Mingara One Fitness Centre Upgrades Security

When the Mingara Recreation Club (MRC) opened its new 'Mingara One' fitness centre they realised that with membership set to double and that they needed to implement an effective access control system to enable valid members to quickly and easily gain access to the centre.

The Club also sought to protect their revenue streams by ensuring non-members would not gain access.

Mingara One is Central Coast's premium fitness centre with over 4,000 members, a state of the art gymnasium, a comprehensive Wellness Centre and three aquatic areas including an eight-lane Olympic pool.

MRC had been using the Centaman solution for membership, CRM, Swim School and POS for over ten years and again consulted with Centaman as to the best solution to automate Mingara One membersâ entry and exit.

The solution was two Fastlane Tripod Turnstiles for entry, supplied with swipe card readers and integrated with the Centaman membership system.

Now, when a member swipes their card at the turnstile the Centman software verifies that the membership is valid and the person has arrived during their correct time slot. For exit there is a motorised passgate that has been integrated with a set of PE beams so that it opens automatically as someone exits. The gate has also been integrated with a desk mounted control to open the gate thereby enabling disabled access in to and out of the centre whilst also facilitating deliveries.

The system went live in October 2008 and now manages 1,200 entries per day with a peak of over 420 entries in a busy hour. One of the key benefits of the automated process is that is has freed up the reception team, so instead of the time consuming process of verifying whether someone is a valid member and there at the right time, they can now focus on bookings, new members and general day to day queries which enables them to provide a more responsive service and members are gaining access to the site faster than before.

Nicole Murphy Pacholek, Mingara One's Operations Manager explains that "one of our key reasons for choosing Centaman was that we wanted to single source our software management solution and our entrance control solution.

"This way we have a single point of contact, with a 24/7 telephone support line, if there are any problems with any part of the system. No other turnstile provider could match this level of support."

Click here to contact Centaman via their entry in the Australasian Leisure Management Supplier Directory.