Case Studies

U.S. Air Force Academy

The United States Air Force Academy (USAFA), established in 1954, is located at the base of Pikes Peak in Colorado Springs, CO. Shortly after 9/11 GEI Palmer was privately chosen by the staff at USAFA to design and install a base wide security system to control access to the base and protect its students and staff members. We have operated and maintained the system since installation began in 2001 and currently employ a full time maintenance and administration staff on base. This massive security system now spans nearly 30 square miles using a variety of communication protocols to connect all facilities to a central control point.

Every day, more than 15,000 cadets, employees and residents of the Air Force Academy utilize our security system to gain access to every facility in the protected academic area as well as many other locations base wide. This access includes internal/external doors, elevators, traffic gates and parking facilities.

The USAFA security system maintains and monitors over 16,000 active ID badges controlling access to 22 facilities and more than 200 controlled doors and entry points. The system processes around 18,000 transactions per day with an average response time of one second per activity. Our full-time registration personnel issue about 1000 access and ID cards every month at multiple card issue stations on base.

In order to control traffic and vehicular threats, the Air Force Academy utilizes a wide range of drop-arm and barrier gate systems that fully integrate with our control system. Gates can be electronically activated from remote locations via remote workstations, or user-activated locally with a PIN, magnetic stripe, or proximity card. Certain users are also issued long-range transmitter devices that mount inside their vehicle; these prevent bottlenecks in traffic flow by opening the gate from up to 33 feet away as the vehicle approaches.

Our staff has worked side-by-side with USAFA Security Forces to ensure the safety of our Air Force Academy cadets, employees and residents. Using our graphic map workstations, they can identify security alarm locations on a scalable visual map of the buildings or facilities connected to the system. Alarms are instantly displayed onscreen, enabling security and emergency personnel to respond immediately to any situation. Upon a threat condition, these visual displays can help isolate or lock down any section of a facility within seconds. Our administration staff can custom design these workstations to monitor buildings and installations of any shape or size.

As the security needs of the entire world are changing and evolving every day, we are continuously designing upgrades and custom enhancements for our systems to meet these demands and provide our customers with the best products available. With the unparalleled flexibility of our system and our superior customer service ethic, there is no doubt why the United States Air Force Academy chose GEI Palmer Electric as its access control provider.

Our security system at the United States Air Force academy has attracted a great deal of attention from the press and industry related publications. Click here to read some of these stories.

PAFB 21st Medical Group:

Peterson air Force Base is home to the 21st Medical Group. Since 1999 GEI Palmer has worked hand in hand with the medical group staff providing solutions in every facet of our industry, including: Electrical, Fire Alarm, CCTV, Data/Communications and Security. Due to the overwhelming success of our base wide access control system at the United States Air Force Academy, GEI Palmer Electric has been given the opportunity to expand our system into other Air Force facilities. The 21st Medical Group at Peterson Air Force Base accommodates hundreds of customers and patients every day. With over one thousand employees among twelve facilities on base it is undoubtedly the most active operation at this highly secure military installation, and therefore a very significant security consideration.

Through extensive training with the GEI Palmer Electric team, we have qualified members of the clinic staff to manage their own customized access control system. They administer, print and program their own ID badges for access to the medical group facilities. The Facilities Manager can control access to any door among all of his/her facilities on base for each individual user with a badge. Members of each specific medical squadron are only allowed access to the areas in which they perform their duties and the hours that they work. This prevents employees from entering unauthorized areas of the facility or entering the building during their off hours.

The Peterson AFB Clinic is the largest of the medical group facilities and has one very unique security feature that requires some customization of the system. On multiple occasions throughout the year, without prior notification to personnel, the base conducts exercises to prepare for major threats such as a bombing, terrorist attacks or some other form of security breach. Upon this exercise, all of the medical group facilities on base must be completely locked down with all staff badges disabled. We have designed a custom software solution giving system administrators the ability to perform these actions in one quick step within just a few seconds. We have provided the medical group the ability to administrate all of their facilities on base at a single control point via a secure fiber optic network installed and maintained by our technicians.

Due to recent world wide terrorist activity, the security needs of countless public, private and government facilities are becoming more and more similar to the distinctive requirements of the 21st medical Group at Peterson Air Force Base. There is absolutely no question why GEI Palmer Electric has been chosen time and time again to provide solutions for such high security installations. Our ability to provide customized solutions to each and every customer is simply unmatched by any other manufacturer or provider in the industry.

PAFB Unaccompanied Housing Complex:

In 2006, GEI Palmer Electric was chosen by Peterson Air Force base to design and install one of the largest military surveillance camera systems in the world. The unaccompanied housing complex consists of six dormitory facilities accommodating hundreds of airmen and other military personnel. Our unique approach to the system design was significantly more cost effective than that of competing security providers. Due to our extensive knowledge of Peterson Air Force base and its state of the art fiber optic backbone, we were able to connect all 212 cameras and 19 digital video recorder units among the six facilities to one central monitoring station with fewer labor hours and less costly equipment then that of contending designs.

The facility management staff can live monitor up to 64 cameras from any of the six facilities at one time as well as retrieve and archive recorded video from any camera in the system at a central control point computer. To reduce downtime in the event of a digital video recorder or camera failure we utilize a unique monitoring system that will automatically report any system failures immediately to system administrators at the head end via a monitor message, email, text message or telephone call.

Since deployment, the system has enabled facilities management staff to capture numerous incidents and provide high quality video evidence to security forces personnel aiding in the prosecution or disciplinary actions of offenders. Video can be viewed and archived at the central monitoring station or locally by a manager at each facility and saved to a universal file format that can be played back on any personal computer. Access to the system can be centrally controlled per each user depending upon the needs of each facility. Users can be given access only to cameras at their facility or specific administration functions within the software eliminating the possibility of system abuse or tampering.

This landmark project was a major success and uniquely qualifies our company to engineer and install large scale CCTV integration projects. As more contractors continue to offer security products and services it is this type of value engineering and dedicated customer service that sets GEI Palmer electric apart from the competition.