Case Studies
U.S. Air Force Academy
The United States Air Force Academy, established in 1954, is located at the base of Pikes Peak in beautiful Colorado Springs, CO.
Palmer Electric, with the aid of MDI technology, contains a controlled area of nearly 30 square miles using a variety of communication protocols.
Every day, more than 12,000 cadets, employees and residents of the Academy use our system to gain access to nearly every facility in the academic area and many other locations basewide. This access includes internal/external doors, elevators, road gates and parking facilities.
Our system maintains and monitors over 13,000 active badges covering 30 separate buildings and more than 200 controlled doors or entry points. The system processes 30,000+ transactions per day with an average response time of one second. Our full-time registration personnel issues over 600 access and ID cards every month, due to the normal in/outprocessing of a military base.
To control traffic and vehicular threats, the Air Force Academy employs a wide range of drop-arm and barrier gate systems that fully integrate with our control system. Gates can be electronically activated from remote locations via the system workstations, or user-activated locally with a PIN, magstripe, or proximity card. Certain users are also issued long-range transmitter devices that mount inside their vehicle; these prevent bottlenecks in traffic flow by opening the gate from up to 33 feet away.
Using our graphic workstations, security officers can now identify alarm locations on a scalable visual map of the buildings or facilities. Alarms are instantly displayed onscreen, enabling security and emergency personnel to immediately respond to any situation. Upon a threat situation, these visual displays can help isolate or "lock down" any section of a facility within seconds. Our staff can custom design these workstations to monitor buildings and installations of any shape or size.
Our staff has worked side-by-side with USAFA Security Forces to ensure the safety of our Air Force Academy cadets, employees and residents. As the security needs of the entire world are changing and evolving every day, we are continuously designing upgrades and custom enhancements for our system to meet these demands. With the unparalleled flexibility of our system and our superior customer service, there is no doubt why the United States Air Force Academy chose Palmer Electric as their access control provider.
Palmer Electric has just partnered with MDI Security Systems to revamp its access control system at USAFA. Click here to read an article about this exciting news!
Peterson Air Force Base
The clinic at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colorado is a small facility with some very big security requirements. As the home base for NORAD, The Department of Homeland Security and the 21st Space Wing, Peterson Air Force Base is one of the most secure facilities in the world. For more than ten years, our parent company, Palmer Electric, has worked hand in hand with the Peterson Staff providing solutions in every facet of our industry, including: Electrical, Fire Alarm, CCTV, Data/Communications and Security.
Due to the overwhelming success of our access control system at the United States Air Force Academy, Palmer Electric has been given the opportunity to expand our system into other Air Force facilities. The Clinic at Peterson Air Force Base accommodates nearly 600 customers and patients every day. With over 400 employees as well, it is undoubtedly the most active facility on base, and therefore a very significant security consideration.
Through extensive training with the Palmer Electric team, we have qualified members of the clinic staff to manage their own customized access control system. They also administer, print and program their own ID badges for access to the building. The Facilities Manager can control access for each individual user with a badge. For example: members of the housekeeping staff are only allowed access to the areas in which they perform their duties and the hours that they work. This prevents employees from entering unauthorized areas of the facility or entering the building during their off hours.
The Peterson AFB Clinic has one very unique security feature that requires some customized features. On multiple occasions every month, without prior notification to personnel, the base conducts exercises to prepare for major threats such as a bombing, terrorist attack or some other form of security breach. Upon this exercise, the clinic must be completely locked down with all staff badges disabled. We have designed a custom software solution giving System Administrators the ability to perform these actions in one quick step within just a few seconds.
Due to recent world events in regards to terrorism, the security needs of countless public and private facilities are becoming more and more similar to the distinctive requirements of the Peterson Air Force Base Clinic. There is absolutely no question why Palmer Electric has been chosen time and time again to provide solutions for such high security installations. Our ability to provide customized solutions to each and every customer is simply unmatched by any other manufacturer or provider in the industry.