ICTS takes care of access at Lord's

19 Nov 09

Owned by the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and very much ‘the home of cricket’, Lord’s now stages two Test matches on an annual basis.

This summer, capacity crowds saw England’s captain Andrew Strauss lead from the front as his side recorded a rare (and impressive) victory over the Australians by 115 runs.

For its part, ICTS has installed networkable entry controllers supplied by Dublin-based Access Control Technology (ACT). These units are in place at 24 doors across the site, employing ACTpro 3000 controllers in conjunction with Mifare 1040 readers.

The controllers are linked to the venue’s LAN so as to provide a site-wide solution, while the Mifare readers have allowed programming of cards for members of the MCC staff on to the system using ACTWin pro software.

Prior to the upgrade, the venue was using various access control systems which meant that multiple cards had to be issued to employees who, in turn, then had to remember which fob worked with which system. The complexity of the solutions rendered it rather difficult to conduct effective audit trails.

Rationalising access control

In keeping with its commitment to providing world-class facilities throughout the venue, the MCC decided to rationalise access control and ICTS was awarded the contract as a result of its impressive track record in securing major sporting arenas.

It was vital that there should be minimal disruption to core activities at Lord’s, which is why the the ACTpro 3000 two-door system controller was selected for its built-in TCP/IP connectivity.

The world famous Pavilion at Lord’s, housing the Long Room, is Grade II-listed. It was therefore significant that the ACT equipment was IP-addressable, meaning that the controllers could ‘piggyback’ on existing conduit. This not only reduced engineering disruption, but proved to be a ‘green’ approach in terms of minimising material usage.

The new solution provides instant reports and information on the location of individuals around the venue, as well as multiple control from a site-wide IT system.

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