This project was started in order to solve a very specific problem. Several years ago, the members of WJRH paid to have a professional security system installed in the studio. It would operate electronic locks on both the internal studio door, and external door to the hogg hall basement, which could be opened via magnetic strip readers mounted outside. The system was controlled via software which ran on a nearby computer, and a database of DJ's and their student id numbers could be used to figure out who could get in and who couldn't.
Eventually the system needed an update. The magnetic strip readers worked less and less well, and the software controlling the system got old and clunky.