If your customers are still thinking that access control is just about barring the front door, it’s time to broaden their view. Access control technology is about verifying who’s entering the building and restricting where they can go once they’ve come inside. In this era of COVID-19, it’s also about dynamically managing entry credentials for a workforce on staggered schedules. It’s about regulating building occupancy in real-time to accommodate health and safety mandates. And so much more.

“Customers are always looking for ways to increase security. But they want to achieve it without creating inconvenience for the people who use it,” says Craig Szmania, Business Development Manager for Intercoms at Axis Communications. “As an integrator, this presents a great opportunity for you to upsell innovations that can enhance your customer’s access control experience and simplify management of their entire security ecosystem.”

The importance of open standards

The key to these innovations is adherence to open platform standards. These standards make it possible to integrate your customer’s access control system with the latest IP-based security technologies — multi-featured video cameras, audio/video intercoms, and intelligent speaker systems — and control them through a single management platform.

An integrated, IP-based solution gives your customer greater flexibility and scalability to meet their current and future needs. For instance, a multi-unit housing development could expand access control from the outer entrances to interior doors, elevators, storage rooms and garages. A school might consider expanding access control to include equipment lockers and supply rooms and other high asset value locations. A hospital might extend access control system to drug carts and cabinets. A manufacturing facility might benefit from extending access control to loading docks and distribution centers.

With solutions that integrate cameras, intercoms and speakers into the solution, your customer will not only be able to track who enters, but see, hear, and respond in real time to any potential threats at the door.

Seeing and hearing who’s at the door

A basic access control system is blind and deaf. Whether entry is based on a pin code or a keycard, the customer has no way of knowing whether the person employing it is the authorized user. Having eyes and ears at the door will give your customer a better idea of what’s really happening at the entrance.

Axis Communications offers a broad portfolio of feature-rich surveillance cameras to help customers visually verify the identity of a user. The cameras can also trigger alarms if someone attempts to tailgate behind the authorize users. Cameras augmented with audio analytics can detect threatening sounds like gunshots that might indicate that it isn’t safe to unlock the door.

Adding intercoms is another way of elevating access control. 2N®, an Axis company, offers a wide selection of audio/video intercoms that provide touch, low-touch and touch-free alternatives for vetting people at the door. The modular intercoms allow customers a choice of access control components – RFID card readers (low-touch), Bluetooth (touch-free), and touch screen options. The latter would include customizations such as a phone directory of building occupants and special call buttons for couriers and service providers. Should your customer want to invest in automatic doors, 2N intercoms can also integrate with that technology to support completely touchless entry.

Respond in real-time

Adding tools to enhance situational awareness is only part of the security equation. Being able to respond to what’s happening in real time is equally important. Axis offers a variety of indoor and outdoor speakers that can be programmed to trigger live and recorded warning to tailgaters, loiterers, trespassers and individuals attempting to enter restricted areas without authorization. Encouraging your customer to add a proactive audio element to their access control can help them head off potential problems that would compromise their safety and security.

Expanding the horizon for innovations in access control

“There’s so much more that can be done with access control systems today that customers don’t even realize is possible,” says Bruce Stewart, Business Development Manager, Access Control Solutions at Axis Communications. “Whether it’s managing when and where people can come and go on a more granular level, or linking with other security technology to improve the customer’s overall safety and security position, there are lots of entry points for an integrator to introduce a better value proposition.”

Visit our websites for more information about Axis and 2N innovations in access control, including intercoms.

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