Genetec announces that Erickson Senior Living has modernised its physical security systems across 16 of its communities with Genetec Security Center

Genetec Inc. (Genetec), a technology provider of unified security, public safety, operations, and business intelligence solutions, announced that Erickson Senior Living has modernised and standardised its physical security systems across 16 of its communities with Genetec™ Security Center.

The new platform enables the company to better protect residents, visitors and communities, and deliver a modern, streamlined resident experience, as threats and technologies evolve.

Access control systems

Erickson Senior Living has been a pioneer in senior living since 1983, today helping more than 28,000 residents live better lives in 21 communities across the U.S. Over the years, the various communities deployed a mix of video surveillance and access control systems from different providers, making it difficult for corporate teams to get a global view of operations and security, and hard for them to maintain.

Erickson Senior Living developed a standardised model for security deployments across all communities

Also, as these proprietary, isolated systems aged, they were not able to support newer technologies that enhanced safety and simplified processes for residents. To modernise their approach, Erickson Senior Living developed a standardised model for security deployments across all communities, basing it on Genetec Security Center. The unified platform enables them to manage video, access control, licence plate recognition across communities with a single user interface.

Growing security needs

Its open architecture also enables them to continue using existing cameras and other equipment as well as add future innovations as they emerge. The 16 communities they have converted include 350 cameras, 600 door readers and more than 1,500 wireless locks with the remaining five planned to be completed in 2023 adding to these numbers.

“Since investing in Genetec Security Center, we’re now building a more consistent approach to security across all our sites, which has made such a huge difference to our operations,” said Alex Seymour, Sr. Business Analyst at Erickson Senior Living. “The unified platform gives us the flexibility to keep evolving and growing as we explore new, innovative applications and launch more communities. It’s much easier to customise our deployment to meet our growing security needs.”

Easily monitor alarms

Using Security Center, teams across the communities can now easily monitor alarms

Using Security Center, teams across the communities can now easily monitor alarms and quickly pull up video recordings during investigations. They also retrieve access control reports showing all door activity, cardholder activity, and in some cases, activity is linked to a camera view as well, so they can immediately understand what happened. Standardising on a single platform also makes it easier for corporate security team members to review incidents or investigate operational snags without leaving their offices.

Where the technology has been installed, residents can use their access control cards to purchase meals and pay for items in community shops. Security Center has also eliminated the need for gate fobs to enter or exit the property. Strategically placed Genetec AutoVu™ automated license plate recognition (ALPR) cameras recognise resident vehicles and grant them entry or exit.

Critical community service

Resident license plates are all stored within the AutoVu system in Security Center and linked to resident profiles, which simplifies activation and deactivation of rights. They plan to deploy more ALPR across communities to monitor parking usage and visitors and use that data to improve parking facilities and inform investigations.

The new unified platform has also enabled the company to swap out physical keys on resident apartments

The new unified platform has also enabled the company to swap out physical keys on resident apartments for new ASSA ABLOY wireless locks in newer communities. Now, residents use an access control card to enter their units, on-site amenities, and other secured areas. The new wireless locks also helped modernise a critical community service: resident welfare check-ins.

Newer gateless communities

Previously, a security officer would walk through buildings every morning, visually verifying that residents had opened their door allowing a latch to drop to indicate they were up, and knocking on doors of those who hadn’t to make sure all was well. Now, Security Center automatically sends a report daily to security teams showing which units’ doors haven’t been opened yet. They’ll then compare that to a list of unoccupied units to see which residents require a welfare check. Instead of walking every hallway, they can go directly to units that require further checking.

Looking ahead, the company’s security roadmap includes everything from adding map and mobile capabilities to exploring hybrid cloud options for added storage and redundancy. They’re also currently integrating an intelligent key system within Security Center and adding people counting analytics and perimeter detection at newer gateless communities.