Assa Abloy Upgrades Campus with Real-time Access Control

Assa Abloy has implemented their Aperio access control system at the University d'Aix-Marseille in France, securing the Luminy science campus with wireless access control and matching key-cards for staff, faculty and students.

Around 7,000 people pass through the Luminy faculty’s suburban campus every day. As part of a major project to modernize two buildings, university managers sought a retrofit-ready access control solution to upgrade security. University administrators selected Aperio locks to secure doors in the new buildings. With the new system, facilities staff deal with lost keys more efficiently. The laborious process of changing locks and reissuing keys — part of the daily workload with mechanical locking — vanishes.

The Luminy campus is now equipped with 372 Aperio Electronic Cylinders & 42 Aperio Electronic Handles with built-in RFID readers. Locks are integrated seamlessly, wirelessly and online with Luminy’s ARD access control system. One key goal was to deter theft, which was becoming a problem in teaching areas — especially those with computers. “Since we installed Aperio, we have not had a break-in”, said Cédric Lopez, Maintenance Manager at Luminy.

In addition to theft deterrence, the access control solution met broad, stringent criteria for the security upgrade: Staff and students carry individual access smart-cards. Doors and credentials are easily programmed and reprogrammed to accommodate everyone’s changing access needs.

Luminy’s security team now has complete control over access permissions and campus traffic — in real time. Because their new devices are integrated online, staff see a “live” overview of the campus and respond proactively to incidents. Aperio is trusted to protect the most sensitive areas of the campus: “We have critical premises, including for the storage of chemicals, some with radioactive properties”, said Lopez.

Aperio locks are built on an open platform, so they are flexible enough to integrate with the university’s room scheduling system. “Teachers are able to reserve their rooms. Students no longer have to wait for the teacher’s arrival, because they have access to the right rooms in defined time slots”, Lopez added. The credential students already carry automatically opens classroom doors, if they have pre-authorised access rights. For the facilities team, the ARD interface displays scheduling for all relevant rooms in real time.

Luminy site managers have already scheduled further real-time access control upgrades built around award-winning Aperio wireless technology. As the staff discovered, the benefits of Aperio extend beyond just enhanced campus safety and student security.