encompassing support capabilities at the beginning and throughout the life of a project. Professionals now simply go to a building site with a mobile device and capture required information for the design and construction of door openings, including hardware products, photos and notes of the existing conditions, as well as opening dimensions. Using the gathered information, a project team seamlessly continues with design and construction, and ultimately facility management.
“The functionality we’re building into Overtur with tools such as Site Survey exemplify another simple way you can improve time and efficiency without disrupting your current workflow,” says Rachael York, peripheral application lead for Overtur. “With Site Survey, you not only make the process easier for your team, you also make it easier for your clients to communicate their needs.”
Site Survey provides the user with enhanced tools to:
- Create multiple surveys: Users can go from site to site quickly and create multiple surveys from their mobile device, increasing productivity.
- Create openings: Customers don’t have to be in front of a computer to start a project, and they can begin from a mobile device, creating openings, with or without plans.
- Take photos and voice memos associated with an opening: Visuals can be captured easily and documented for use in design and construction and, ultimately, throughout the life of the project or building.
- Create formatted reports: After site survey data is synchronized, formatted reports can be generated with door-opening information, including consolidated notes and images.
“The Site Survey function is an absolute must to simplify the gathering of onsite information by streamlining it all in one platform, eliminating the need for paper and information reprocessing,” says Ashley Ott, industry leader, CDT, CSI, DHT. “The tool allows the user to manipulate the collected information and extract the data into several different report formats that can be shared with the collective construction team, for effective onsite coordination.”
Jacob McConnell, vice president of Wesche Hardware and an Overtur Mobile user, adds, “I’m thrilled to have Site Survey, so that I no longer have to wait to be back in the office to update my changes stemming from a site visit, which was a tedious process. Time that was spent interpreting my notes, transferring pictures and confirming everything back with the contractor and architect can now be done onsite, in real-time. Additionally, with everyone present for immediate approval and sign-off, it’s increasing my confidence in changes made and improving overall efficiency.”
Allegion’s Overtur is a digital environment where project team members come together to collaborate on the specification, design and construction of door security and openings. It provides a centralized place to capture, maintain and verify door-hardware requirements and decisions. More info: discover-overtur.allegion.com.
Overtur Mobile is available in the Apple and Google Play Stores and can be accessed via phones or tablets using either an iOS or Android operating system.
ABLOY USA has promoted 13-year veteran Edgar Marquez to the role of CLIQ system specialist. In his new position, he also serves as one of four team members of the company’s U.S. Competence Center and reports to Michael Woody, ABLOY customer success & CLIQ Competence Center manager.
Marquez’s rise through the ranks at ABLOY USA began in 2007. Hired as a factory worker, he handled a variety of different tasks, ranging from working on the production line to shipping. His dedication and hard work paid off when he was elevated to the production manager position in 2014. In his new job, he works with a team that performs troubleshooting, provides technical expertise to customers and fills orders for ABLOY PROTEC2 CLIQ locks and key systems.
Marquez says working for ABLOY USA is more enjoyable than at any other time in his career, because the work is challenging and fulfilling.
“The biggest challenge right now is learning as much as possible in the shortest amount of time so I can help our clients enjoy better service. The best part of my job is when the customer is satisfied,” says Marquez, who is a single father with a 7-year-old son. “Through the years, I have never stopped learning new things. With this opportunity, I want to help new generations of the ABLOY family dream and believe that everything is possible if you work hard.”
