Integrated Technologies Secure A Major European Exposition

Portugal had wanted for a long time to host a major European exposition, similar to a world's fair. Finally, in 1993, the country won the privilege of hosting Expo ‘98. The Portuguese government responded by forming a public company, Parque Expo S.A., to organize and manage all aspects of the event.

Ambitious Security Plans For Expo ‘98
Expo ‘98 was scheduled to run from May 22 to September 30, 1998. However, Parque Expo S.A. proposed an ambitious program of construction that would endure long after Expo ‘98 ended. The company plans included building the Expo site on a 10-kilometer stretch of abandoned docks along the Tagus River in Lisbon. Parque Expo S.A. also planned to modernize Lisbon's airport and build new roads and subway stations.

Eighteen months prior to the Expo's opening, Parque Expo S.A. turned its attention to security. The company decided to design a fully customized system involving 25 workstations monitoring more than 30 buildings throughout the Expo grounds. The organizers wanted photo credentials with smart card chips and read/write capabilities, as well as both proximity and magnetic stripe for access. They wanted the system to be fast enough that a card issued at a remote badging station would be recognized seconds later at a nearby reader. They also demanded 100% reliability. Lastly, Parque Expo S.A.'s organizers were determined to write their own software to integrate access control with their main server.

WSE And Cerberus AG Team For Solution
Fortunately, two men from different companies had worked together for over 15 years on high-profile security systems throughout Portugal. Luis Guerro is director of sales for the Portuguese subsidiary of Switzerland's Cerberus AG, specialists in high-end building control systems. Daniel Vernuccio is an international sales manager with WSE (formerly Westinghouse Security Electronics). WSE, a Honeywell company, is both a vendor of security management host systems and an integrator of security access control systems. The two companies won the contract for security of the Expo ‘98 construction site. When they ap-proached the Expo's organizers with a plan to provide access security for the Expo, itself, however, they met resistance. The organizers preferred their own, albeit expensive and untried system. Only after numerous meeting did Guerro and Vernuccio convince Parque Expo S.A. that WSE's SE 6300 security management software and integrated components were a better answer.

The SE 6300 software operates on UNIX, which can support large databases and extensive networking configurations. The controllers can support multiple access control technologies, and WSE offers both digital proximity and magnetic stripe readers. WSE partnered with DataCard Corporation, a manufacturer of card-issuance systems. DataCard's direct-to-card printing badge systems can interface to the SE 6300.

The SE 6300 host allowed security administrators to monitor, control and report on system activity for 25 terminals within the Expo grounds. The host and a redundant system for backup resided on Hewlett-Packard Vectra model PCs with 166 MHZ Pentium processors. The system included dozens of NexSentry 4100 Series controllers with 32-bit processors and over 100 DR 4205 digital proximity readers and magnetic stripe readers. The components communicated via standard RS-485 S-Net protocol.

Data Communicated Quickly
The security network interfaced with 10 NexSentry Imaging Solutions' photo ID systems with DataCard's QuikWorks software and direct-to-card ImageCard III printers. These badging stations were located at Expo entrances for on-site accreditation. Credentials issued were WSE's NexKey and QuadraKey multiple-technology digital cards.

The security network resided on the Expo's 100BaseT LAN (local area network) with a fiber-optic backbone. This strong, high-speed network was important for system reliability and ensuring that information entered at remote locations was communicated almost immediately to the central database.

The Expo was deemed a great success by the Portuguese authorities. Over 9 million people visited Expo ‘98 during its four month stint. And, perhaps more importantly to WSE and Cerberus, their system worked exactly as planned. As Daniel Vernuccio put it succinctly, "There were no security problems."