Identity, Security, Payments, Biometrics, Smart Cards and Authentication News
CBORD: Securing buildings, transactions, and the bottom line. www.cbord.com

North Park University partners with SALTO for access control

Friday, October 31, 2008

A new access control system incorporating SALTO’s electronic locks system, has been added to the Burgh Hall dormitory at Chicago’s North Park University. Student dorm rooms now have card-operated proximity locks.

As part of its renovation, the university wanted to address the problems it was having with key control issues in Burgh Hall. The old-fashioned mechanical keys and locks were becoming increasingly difficult to manage. If a key was lost, it meant a lot of time to replace the affected lock. The solution was to introduce a one-card system, enabling students to carry one multifunction card that would operate as their ID badge, access key and cashless vending credential.


To accomplish this, SALTO, a Spanish company, designed an access control system tailored to the needs of Burgh Hall. The result incorporates XS4 electronic mortise locks with dead bolts, hot-spot wall readers, and rim-panic devices controlled via MIFARE enabled proximity cards.

Nineteen online Hot-Spot wall readers have now been installed utilizing SALTO Virtual Network (SVN) technology on all exterior and stairwell doors, and 135 XS4 offline XS4 locks have been fitted to each individual dorm room. Rim-panic devices and 50 additional XS4 offline locks have been fitted to other facility doors.

The XS4 system needs no hard wiring and provides a wire-free networked electronic locking solution with a great range of features. It is designed with state-of-the-art technology that uses distributed intelligence to pass information between microprocessors in the electronic handle set and the key card. It also allows the University to benefit from the many advantages of SVN and enables access profiles to be changed rapidly—adding value to the access management of Burgh Hall. [end] 

HID Global has announced the successful completion of the world’s first university pilot of NFC smart phones carrying digital keys.

First announced in September, the pilot involved a select group of students and staff at Arizona State University using NFC-enabled smart phones equipped with HID’s Secure Identity Object (SIO) Technology. Participants could gain access to their residence halls and other secure access areas by tapping their handset against a reader embedded in the door and entering a PIN, rather than use their plastic campus card.

read more »

Campus card provider NuVision Networks, Napa, Calif., has named Brian Adoff as the company’s new executive vice president.

Adoff, formerly NuVision’s national sales manager, will now oversee company-wide operations and develop strategic partnerships.

read more »

A number of Queens, N.Y. libraries are converting their collection of books and other media to support RFID check-in and check-out, according to The Queens Gazette.

read more »

India’s Bangalore University will soon launch a smart card-based ID for its students and faculty, reports Daily News & Analysis.

The e-ID will function as an identification and debit card. The university plans to add functions to enable hall tickets, attendance records, report cards and degree certificates.

read more »

As more and more schools make the transition to smart cards, it’s easy to forget that some universities are quite happy with their mag-stripe cards. An article at Assa Abloy’s Future Lab Web site points out that some colleges have withstood moving to smart cards, either because it’s too expensive or students and faculty haven’t asked for them.

read more »

A research team at the Center for Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) at North Dakota State University (NDSU) has developed an antennaless RFID tag designed to offer enhanced tracking of metal and liquids.

read more »