The City Post: Flexible building requires flexible access control solution

On the Westerlaan in Zwolle, right next to the train station, stands an imposing building that was in use for decades as a mail sorting center until the mid-1990s. On the initiative of DC Vastgoed, this building is now being transformed into The City Post; a high-end office building with flexible workplaces where people and organizations can do business, meet, collaborate and network to their heart's content. Both during design and construction, the BREEAM-NL 'Excellent' certification criteria are central. In addition, the multi-tenant business building must soon be Paris Proof.

The implementation of The City Post is divided into phases. Just before the summer, phase 1 was completed, which involves the transformation and preservation of the low-rise buildings. The work was carried out by Aannemersbedrijf Bramer in cooperation with Weever Sloopwerken, Façadis Gevelbouw, Inteco and De Groot Installatiegroep. Vercoma Communicatiesystemen B.V. was involved by De Groot Installatiegroep back in 2020 to help think about the door intercom and access control systems. About a year ago, the ideas were further concretized and developed into a flexible and powerful system, which guarantees optimal flexibility and easy management.

Flexible and powerful

"The City Post offers flexible workplaces to people and organizations," says Kevin Vrolijk, Sales Consultant at Vercoma. "This flexibility also had to be reflected in the access control system. People wanted to be able to easily add or remove connections and functionalities. Moreover, the system not only had to open or lock doors, but also had to be linked to the lighting system. This ensures, for example, that only lights are on in rooms that are actually in use. Last-but-not-least, the access control system had to be integrated with the operation of the elevators. Our iP-Opener system fits in perfectly with this." 

Modular and future-proof

"iP-Opener is a very powerful and scalable access control system over IP specifically designed for medium to large buildings," says Vrolijk. "The heart of the iP-Opener system is the cloud-based software program iP-Opener Manager, which guarantees optimal flexibility as well as security. Completely license-free and without subscription fees. The system can be set up intelligently and managed intuitively. After a short briefing, the building manager can perform all important management tasks. Mutations can be entered and modified in real time. Locally, but also remotely. An Internet connection is sufficient for this. The modular system can also be expanded at any time. Both in terms of possibilities and the number of connections. This makes the system future-proof in advance."

Main components

The iP-Opener system for The City post includes 72 impact resistant, waterproof and modern black card readers, installed for example next to the doors of the office and meeting rooms. "The card readers are wired out on 4 mounting cabinets including power supplies and controllers, which were assembled, wired, configured and programmed at our location in Wormerveer," says Vrolijk. "So here De Groot Installatiegroep had little to worry about. By placing the mounting cabinets at strategic locations in the building, a minimum of cabling is used." 

Following the indoor card readers, 4 card readers were also integrated into the exterior panels of the videophone system, also supplied by Vercoma. "Chosen were 4 BEOTOUCH touch-screen panels in industrial stainless steel 316L and with an integrated RFID reader, allowing the systems to communicate with each other effortlessly. In terms of videophone system, our BEOVIEW7 Lite-S 7″ door video monitor was chosen; a user-friendly touchscreen monitor with an intuitive graphical user interface and various options such as an image memory. This allows one to always look back to see who was at the door."

Connected from start to finish

To ensure high quality and proper operation of the door intercom and access control system at The City Post, Vercoma visited the project site as early as the preliminary phase of phase 1. "Together with Account Manager Andy Menheere and De Groot Installation Group, I helped think through the current issues and made a proposal for the door intercom and access control system," Vrolijk says. "All systems are supplied with clear connection diagrams and manuals. Moreover, the installer is guided by our Project Engineer Sjoerd Smit. For example, when transferring the iP-Opener system and with any issues. In our projects we stay connected from start to finish. This has already provided us with very nice ambassadors and references."