ASSA has supplied its innovative Smartair access control system, to help secure the prestigious Edinburgh Castle.

Winner of the British Travel Awards, Edinburgh Castle, is run and cared for by Historic Scotland, a Scottish Government Agency. Its history can be dated back to around 600 AD, and now attracts more than 1.25million visitors a year.

ASSA’s wireless door management system, Smartair, is used throughout the historic castle providing an effective and convenient access control system for staff.

The system copes with up to 1500 individual users per door unit, with a total of 65,000 users for the complete system, and will record an audit trail of the last 1000 events. In addition, the system can be programmed to have 14 time zones with five time periods each, giving very close control of access and egress timings.

Commenting on the project, Regional Sales Manager for ASSA ABLOY Security Solutions, Barry Harris, said: “Offering a full specification solution, we’re very lucky to work on a variety of projects, Edinburgh Castle being one of the more interesting applications.

“In addition to the many tourists that visit every year, Edinburgh castle also has to manage a high number of staff members. The use of iClass Smart Cards make this a more convenient and manageable system. The ASSA Smartair system offers a higher level of security and flexibility to connect with almost any access control system, through encryption and mutual authentication, meaning it works in conjunction with the castle’s existing security systems.”