South Horizons
Located on Ap Lei Chau on the south coast of Hong Kong Island, South Horizons is a mammoth residential complex with 33 towers in four phases. Almost a small city unto itself, South Horizons has very complete facilities, including 85,000 square feet of gardens, a primary school, three swimming pools, a popular and elaborate clubhouse complex, and many other recreational facilities.
Challenge
With parameter fencing and security officers at access gates, entry to the residential area of South Horizons was restricted only to the residents and their guests. However, the sheer number of residents, i.e. approximately 50,000 residents living in 10,000 apartments, presented a big challenge for those responsible for creating a secure residential environment. In this context, South Horizons' administrative office decided to implement a new access control system in all of its residential buildings and parking lots for tighter control of the access of people and vehicles.
As soon as the administrative staff began their meticulous research to find a solution that would work best for their needs, they realized that they could introduce a one-card system that provided not only access control but also cashless payment applications. Since the residential complex had various recreational facilities such as swimming pool, gym, badminton and tennis courts, the staff figured that they could promote the convenience of the users of those facilities with implementation of such a cashless payment system.
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| The SRK101 is a 13.56MHz smart card reader with a keypad |
Solution
The administrative office of South Horizons evaluated several one-card solutions proposed by some of the leading solutions providers in the industry. After an extensive and thorough review of the proposals received, the staff contacted Pacific Satellite International Limited, a local IDTECK Hong Kong partner. South Horizons' decision makers rated IDTECK access control systems highly for their capability to provide a fully-integrated, powerful one-card solution.
Pacific Satellite International Limited recommended and installed 105 units of IDTECK's SR10E at the important access points such as main gates and entrances to the parking lots. The SR10E is a 13.56MHz contactless smart card reader featuring a slim and stylishly designed housing. The chief distinction of the SR10E is its epoxy finish, weatherproof design and lifetime warranty. Since the project included many outdoor installations, the SR10E was the ideal choice for the South Horizons.
Five units of the SRK101, which is a smart card reader with a keypad, was installed at special locations with the needs for a higher level of security, providing an added layer of security; password verification via the keypad.
The SR10E smart card readers were hooked up to 38 iTDC-SR control panels over a TCP/IP network. The iTDC-SR is IDTECK's reliable, field-tested intelligent access control panel that is capable of accommodating up to 4 smart card readers. These 38 control panels were then connected to the servers and clients located in the administrative offices of South Horizons. The STARWATCH iTDC PRO II software was installed on each server, providing the South Horizons staff with easy yet powerful access control for the residents and simple time and attendance for the administrative staff.
Once the system was up and running, over 50,000 resident ID cards (IDTECK's ISC80 smart card with 1K memory) were issued to the residents for access control and cashless payment for the recreational facilities.
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| South Horizons felt comfortable with IDTECK's smart card system as it provides them with great expandability |
Success
South Horizons was largely pleased with the successful results of the project, commenting that the new system had been very positively received by the residents who now enjoyed increased convenience and, above all, greatly-improved security for their residences. In addition, South Horizons felt comfortable with IDTECK's smart card system as it provides them with great expandability for future enhancements, such as future introduction of biometric identification, further expansion of the cashless payment system, etc.
The management of the recreational facilities was made much easier with the employment of the smart card-enabled cashless payment system, also known as "electronic purse" system. Now, the residents going into a recreational facility simply approach the reader installed at the entrance with their resident ID cards. This made the residents' access to the facilities both speedy and convenient while significantly reducing the staff's workload.
