A shift in commercial real estate mentality is increasing the demand for security, to separate previously unconsidered areas, thereby ensuring the protection of all staff, visitors, equipment, and product.

With e-commerce continuing to grow, and as more workplaces offer a flexible work from home balance, companies are beginning to combine their offices with their distribution centres, to add convenience and cost-savings to their operations.

“These combined workspaces are often closer to employees’ homes, and companies can lease a single building, instead of having to lease two separate ones – it makes good economic and social sense,” says Boon Edam Australia Managing Director, Michael Fisher.

“However, with this combination, comes risk. There’s a new need to separate people from product, or customers from a warehouse space. Having the right security in place will be essential to companies seeking smooth and safe operations at these combined facilities,” he said.

Boon Edam Australia is a local leader in elegant architectural entrances and integrated security solutions for leading companies, including Fortune 500 companies in 27 countries where its reputation for quality and service is valued highly by architects and security specifiers. It is backed by the family-owned 150-year old Royal Boon Edam group.

In addition to having one of the world’s most extensive ranges of revolving doors and security entrances integrated from one source, the other major consideration is appearance, says Fisher. “These combined facilities are often major brands and household names. They are seeking not only reliable and functional security solutions, but technologies that match the elegance and style of their brand,” he says.

An elegant and secure solution

A solution that seamlessly integrates elegance with security is Boon Edam’s Speedlane Lifeline range of speed gates. The Lifeline range has been a global market leader for years, and offers one of the slimmest cabinets available – measuring just 106mm in the Lifeline Swing model, which has short or tall glass options.

Other models include the Lifeline Slide, where the doors retract into the cabinet (sometimes called an ‘angel wing’ design), and the Lifeline Open, which is used to record entry and exit, but does not have the physical barrier present in the rest of the range.

New to the range is Boon Edam’s Lifeline Vision, which integrates AI facial recognition technology with the globally proven speed gates, to provide a seamless, touchless, and secure entrance.

Boon Edam partners with leaders and innovators operating in the field, including Oosto, which has facial recognition technology capable of identifying faces, without delay, even if they are wearing a face mask.

Lifeline security entrances are engineered to provide intuitive, refined and secure entry management systems for guiding and managing the flow of authorised people through to secured areas of buildings. Unauthorised people are automatically excluded.

The Lifeline Series interacts with those who approach it, guiding high flows of authorised staff and authorised visitors, acting as a boundary between public and private spaces.

In addition to speed gates, Boon Edam’s revolving door ranges include its Tourlock revolving door, which can be fitted with high security technology, including StereoVision 2 anti-piggybacking technology. StereoVision uses a combination of optical and near-infrared sensors to recognise shapes, size and volume in three dimensions without impact from lighting or reflections.

“For high value facilities, or warehouses with expensive equipment and product, the Tourlock can provide a high security solution that allows users to enter and exit simultaneously, all with an architecturally harmonious design that can be customised to suit the building or company brand,” says Fisher.

“Revolving doors without security features – like our Tourniket – can form a striking front entrance, and then speed gates or security revolving doors can be used to secure and section off parts of the facility,” he said.

Security retrofits

For installations that have high security requirements, such as data centres, Boon Edam’s Circlelock Combi combines the high security features of Boon Edam’s globally proven Circlelock portal – including StereoVision anti-piggybacking technology that combines optical and infrared technologies – with a building’s existing door.

“Circlelock is the most effective portal to pick up and stop piggybacking and tailgating using our StereoVision detection system,” says Fisher.

“Many areas such as data centres have a certified fire-rated door installed, integrated with an access control system. This door can easily be interlocked with the Circlelock Combi, creating a fire-rated, high security entrance,” he said.

Renovation and construction costs can escalate quickly when locking down a highly sensitive area. The Circlelock Combi can minimise these nebulous costs by easily and quickly attaching to either the secure or non-secure side of an existing swing door.

“Other applications that can benefit from upgrading their entrance security in this way include government, military and defence organisations, corporate headquarters of major multinationals and cash centres.”

Meeting duty of care obligations

“With security entrances like the Tourlock and Lifeline ranges, facility or building managers can have full visibility of exactly who is in which part of their building, and they can have the peace of mind that unauthorised personnel are not entering the wrong areas and causing problems,” says Fisher.

“Having security gates in place also helps these managers meet their duty of care obligations. There can be legal OH&S consequences if they are found to have not taken reasonable steps to prevent unauthorised entry,” he added.