Access Control
Access Control / Door Entry Systems
Access Control & Door Entry systems are designed to restrict and permit access to doors leading in to flats, offices, shop stock rooms, external doors in buildings.
In blocks of flats, you have the issue of not knowing who lives in each flat, who may be visiting or who’s working inside the communal area.
Once people have entry inside the stairwell area, they have access to the front doors of each flat.
Yes they still need to break-in to the flat via the front door, but they can take their time trying to get in as they are out of sight from the main pedestrian and vehicle traffic from the open street. see wire free alarms for more information on protecting your flat.
Having a door entry system installed next to the front entrance door with a push button call panel to call each designated flat also saves on the tenant or flat owner running up and down the stairs to let people in as well as securing the stairwell. Once the specific flat has been called, the occupant of the flat can press the release button on the handset. This will operate an electric release on the front door for a short period of time (10 seconds ) and the visitor can gain access, the door closes again and is once again secure.
Since most blocks have a different number of flats inside, the call module is normally made to order and has the number of each flat engraved next to the individual call point for that flat.
The front control panel is made to be vandal resistant* and can be in a flushed or boxed-in housing. There is a phone handset in each flat and electric released connected to the lock in the main door adjacent to the control panel . On the inside of the door (next to the door ) is a push to release button and an emergency green break glass.( break glass is installed in case of emergency and when pressed,will remove the power to the lock so you may get out quickly.
There are 2 main types of electric releases.
- Fail safe – When the power is removed from the lock the door will be open, so you may leave safely.This is what all releases should be in multi-residential premises
- Fail secure – When the power is removed the lock remains locked and won’t open until power is reconnected to the door – Not as Safe, but is used to protect sensitive areas from being prohibited.
You can get door entry systems to be either code entry only/ Audio Only and Video with Audio. The most common and cheaper option is the Audio only – where you can hear and speak from the call point to the phone handset in the flat.
Video door entry systems is what most of us would want, as we can see the face of who is calling/talking to us and if we don’t recognize them, Access Denied!
In shops having a small standalone door entry keypad on the stores doors, can really help with security. No person accidentally gaining access and walking away with stock unnoticed.