CR80News was onsite at the 40th annual CBORD User Group Conference (UGC 2019) this week. There were many highlights, great educational sessions, and a packed technology exhibit hall. Here are a few of the highlights from the event hall floor.

From mechanical keys to mobile devices, managing access is an essential piece of campus security. With more campuses exploring mobile credentials, buzz continues to build across the campus card industry. In response, schools are reevaluating their credential platforms alongside locks and other hardware to provide a more secure and convenient campus experience.

Assa Abloy’s Jim Primovic discusses the notable access control trends in higher education and then gives a detailed rundown of the company’s suite of Wi-Fi, wired and Aperio locksets. Primovic highlights some of the significant trends to sweep the college and university space, weighs in on the wired vs. wireless lock discussion, and provides a hands-on look at some of the locksets on offer from Assa Abloy.

Manhattan College is enacting more stringent access control policies around residence hall entry. Beginning this semester, the college will enforce mandatory 24-hour sign-in for anyone wanting to enter a residence hall that is not their own.

The University of Notre Dame is changing its access control policies around the use of student Irish1Cards at campus residence halls. The change will now only permit students to access their own residence hall with a student ID card, replacing a previous policy that enabled students to access all campus residence halls via the Irish1Card.

As with the industry-level discussions over the course of this year, the theme is mobile for Allegion as well. In this video feature, hear from Jeff Koziol, business development manager, campus software partner at Allegion, as he discusses the trends in the campus card transaction market. Specifically, Koziol talks the details of mobile access control, the technologies that underpin them, as well as discusses how Allegion as a physical access solutions provider, fits into that landscape.

The University of Florida will invest $30 million over the coming 5 years to a number of campus security upgrades and refinements as part of a campus wide access control and student safety overhaul. The substantial investment will go towards new security cameras, access control measures, updates to the student ID card, and new license plate readers to be stationed around the Gainesville campus.

King’s College London, located in the center of the capital, has revamped its campus security and access control measures. Comprising the college’s access control system are solutions from Gallagher, along with integrations with other security components including Assa Abloy’s Aperio technology for security at individual doors.

Adding to Allegion’s support of Transact Mobile Credentials in Apple Wallet, the company’s Schlage AD Series locks now fully support contactless student IDs on iPhone and Watch. This new capability is specific to Schlage AD-300 and AD-400 electronic locks, which feature built-in credential readers and access control sensors for simplified installation.

The evolution from mechanical, to wired, to wireless continues to impact the security industry, and higher education campuses are among the environments benefiting from the flexibility and efficiencies wireless solutions offer. While wired and mechanical solutions have their place on campus, wireless electronic locks complement these to expand the value of electronic security to more openings. To understand this value, Allegion’s Jeff Koziol explores the advantages of wireless in depth.