When the historic Imperial Theatre in Saint John, New Brunswick sought to upgrade their access control system, it turned to the expertise of integrator Philip Bourque, Division Manager of New Brunswick-based Royal Door Ltd. and hisTeam

The Theatre, which opened its doors in 1913 and has been termed the finest theatre in Eastern Canada, had two goals in mind. One was to enable wheelchair accessibility to the building with a low-energy door operator. The other was to enable employees to easily secure three main entrance doors remotely, from behind the reception desk.

Because the Theatre ranks as a Heritage Building, Bourque wasn't able to drill in the walls to run the wires. "We couldn't run wires through the walls or ceilings to get to the switches, so we had to do a wireless installation," he explains. "We needed to unlock and lock three electric door strikes (simultaneously) from behind the counter, and indicate the lock status, so that staff always know if the door strikes are locked or unlocked." Of course, the automatic door operator must also be deactivated when the door strikes are locked. "Consequently, we needed an additional relay so that when you lock the strike it also deactivates the activation switches controlling the door operator, he adds, "That's where it got complicated. Ultimately, a wireless switch was needed to open and close the door while another wireless switch was needed to lock and unlock it."

The biggest challenge, Bourque points out, was finding the right wireless solution to meet the Theatre's request for this combination of accessibility, access control and ease of use for their staff.

Camden Door Controls was the first choice for equipment because of their market leadership in providing turn-key wireless solutions and products that span both ADA and access control systems. For this application, Bourque chose a Camden Aura? LED illuminated push plate to lock/unlock the entrance door strike and annunciate the lock status because it provided the convenience of a large ADA push plate with a highly visual indication of the lock status. Editor note: Alternatively, a key switch with red/green LEDs would provide a secure means of locking/unlocking the doors or a mushroom push button with LEDs would provide the same general functionality in a smaller size. Aura? push plate switches offer field selectable green/red/off illumination, which is activated directly (by switch) or remotely (by control relay or access control system).

Bourque chose Camden's Lazerpoint RF? 915 Mhz. spread spectrum wireless transmitters and receivers for interconnection of the door operator, 'push to open' push plate switches and Aura? lock/unlock push plate switch. Lazerpoint RF? offers the most advanced wireless communications available today and the battery operated transmitters provide an incredible 500,000 operations using standard 'AAA' alkaline batteries.

Relay control for the system was also provided by Camden. A CX-33 advanced logic relay was used as the controller for the automatic door, with 3 switch inputs (connected wirelessly) and 3 electric strike outputs. The CX-33 is a 'state of the art' door controller with 14 operating modes, designed to provide 'universal' support for virtually any project. In addition, a CX-12 control relay was used to latch the illumination of the Aura? lock/unlock push plate switch.

Bourque reports that the management team at the Imperial Theatre is very pleased with the success and aesthetics of the installation. The wireless solution also kept costs down as it eliminated the need to run wires and battery maintenance is minimized. "Things can get really complicated with historical buildings," Bourque states. "It's a very different set of dynamics, and the Camden Door Controls solution was ideal for meeting the end user's needs and aesthetic requirements."