Abloy UK is highlighting the functionality of its SMARTair wireless access control solution that gives facilities managers full control to lock down access to areas of, or an entire building, quickly and safely in an emergency.

Abloy UK says SMARTair offers intelligent access control — opening, locking or maintaining access to individual doors or zones to deal with an emergency. With a single command, doors equipped with SMARTair devices may be set to ‘Block Mode’ and can only be unlocked with a specific credential.

This means that apart from designated staff, no one on-site can move around freely. Alternatively, the ‘Emergency Close’ function can lock all openings remotely and simultaneously, but an authorised credential may still unlock them.

As a third option, every device can be set to ‘Emergency Open’, which unlocks them all. This could provide fire services with instant access to a whole building or site, for example.

With the SMARTair solution, full building lockdown may be initiated from the system’s software interface or Web Manager. It can also be activated via an emergency push-button connected to a SMARTair HUB. In addition, SMARTair enables control of each individual door, if required.

A facilities manager can pre-define over 250 different lockdown ‘zones’. In any emergency, they choose whether to lock down a whole zone or just specific doors. This level of control could protect people and valuable assets — or in extreme situations, even save lives.

With the control provided by SMARTair’s ‘Global Lockdown’ feature, managers can be confident building users have the highest level of protection against the unexpected.