Page 124 - Security Today, March 2020

Taking Access Control
Historic Alabama church opts for cost-effective pure IP solution
House of Worship
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The Oakwood University Church located in Huntsville, Ala. provides spiritual nurture to more than 2,000 members and 1,600 students on the campus of Oakwood University, an historical African American University founded in 1896. Oakwood University Church is part of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, a world-wide organization with more than 19 million members in countries around the world. The church was looking for a way to secure their facility while seamlessly executing their prime objective of meeting the spir- itual needs of its congregants.
Comprehensive Assessment
In the Spring of 2016, Oakwood University Church security person- nel conducted a comprehensive security assessment of the campus
and submitted its recommendations to the church’s senior pastor, Dr. Carlton Byrd.
The assessment uncovered that the church needed to improve security at their facilities and make major changes in the way access was controlled. Instead of having hundreds of keys assigned to staff members; the church needed to control access electronically. When the new Family Life Center building was approved for construction in December 2016, a major requirement was to wire all entrances and doors for an automated entry system.
To meet this new requirement, the church needed to find an access control solution that was easy to manage from one unified platform, while also integrating seamlessly with its existing video surveillance system.
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