Managing access in a monumental modern landmark

The Musée des Confluences is a popular, new museum in Lyon, France, dedicated to sharing "global knowledge with a focus on the natural sciences." It has 6,500 square meters of space available for rotating exhibitions. Thousands of visitors pass through each day.

The major operational challenge museum staff face in this environment is balancing the need to provide open educational spaces with the strict security required for valuable artifacts, administrative offices and their records, and technical and curator rooms. Traditional key management practices, which rely on manual sign-outs and physical handovers, can be slow and prone to human error. It is a considerable security risk if keys are lost or duplicated. In a facility housing millions of specimens, many of which are rare or legally protected, it is essential to have clear, real-time control over who can access specific rooms.

To handle these vulnerabilities without disrupting museum operations, ecos systems installed a small, local network of electronic key cabinets customized to the facility’s needs. The museum now operates two ecos 20-key units and one ecos 40-key unit distributed around their 22,000-square-meter site. This approach enables facility managers to provide easier access to keys closer to where they’re needed most. Employees authenticate electronically at the cabinet, which releases only the keys they are authorized to use.