While smudged makeup could be considered a minor emergency, the breakout of a fire or someone going on the rampage in a public building is a far more urgent ­situation that demands an instant reaction. SimonsVoss has enhanced their 3060 ­access control system with a solution for just such situations.
With a 3061 electronic cylinder fitted in each door, controlling access to individual rooms and the building in general is very much simplified by the 3060 digital locking system. One of the main features of the new cylinder is that it is powered by a battery with a significantly longer service life. The cylinder can be activated up to 300,000 times with standard button cell batteries our up to 10 years stand-by time. Frequently used central doors can be operated for years without the battery having to be replaced.

This digital locking cylinders can also store 3,000 access authorizations as well as administering 64,000 transponders per cylinder and 304,000 cylinders per transponder within a single locking system. But is the door open or closed? Has it been locked just once or is it double-locked? Is someone trying to break in through the door? The 3061 digital locking cy­linder - door monitoring can detect all these situations and report them to a main control center, where individual status messages for each door are displayed on the Event Agent. This also allows you to filter out particular messages or to re-set them.

Access Under Control
Authorized users carry a transponder that either grants or denies access according to the programing carried out over the systems wireless Network 3065 from one or more PCs. Preparation of a locking plan on a PC and subsequent transfer to a PDA is also a feature of this system. Controlling done over the network nodes offers real-time monitoring and, optionally, makes it possible to drive integrated external systems, such as to switch on lights or heating systems automatically when doors are used. Alternatively the 3067 programing transponder can make any necessary changes locally to the cylinder or the 3064 transponder on a small system with the simple press of a button, for example, if a key is lost or if there are changes in the locking plan.

Critical Reaction
While this configuration permits general access control on a daily basis, it has not until now been equipped to deal with the hostage or rampage situations that unfortunately hit the headlines ever more often. Above all, the users and operators of larger buildings - in particular those in the public sector, the healthcare and education sectors - would often like to have additional and rapidly functioning protective measures that can be implemented in critical situations: when the fire alarm sounds or people or equipment are under attack, maybe when someone runs amok in a school, it is essential to react quickly.

The newly conceived function permits all doors on the system to be either locked or opened within seconds at the touch of one button. Locking them prevents unauthorized persons from entering the rooms in the building. Conversely, opening them makes escape routes immediately free. The function has been implemented through an upgrade of the company‘s Wavenet Router that provides the communications between central PC and the locks. The lock systems that are networked to each other can be activated or deactivated over radio and the signal from each router reaches up to 249 doors. And that still happens even if the communications and computer networks are already out of action.

The ability to either lock or unlock multiple doors simultaneously gives peace of mind to those who work in a building equipped with such a feature. It means that intruders with bad intentions will not have the freedom to roam throughout a building unhindered, and this alone can prevent a tragedy. Doors can still be opened from within and, in the case of a fire, all the right doors will be opened anyway to ensure that evacuation routes are free and emergency services have full access.

Of course, every installation has its own particular needs and configuration. Planners, installers and potential users alike will undoubtedly have questions about the system and how it can solve the specific access issues applying to their individual situation. The answers are happily provided anytime by SimonsVoss sales staff but can also be found during one of this year‘s roadshow events - see the adjacent panel for a list of forthcoming locations.