Case Study: Chester County Department of Emergency Services
DES finds perfect system to safeguard cell tower sites.
The Customer
The Chester County Department of Emergency Services (DES), located in Southeastern Pennsylvania, has more than 30 cell tower sites that are vital for administering and providing emergency services communications. Until recently, they were using a lock and key or a simple keypad to secure each site.
The Challenge
DES was experiencing an increase of copper theft, vandalism, and graffiti at their cell tower sites. In addition, DES staff had no activity record of who was coming and going to any of the sites, and no way to grant last-minute access to technicians needing to service equipment. DES needed a system that could be managed remotely but did not have the budget for network equipment and internet connection at each site.
“The installation was $80,000 less than the RFID systems being proposed.”
The Solution
DES officials were considering RFID card systems when they learned about Entegrity Smart’s cloud-based access control solution. After recognizing the cost savings and benefits of the solution, the decision was made and DES installed the VIZpin powered door/gate controllers at their cell tower sites. This enabled them to access sites using their smartphones, manage the system remotely, and record activities in the cloud without needing a local network connection. Entegrity Smart also increased security since smartphones, unlike cards, would not be shared. Finally, the solution simplified administration because they no longer had to purchase or manage RFID cards.