Brisbane Bayside State College – Salto wireless access control upgrade

John Barnes was fortunate to secure the contract for the implementation of Salto wireless access control at Brisbane Bayside State College (BBSC). BBSC was grappling with several challenges tied to their existing mechanical locking and keying system across the campus. These challenges ranged from lost keys and equipment theft resulting from unauthorized room entries to the absence of key location reporting, among other issues. In addition to deploying the Salto Online system, we also took on the responsibility of replacing any damaged existing door hardware and providing braille room signage.

This was always going to be a challenging project as all works needed to be completed during school holidays. We were able to roll out all the Salto wireless gateways and Salto wiresless nodes for online connectivity including the Salto XS4 escutcheons ahead of schedule while getting all apprentices involved in the project.

Teacher identification cards were a big focus for BBSC, the ability to combine both the teacher ID card and the Salto Mifare card was a must. Unfortunately, the schools existing ID cards were not compatible with the Salto wireless locking system so we supplied new cards to the printers ahead of completion to allow for new teacher identification cards as well as Salto compatible credentials to be issued. This was a great outcome for a crucial requirement.

A critical requirement for all classrooms is the ability to have a way of locking the door should there be an emergency such as an attacker or threat on the loose. This is normally achieved with a turn snib on a mechanical lock. With an access control system however, we had the chance to get a bit more creative. To achieve the ‘lock down’ feature we installed a break glass box in the administration block. In the event of a ‘lockdown’ emergency the break glass box would trigger all Salto locks throughout the campus to lock automatically. This feature came as a welcome surprise to BBSC – “I was quite amazed that the Salto system was able to do this, it wasn’t something we originally thought of but we are extremely happy to have this tool and hope we wont ever need it” – Andrea P. Business Manager.

The completion of this project stands as a true ‘win-win’ for both Brisbane Bayside State College (BBSC) and John Barnes. From our perspective, this project offered an excellent opportunity to not only train our apprentices in the Salto online environment but also to add a government-funded school to our growing list of successful Salto access control installations. This achievement allows us to showcase to other government-funded schools that access control is not only cost-effective but also offers numerous advantages over traditional mechanical locking systems.

For BBSC, the rollout of wireless access control proved to be a solution that addressed multiple challenges, with the primary one being the ability to report on the status and location of master keys, a critical requirement when dealing with Education Queensland. The streamlined process of adding and deleting teacher credentials eliminated the reporting headaches, making it a game-changer. Additionally, the system’s array of features, including a one-point lockdown function, comprehensive audit trails for secure area entries, effortless user management, and the unified use of credentials for both access control and identification, added significant value to the project.