Moving Access Control Into Interior Openings In Large Complexes
Technology exists in a co-evolutionary relationship with the people who use it. When technology evolves to become faster or smarter, the user follows. Innovations come to fill the gap in solving the end-users problems. Electronic access control follows this pattern as well. Where it was traditionally found surrounding the perimeter of a building and in specific high-risk areas, mostly due to cost limitations inherent in wired access control, the smart locks of today are often found deep into the interior doors of a building for applications that reach beyond simple security.
This is especially true for buildings that have more than 50 employees coming and going from the main doors each day. When large groups enter the building at the beginning of the day, RFID can be logged from a card carried by each person. It is possible to give varying levels of access to interior doors to different individuals, and of course to track movement and time spent in different areas. Interior access control gives advantages to both management and the general employee. Using wireless access control eliminates the need for maintaining sets of keys and keeping track of who has what and who may have accessed an area at some time. Employees have become increasingly use to swiping a key for access to their location. Basically, a cascading effect of adoption of interior wireless locks occurred over the last several years and in any serious installation it is almost guaranteed to be a major aspect of the project.
The same type of case can be made for K-12 schools, with the main entrance and secondary entrances being incorporated into the overall access control system. Using the correct hardware, a school can be setup to easily enter a lockdown of its entire perimeter. Once schools see these benefits, they quickly realize that incorporating the same locks into classrooms can allow for the lockdown of sections of a school to contain a crisis or protect from an external threat.
The evolution of this technology has reduced costs and improved reliability and performance, as well as the general capabilities of the systems. The differences in meeting the needs of a school versus an office, for instance, are where a security Integrator is able to come in and help the user decide between things like having real-time access to a wireless lock via a gateway in the school setting, versus perhaps going with a Wi-Fi connection in the office. This is not in real-time, but the office also has less need for the ability to go into quick lockdown to guard against an outside threat.
Variations like these in architecture allow for a mixing and matching of locks on interior and exterior doors to meet the needs of the customer. The demand for a “one-card solution” is already here, and increasingly users want and expect to be able to manage the functions of these systems through their mobile devices. As a Security Integrator, Security Technology of South Texas is prepared to build a tailor fit system for the needs of schools, places of work, car dealerships and more.
Please contact us through email at admin@gostst.com on our website or via phone at 210-446-4863 24/7
