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| Sandviken Municipality has installed ASSA ABLOY ARX or RiTA in its newly constructed or renovated projects |
ASSA’s ARX access control system is used on a large scale in Sandviken, Sweden, where it secures thousands of doors to administrative offices, gymnasiums, concert halls, schools, preschools and homes.
Sandviken Municipality has installed ARX or its predecessor, RiTA, in all of its newly constructed or renovated projects, including housing.
“Access control for perimeter security is a given when we renovate buildings,” says Stefan Ruumensaari, access control coordinator for Sandviken’s municipal buildings.
This year, Sandviken celebrated its 150th anniversary for six straight days in the Göransson Arena hockey hall. Each night, 3,000 guests attended the event. Patrick Höglenius, technology and security coordinator for Sandviken Municipality, explains that ARX is a real labour saver during events of this nature.
“We use the system to control which people go where in the building,” he says. “Imagine if we had to use our staff to do this during large events – it would require enormous resources.
“So much happens here all the time,” says Höglenius. “Göransson Arena is a venue that is used for a variety of different events that require many rapid changes. Locker rooms are converted into dressing rooms, performers need access for just one night, and then it’s time for ice hockey practice again and the players need access to the locker rooms.
“Performers forget to return their access cards. These situations are easily handled in the access control system. The biggest advantage is that when cards disappear, we can block them.”
Ten thousand visitors can occupy the arena simultaneously, which is, of course, a formidable security challenge – and that’s where ARX really shines.
Göran Hansson, head of security at Sandviken Municipality, says the decision was made to deploy a central access control system for municipal buildings 15 years ago. Previously, each facility had its own system, which could result in a slew of access cards for a teacher or technician who needed access to several schools. Even worse, at large schools hundreds of keys may have been distributed and keeping tabs on them was difficult if not downright impossible.
Today, more than 200 buildings are connected to either ARX or its predecessor, RiTA from ASSA. This means that access to more than 2,000 doors in schools, preschools, sports facilities and administrative buildings is protected. Even municipal housing company Sandvikenhus uses the system. In all, a total of 10,000 users have access cards or tags.
“Access control systems are convenient,” Hansson says. “It’s easy to change authorisation settings for each user in the system and this makes life easier for staff members who work at several different sites.”
