| The initial PowerNet installation went well and the City proceeded to expand the ISONAS system |
Known to the High Desert as “The City with Unlimited Possibilities”, Adelanto was founded in 1915 by E.H. Richardson, the inventor of what became the Hotpoint Electric Iron. He sold his patent, purchased land, and planned to develop one of the first master planned communities in Southern California. It was Richardson’s planning that laid the foundation for what is today the City of Adelanto. Incorporated in 1970, the City is a one of the most rapidly growing communities in California, located in San Bernardino County. The City limits encompass 53 square miles and has a current population of over 32,000 residents.
Old access control system issues
The City decided in 2008 to look into replacing a traditional panel-based access control system for the City Hall facility. The issues with the old system were several. There was an ever increasing need for new cards to be issued to various people as new employees were hired, but tracking and managing the possession of the keys was difficult at best due to the lack of effective management software for the old system. Additionally, there was an ever increasing need to alter permissions and schedules for City employees. As a result a local locksmith company visited City Hall to make adjustments on the system at least once every quarter, re-doing locks, credentials and system parameters. It was simply costing the City a significant amount of money to keep the old system going, not to mention it was unable to adapt to the rapidly changing security environment.
ISONAS PowerNet IP-at-the-door system
The City decided to test the ISONAS PowerNet IP-at-the-door system initially with just one door—in this case the back door to City Hall. ISONAS was chosen because the PowerNet reader-controller does not require an old fashioned control panel to control the reader at the door location; in fact all reader and control functions are contained within the reader-controller itself right at the door location. It also easily dovetailed into the City’s existing network infrastructure. According to Benjamin Piña, Information Systems Analyst at the City. “Since we have the same budgetary constraints as every other governmental entity these days, It was important to us to be able to do as much of the installation and on-going maintenance work on the system as possible ourselves.” The initial PowerNet installation went well and the City proceeded to expand the ISONAS system.
“Today we have 12 readers dispersed throughout the City with plans for more as time and budget permit,” says Mr. Piña. In addition to the installation at all of the doors in City Hall previously services by the old system, the City uses the PowerNet readers at the City Community and Conference Center, as well as controlling access at 2 gates at the Public Works Yard, and plan to expand the system to the Water Yard in the future. “We manage over 75 users at all of our facilities from our IT location with ease. We have no more power concerns since the system and all components at each entry point are powered through the reader’s CAT5 cable. ISONAS tech support has been superb and our ability to self-install and self-manage has proven to be cost effective as well as providing excellent physical security to our facilities.”