electronic access control

Do we eat our own cooking? How the experts approach physical security. (Part One)

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By Neal Bellamy, IT Director at Kenton Brothers

How does a security integrator design their own security systems?

Kenton Brothers: Eating our own cookingMost people are familiar with the phrase, “Do you eat your own cooking?” This is a casual way to ask a company if they implement the same products and services they’re selling their customers in their own business.

I think that most companies do a far better job of providing their services to their customers better than they do for themselves for lots of reasons. But the most common reason is that they’re too busy doing a great job for their customers. They just don’t have time, because the customer comes first… right?

Over the next couple of months, we have the opportunity to do it differently. Since we are moving into a new office, we can design our systems from the ground up. It’s an opportunity to showcase what’s possible in a real world application. Today, we’re going to be looking at an intrusion system, also known as a burglar alarm.Kenton Brothers: New Building Sketch

Our new space is a much larger building. (Yay!) We will sublease space to at least one tenant, but maybe more. There are office, warehouse and common spaces with lots of windows and overhead doors.

The main challenges we need to address are:

  • How do we keep the tenant space operating like it has its own system and provide for future expansion
  • How do we protect the different areas of the building?
  • How do we do it as cost effectively as possible?

The first issue can be solved by many different alarm manufactures, most of the larger systems have a feature called areas, or partitions.

Areas allow a keypad and related sensors to act as a self contained alarm system. It’s also possible to have a “Common” area that disarms with the first related area and arms with the last related area. Honeywell provides a good explanation of a common area here (PDF). We will have multiple areas defined that can monitor our own space, the tenant space and any common space that’s shared. We just need to make sure that the panel we choose will have enough partitions for future expansion.

Next on the list to tackle is how to protect the different areas.

We will certainly need to place door contacts on all the doors into the various spaces, but the type of contact and how they’re wired is important as well. To maintain the aesthetics of the personnel doors, we’ll use recessed contacts that are only visible when a door is open. They also come in different colors to closely match the color of the door frame.

We can help protect damage of the overhead door contacts by providing rail mount door contacts, which keep the contact higher and out of the way. One example is an interlogix 2300 series. Motion detectors come in all shapes and sizes, but using a motion detector with multiple technologies keeps the false alarms at a minimum. Bosch, for instance, has a whole line of Tri-tech motion sensors. We’ll also use glass break detectors for the larger glass areas. Glass break detectors provide more reliability than motion detectors alone.

Just as important as the sensors that we use, is how they’re wired.

Most alarm panels supervise the detectors that are connected to it. This supervision circuit monitors the wire that is connected by adding a small resistor to the end of the wire. If the resistor can be measured, all is good, if the resistor is missing, or the wire is not connected at all, it will send an alarm. No method is foolproof, but it adds another layer of security to the alarm system and will alert us if a wire is damaged before we find out the hard way.

As with any system that we design and install, we want the best bang for our buck.

We want to maintain the sensor quality because it would be worthless to have multiple false alarms or to miss an important event. However, there are good ways to save money on an installation.

One way is to wire efficiently. Traditional or smaller alarm panels need to have a separate wire from the sensor to the alarm panel or input module. However, several systems allow loops of wire to be installed with many sensors on each loop. Since the new facility is much larger, having loops will save over 1,000 feet of wire and the labor to install it.

Older and smaller panels also used to require a POTS (Plain old telephone system) line to report to the monitoring stations. Not only is the reporting slower, but who has a telephone line anymore? We will use the IP network to communicate with a central station and pocket the $20 – $30 month that a phone line would have cost.

Last, while not a cost-saving measure, but something we will get for free by choosing the right system, is integration with access control. Since the Access control system and intrusion system are on the network, they can talk to each other. With integration, we can see the status of the areas through the access control system, we can turn off the alarm through the access control system when they enter the building, and we can prevent access control from unlocking side doors when the alarm is armed. All of the integration is designed to give more visibility into the system and to reduce false alarms in the intrusion system.

We’re all excited about the new building. Some are excited about more space, some are excited about fresh paint, but I’m excited to showcase our capabilities and to redesign the security systems from the ground up. Next month, we’ll talk about the network layout that all the systems use as a foundation and a the video system design.

Project Spotlight: City of Columbia Access Control

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By Brian Nutt, Mid Mo Territory Manager for Kenton Brothers, talking about an access control project for the City of Columbia

A long term relationship leads to a long term project.

Kenton Brothers Systems for Security - City of Columbia Access Control ProjectStacy Wessing and Brian Nutt from our Mid Mo team have worked with the City of Columbia for over 10 years on numerous projects, some of which included battery backup systems for their data centers, virtualization software, networking equipment, and downtown surveillance cameras. Brian and Stacy have also worked at a previous employer together with some of the City’s current staff. The City knew we could deliver on a project as promised from previous successful experiences and a solid relationship.

In 2017, the City of Columbia issued an RFP for replacing their existing access control system. The existing system had reached end of life and was falling short in the City’s expectations of functionality, manageability and convergence. The RFP was very detailed on expectations of a new system and Kenton Brothers partner, S2 Security, fit this requirement perfectly. The RFP involved several buildings that must communicate with a centralized controller and provide individual site administration.

Upon award of the RFP to KB, several meetings were held to discuss a strategic deployment that would have little to no impact on the City’s day to day functions. The deployment then started with first installing the new controller and setting up schedules and user profiles. The City put together a team to refresh their existing data base and provide a current profile for KB to implement. KB’s own Neal Bellamy was deeply involved with each step of the initial programming of the new controller. The design and build of the controller was a phenomenal success, very few changes were needed and those were rapidly handled by KB’s support team.

