The University of Antioquia is the first public university in Colombia to have an access control system. The turnstiles provided by Boon Edam are a reference for the future implementation of this system in different public universities in the country.
By Building Management
The University Citadel of the University of Antioquia headquarters Medellín, was the first university campus in the country to be declared by the Ministry of Culture of Colombia and its Directorate of Heritage as an Asset of Cultural Interest of the National Scope. It is also the second oldest university in Colombia, founded in 1803. That is why the turnstiles installed by Boon Edam in each of its main accesses, are accommodated to the guidelines of their facades and comply with a special conditioning to allow the agile entry of the 28,000 people who daily circulate through this university.
The Trilock-75ESCA2 turnstiles, thanks to their features such as the electromechanical counter and direction rotation sensor, among others, and their friendly design with the specifications of the University, on average allow the entry of one person every two seconds. This while validating the information through the TIP, which is the Personal Identification Card that each of the people who are part of the academic community carries as an identification credential.
In that sense, Hueiman Montoya, integrator of Segurtec Limitada, the company responsible for the initial installation of the project, explains that "the basic requirements on the part of the University were very clear: they wanted to control all the income through their credential that had already been implemented in a previous process, the TIP, which also works as a wallet for the city's Metro. They asked that this TIP have the ability to access the campus and control each of the people who access it."
In addition, Rubén Vélez, leader of the Department of Security of the University of Antioquia, affirms that Boon Edam complied with the specific requirements of the Alma Mater since the turnstiles "are designed for high traffic, they are robust, which is important for the situations of public order that sometimes occur in the University and was in the specifications (of conditions) the number of users that allows to pass per minute, the warranty of the equipment and the wear of the parts were also taken into account."
Installation process
Due to the amount of public that converges in the University of Antioquia, a small sector of it did not agree with the installation of access controls arguing that these turnstiles would be given an additional use tending to police controls, for example. Due to the above, the University carried out different communication campaigns and finally the installation process was done.
"This process was gradual and we worked for accesses at strategic points so as not to impact the situation of the university and it was done in a very friendly way," says Vélez, and explains that although initially a small part of the community did not accept the implementation of the controls, the turnstile won a space inside the university and points out that although there are people who still do not accept it and do not accept it. they will do, "they are a minority."
In addition, with the TIP, it is intended to reach other spaces and unify the credentials, which were previously 34 different. From the use of the turnstiles and with the card as such, a filter was made of many people who did not have to be within the community, which has been very effective, says the head of security of the University.
Before the installation, a whole design was also made by the Logistics and Infrastructure area to make some small reforms, after its approval, the installation was proceeded, and no inconveniences of any kind are reported to date.
The first step was to consult with the Systems Area of the institution on how it was going to be unified and create the file in the database to migrate it to the C-CURE-9000 system. This step was the most critical and time-consuming. Then we proceeded with the installation of the access controllers in each of the accesses and finally the turnstiles were installed, the connections were made and finally the physical tests were executed, according to Hueiman Montoya.
In that sense, Montoya said that "the reference of tourniquets is not standard within Boon Edam. The University of Antioquia requested a specific design, which are a little longer because some of them were designed with the swallow-cards option, this in case visitors were assigned an access card for their entry and at the time of leaving they could deposit it in this space speeding up the exit of the campus; in addition, each of the goals has its own access controller for the administration of all turnstiles".
It is worth clarifying that the C-CURE-9000 is a software capable of managing various access control systems, video surveillance and intrusion control in an integral way. In the case of access control, it is able to manage the level of access of each TIP card, starting from the highest, which would have access to all the dependencies of the University, to the most basic, which allows entry only through the goals of the University City.
The best performance
The turnstiles of the University of Antioquia comply with a continuous daily operation from 5:45 AM to 10 PM, since 2010. Also, in the last two years they have undergone four preventive maintenance. Normal wear and tear on parts has led only to replacing the shock absorbers on the arms of some turnstiles on some occasions.
"It has been a good performance even when we have not had power, because the cabinets with which they work have backup batteries and when we do not have a network, they also have internal memories where the database is stored and allows that even if you do not have electricity or network, they continue to work with the database stored internally, "- says Vélez.
At the moment the University of Antioquia is being taken as a reference for other public universities that intend to implement some system of admission control.
Getting in is faster and easier
The change of the before and after the installation of the system has been noticeable. The lines at the entrance of the university were the constant. The traffic jam of the main entrances, especially at peak times, was something that students and the general public had to endure daily, since they not only had to present the old identification credential, but also undergo the corresponding review of the bags and briefcases by the guards when entering.
Now, although security measures such as inspections or reviews persist, the truth is that entry is much faster. At the speed necessary for the eagerness of the students to attend class, the turnstiles rotate constantly in each of the six entrances of the University of Antioquia.
In general terms, it is a good tool to support the security process, due to the technical and technological facilities available to the system. "In fact, the University of Antioquia intends to expand it to the external headquarters we have. The pilot test was at the main headquarters and the results were very positive," concludes the head of security at alma mater.
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