Kontich Municipality

Smart and secure access to leisure center facilities

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Kontich is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Antwerp. The De Nachtegaal leisure center, a popular location in the municipality, is well known for its numerous activities. The site consists of a large sports hall, a swimming pool, an open-air sports fields, a dog park, a playground and a cafeteria. There is also a multi-purpose room – Het Halfdiep – that can be used, for example, for private functions, meetings, exhibitions and concerts.

Numerous sports clubs and schools are active in the sports hall, and it is also possible for members of the public to rent facilities. During school holidays, children join sports camps organized by the sports department of Kontich. Outside, two basketball courts, the fitness area, the street workout area and the skate park can be freely used. And the artificial grass pitch can be rented during opening hours.

With so many different access points and numerous people needing access, the old mechanical locking system had become completely impractical. Employees were carrying around more than 50 different keys, including even five different keys for the same door. And it was impossible to keep track of who had keys, especially when members of staff left their jobs and didn’t return them. This caused excess administration, high costs and security risks.

Luckas Zaman, Chief Supervisor of the De Nachtegaal leisure center, made the decision to install the iLOQ 5 Series access management platform in the facilities.

iLOQ 5 Series is a flexible, modifiable, easy to-use platform that offers multiple access possibilities using a digital key, a mobile phone key, a key fob or even a PIN code. No batteries or excess cabling are needed. With the digital key, the power for unlocking comes from the motion of pushing the key into the lock. With the mobile phone key, the power for unlocking comes from the NFC field created by a smartphone. Access rights can be quickly and easily programmed to the digital key or sent in real time and remotely to the smartphone running iLOQ’s app. They can be updated as needs change using iLOQ’s cloud-based software platform and immediately blocked if a key is lost or stolen or a member of staff leaves the company.

Now, each member of staff has their own single ‘key’ with all the access rights they need programmed to it. External users of the facilities, like the football team or band members that use the Het Halfdiep multi-purpose room for rehearsals, also have their own keys with time-restricted access rights. This ensures access is only granted to the relevant places at the right times.

“We have been very happy with iLOQ’s solution. Administration of access rights for both staff and visitors is quick and easy. We know exactly who has access to which facilities and at what times. I don’t have the stress of not knowing how many keys are in circulation or worrying about the overall security of the premises,” states Luckas Zaman, Chief Supervisor of the De Nachtegaal leisure center.

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