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SPECIAL FOCUS GOVERNMENT CONTRACTING By Paul Rothman Success Story: Ralph L. Carr Colorado Judicial Center Contractor deploys unified security system for new courthouse facility I n addition to nearly 30 judges, more than 1,400 people work in the Ralph L. Carr Colorado Judicial Center. The complex features a fourstory courthouse facility and a 12-story office building that includes a data center. On any given day, 500 or more visitors pass through one of two secure entrances to conduct business. Officials have crafted an integrated security system that includes access control, surveillance, duress and visitor management united under a sophisticated security management system. "Without question, this is the most advanced security set-up in any court building in Colorado, and perhaps in the country," says Steven R. Steadman, Director of Court Security for the Colorado Judicial Branch. Steadman performed the security assessments and oversaw the installation of the integrated security system by St. Louis-based Guarantee Electrical Contracting, which also installed the structured cabling, CATV, data, network data, fiber optic and completely built the data center. In fact, a Guarantee Electrical employee from its Denver branch office works full-time within the facility to ensure all systems are operating efficiently. 32 The System's Backbone AMAG Technology's Symmetry Homeland Security Management System (SMS) provides the access control and backbone of the integrated system. The SMS, access control and video surveillance is monitored on-site by the Colorado State Patrol, which also provides security officers and Troopers for the building. The SMS enables security staff to schedule automatic locking and unlocking of exterior and some interior doors to provide enhanced security. "We use the Symmetry Homeland SMS to regulate where folks can be in the building," Steadman explains. "Access to justices, judges and the courtroom are controlled by the SMS, as well as all back-of-house areas like the loading dock and garage. It effectively and efficiently keeps them separated." The building cannot afford security downtime, so NEC Fault Tolerant (FT) servers ensure the SMS is up and running continuously. The servers provide complete redundancy for all of the system components, including the motherboard, CPU, RAM and power supplies. It uses a proprietary lockstep technology to keep all of the duplicate system components completely in synch. This lockstep technology www.SecurityInfoWatch.com | SD&I; | November 2013