The Corsham Street building in Shoreditch, East London has recently undergone an extensive refurbishment and modernisation by its owners. The site currently functions as a multi-occupancy space, housing a gym and multiple offices. These spaces are rented on short or long-term contracts to a variety of businesses.
As spaces within the building are leased to a variety of businesses there are a number of different entry and access group requirements. The new security system would also need to meet the proposed requirements outlined in future plans to work across five further sites. All sites will need to be managed centrally and facilitated by a Building Manager in a single location.
Prior to the refurbishment, the site had a basic intercom system which simply allowed visitors to buzz upon arrival. The main doors had a two-way audio intercom, with a simple electronic fob access option for users. Offices and store cupboards were accessible via traditional lock and key and there were minimal security cameras to monitor and manage users entering and leaving the site.
John Watts, Director of RJM Projects & Design who refurbished and assisted to manage the building said: “Management of the system was a struggle before. Not knowing when doors had failed, having no ability to check access rights on fobs and lack of a data log made it challenging to use.
“We were so impressed with the demo from Seen Services of the Paxton10 system. We looked at other systems, but it is a cut above the rest. The smart credentials and easy remote management of the system is what really won us over.”
The new solution was installed by Seen Services Ltd, who completely removed the old system, replacing it with Paxton10, which combines video management with access control in a single platform. Paxton10 is the newest and most powerful system from Paxton, with innovative web-based software. It can be installed with Paxton’s own camera range or can integrate with many leading IP cameras. On this occasion the customer decided to integrate with a third-party IP camera range from Hikvision.
Bradley Lucas, Managing Director at Seen Services said: “The installation was a seamless process. The Paxton10 system is very simple from install to end use. Setting up the system via a single server is extremely engineer friendly.” The building is used by a number of different organisations and subsequently has a high turnover of people using the access control system. This makes Paxton10 a cost-effective solution, as managers do not have to administer physical tokens. They can issue smart credentials via email and manage the system without the need for expensive hardware. Paxton’s free Paxton Key app means that users with a smartphone or smartwatch can use virtual tokens, which are completely free to issue with Paxton10.
John Watts said: “What drew us to the system was the freedom to be able to assign virtual tokens, change permissions and access levels very easily, at the click of a button.”
Additionally, the integration of Paxton’s simple door entry system allows an improved experience for visitors to the building. The touch screen entry panels were chosen for this project to enable companies in residence, to display digital logos and facilitate video conversations with their visitors before granting access, using the internal monitors. The ability to display company logos is not only aesthetically pleasing, but it also makes it very easy for people to identify the business that they are visiting. It is also particularly useful for businesses changing branding, or if there are tenants on short-term contracts. This functionality allows the Building Manager to easily update the panel to reflect current building occupants.
The companies who rent office space in the building have found the system simple to use and have had a good experience with Paxton10 since installation. Seen Services have supported them with on-going training and are also working with RJM Projects & Design to install Paxton10 at further sites, taking advantage of the system’s new Multi-site feature.
Multi-site with Paxton10 utilises one server and can expand across 1000 doors over 100 sites. This was another big factor in the choice of the system, as it offers extensive scalability whilst still being a cost-effective option.
John Watts said: “Feedback from the Building Manager has only been positive; he cannot believe they are finally in a new age of access technology. We are already looking at our next three sites to be installed with Paxton10, and potentially adding on another two doors within this site”.