Then the deployment began of each City property involved. Each site has new nodes, some of them with multiple nodes, that all must communicate back to the main controller. New card readers were installed at every location to enhance the City’s physical security credential. KB moved right along, as pre-staging and pre-programming of the new equipment was completed by KB and the City for each site, a few days before installation.

As each site was turned up, users experienced very few changes to their typical means of access, which was the intention all along. To install a new system at each site and have very little impact to the City’s day to day business for their citizens and employees. A weekly conference call was scheduled by KB to review the prior week’s install and, to provide a fully engaged project management team with a means for communication of status updates to the City. The City staff is great at letting KB know any perceived potential caveats so that a plan could be implemented in a timely fashion.

In just a couple months on-site, KB is nearing completion of the entire project, which is 3 months ahead of schedule. It takes a great collaboration with the customer, a very detailed plan of execution, and a great team concept. KB’s involvement with the customer at each and every step of this entire project has made it a great success. Special thanks go out to each and every City employee involved and the great installation team at KB. David Potter and Paul Rudkin did a great installation job on every site and, they have made this project a great success for the City and KB.

Getting Back to School Safely

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By Will Zurcher, Installation Manager at Kenton Brothers

ClassroomSecuring the front entrance of any facility can be challenging. Securing a school’s front entrance is possibly the most challenging project a company like ours can be asked to provide.

Schools present unique obstacles.

  • Parents don’t want to drop their children off in the morning to a building that resembles a prison. It makes sense to make sure people on the inside are safe from external threats. But we have to remember that a facility that is harder to get into is also harder to get out of.
  • In the design phase, we have to always keep in mind that the majority of the users are going to be children and visitors. And they aren’t necessarily familiar with the facility, so the systems put in place have to be easy for them to use.
  • There are situations when the systems we put in place will need to be bypassed to accommodate large groups of people to pass freely in and out of the building.

Realistically, with the budgets that schools are faced with, creating a 100% secure front entrance is often not possible.

When starting the design process, we must first work on funneling all of the traffic to the front entrance in order to control access to the building. This can be done with fencing to deter trespassing and limit access to secondary entrances. Cameras monitor perimeter entry points and notify staff of any unknown traffic around the facility. The cameras can double as monitoring tools for recesses and transition periods. Door “position” switches can also be installed to notify staff of any unlocked entry points.

With these options in place, any unauthorized people would need to proceed to the office in order to gain entry into the building.

Recently, front entrances have been designed or remodeled to have a double door style entrance which allows visitors free entrance into a secured vestibule area. This allows front office staff to clearly identify visitors.

In the vestibule area, there’s a second set of access controlled doors that lead into the school. There’s also a single access control door that leads into the office. These doors will be outfitted with locking mechanisms that are “fail secure”. This means that if the school loses power, the doors will remain locked.

Outside the office entry door there is an intercom system for the visitor to communicate with the office staff. If no threat is detected, the staff has a button to release the door lock, allowing the visitor entry into the office to sign in. This process allows the office staff to keep track of everyone in the building. It also allows the office staff to notify the authorities of any threats with a duress / panic button while securely delaying the threat long enough for the authorities to get there.

Kenton Brothers understands all of these situations. We help schools implement easy-to-use and reliable solutions while working with the staff to put procedures in place for emergency situations. Give us a call to learn more.

K.I.S.S. with SimpleK

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Kenton Brothers: SimpleK Key Management SystemOne of the many things we do for our clients is help them with the complicated task of managing their keys.

At some point, we’ve all heard the acronym K.I.S.S. (Keep it simple, stupid!) Managing master key systems and keys for a large facility can be a challenging task. The number of keys, doors, and people involved requires a powerful and efficient tool.

We keep it simple for you with SimpleK!

SimpleK is the most advanced key and master key systems management software available. It provides a large set of features for physical security and facility management, and relies on a strong relational SQL Database.

With SimpleK, we can efficiently manage master key systems, keys, key rings, key holders, buildings, doors, requests, work orders, and floor plans. We’re able to maintain a database of all types, sizes, and details of all door hardware throughout your entire facility.

Kenton Brothers: SimpleK Key Management SystemOur technicians gather all your door information (including photos) with a mobile application while doing site surveys. Once this information is collected, we’re able to put it all into a master key system and database. This allows us to quickly gather information for specific locations when repairs and additional keys are needed.

All you have to do is provide the location of your doors.

At Kenton Brothers, Service Quality and Customer Focus are two of our core values.  We believe that using SimpleK is another way to achieve those goals. If you have any questions about the SimpleK system, please give us a call!

Project Update: Salvation Army Centralized Management System

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Salvation ArmyWe’ve had a relationship with the Salvation Army for many years from a locksmith perspective. Over time, we began to do more of their technology based applications for access control and video at locations around the city.

About two years ago, we approached the Salvation Army about implementing our centralized management system. This system uses IP based technology that allows their headquarters to see all of their locations, while allowing autonomous administration at each location.

The cost savings would be substantial because of standardizing their systems and sharing the IT investment in servers and switches across their locations. We’ve helped them through many iterations of the design while facilitating meetings with decision makers and their board of directors. We’re excited to announce that we’ve won the business!

Their ultimate goal is to incorporate not just the IP video and IP intercom systems, but to also include access control.  There are approximately thirteen locations we’ve included in our project planning. The Linwood location is the first facility to get the upgrades.

Salvation ArmyOur installation crew began the project by pulling new CAT 6 cable for each new camera and intercom location. This was no easy task because it’s a four-story building. We installed eight exterior cameras ranging from Pan/Tilt/Zoom models to 270-degree and interior dome cameras. We also installed a 2N intercom system with three Grandstream desk stations. We installed PC based viewing stations that communicate with video servers at each location.

We’ve really enjoyed our experience working with Salvation Army and their staff. We’ve delivered a solution that makes their work for the community easier, safer and more productive!