In 2018, Riverscape at 10 Queen Street Place, London introduced integrated technology to the bustling cities workforce. Boon Edam worked closely with Digital Forge to ensure the technological requirements from client Knight Frank were achieved.

Smart Buildings are defined by the inter-connectable technologies that enable a building to be intelligent and responsive, in order to improve overall performance. Many buildings run inefficiently and lack the ability to monitor building performance which can in turn, affect the strategic decision-making process.

Smart Technology helps to facilitate the automation of responses, through monitoring performance more accurately, detecting inefficiencies, alerting management staff and improving user journeys.

Originally opened back in 1980, the multi-storey office space was a modern development that sat on the sought-after area of the River Thames. This project was refurbished from top to bottom, with the original Boon Edam entrance solutions being upgraded to newer more innovative products.

The combination of entrance products, access control, management systems and emergency egress mean that the once disparate systems can now work hand in hand with one another, giving building managers full visibility and insight. Riverscape at 10 Queen Street Place is a newly refurbished 26,777 sq ft office scheme that spans over three floors.

Originally designed to extend the features of Boon Edams Lifeline Speedlane Swing, the recently released Lifeline Boost acts as a modern solution to the lack of integration possibilities available between entrance systems and visitor management software.

There are two models available for the Boost; Standard and Card Collector. Both models act as a host for building system integration with Standard adding additional authentication through hosting card readers, bar-code scanners and bio-metric devices.

The Boost can adapt to an array of situations and scenarios as and when required. Knight Frank who now manage Riverscape, chose Digital Forges’ BluePoint Visitor Management System to integrate with the Standard Boost Model to ensure that visitors experience the best possible journey throughout the building.

The purpose of the Lifeline Boost at Riverscape is to enable smooth and secure access to the building for not only authorised persons, but for visitors too. The Boost enabled Digital Forge to install their QR readers directly into the additional physical security products turning a bank of Lifeline Swings into a fully monitorable access control solution.

The Lifeline Boost has been manufactured to increase the variety of authentication capabilities for security lanes through bio-metric scanning and QR code reading from tokens and smartphones.

The Visitor Management System, BluePoint, has the ability to generate unique QR codes which enables visitors to utilise their smartphones by acting as an authentication token. The generated code is then read at the Lifeline Boost which then interacts with the installed access control system, allowing visitors to enter the secured area.

Graham Coulter states that, "If a card collector is installed, when leaving, guests can drop their card into the device, and it books them out of the building automatically. This card can then be recycled ready for the next visitor. We made the Boost to flexible enough to provide solutions in any situation."

Utilising smartphones helps remove the need for plastic card use meaning that it is an environmentally friendly, cost effective and convenient access method for building managers and users.

Utilising smartphone technology also enables a quicker journey by having the ability to send QR coded prior to arrival, cutting out the need to speak with reception. However, the Lifeline Boost is a flexible solution that has to ability to be adapted to a card collection attachment allowing for plastic cards to be wiped of data ready for the next visitor to use.

The Lifeline Boost gives security managers and those whose role it is to protect guest data, full visibility to how many visitors are expected, have turned up and are in the building, utilising both the access control solution and BluePoint. All elements of the installation effectively help in securing the space.

Wayne Lee, Digital Forge, says “BluePoint enables the building management team to make strategic decisions on staffing and in an emergency or evacuation situation can quickly download a list of visitors in the building per company. Importantly the integrated system is secure.” Making this project an ultimate collaboration in user experience and the latest advancements in technology.