Security is probably one of the most important aspects of both home and business life. Nowhere is it as important as multi-family apartment dwellings. It’s so important that many renters are willing to pay more to live in a building where good security is practiced on a structural and daily basis.
“To protect themselves, renters are acting responsibly including keeping strangers out of the apartment community and are even willing to pay more in rent to live where they feel secure. Survey results also reveal renters do not feel as safe as they have in previous years. While more than 66 percent of renters said they feel extremely to moderately safe living in their current neighborhood, a 2006 Apartments.com survey on apartment safety and security shows this figure has dropped by 12 percent and the number of renters who said they do not feel safe has increased by 8 percent” (National Survey Reveals Neighborhood Crime Rates May Dictate Where Renters Choose to Live, Apartments.com, http://bit.ly/1JLdv0x).
Condominiums and gated communities have similar security needs. Gated access is often a selling point.
The easy and inexpensive way of dealing with security at the door(s) is to install a classroom-style lock where occupants can freely egress but a key is required for ingress. The problem with this, however, is the need for communication between visitors and tenants. Add audio and an electrified lock to the equation and now you have a solution where tenants can verify the identity of their guests, subsequently releasing the door to let them in.
There are many flavors of phone access available today. Where some of these systems are designed to exclusively use the conventional POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service), others are designed to use cellular telephone technology—sometimes both. In most cases user phones are key to visitor access whether it involves traditional telephone technology or that of a smart or cell phone.
Four Flavors of Apartment Entry
There are four basic types of multi-family entry systems available on the market
- Intercom-only
- Video-intercom
- Access control-only
- Phone access systems
Although the primary focus of this story is phone access, the following provides information about the other three in brief.
Intercom-only systems entail the use of wall-mounted or hand-held, telephone-style intercom units installed in each suite in an apartment complex. In addition, one, two, or more directories are placed at the entrances where the visitor first approaches. Add a video camera to the directory and a small 3- to 5-in. monitor at each inside suite intercom and now you have a multi-family video intercom system.
An apartment access control system, much like any other, provides automated access for those who reside in the complex and anyone else who is considered as authorized. This includes managers, tradesmen, and others. These systems often consist of RFID or proximity card readers as well as keypads.
Many times an access control system is used along with an apartment entry system to provide a ready means of ingress for the tenants as well as manual tenant door release for visitor convenience. In some apartment entry systems the access control component is included, thus eliminating the need for keys for locksets, which is a selling feature when approaching apartment building owners and managers.
Last but not least, phone access systems involve the application of traditional telephones as well as smart/cell phones to the issue of communication with a visitor. It also involves the automated release of the door by tenants, both locally or from afar, although the latter should be discouraged at every level.
Traditional Telephone Access Systems
The use of conventional telephones and cellular phones inside apartments is an excellent way for visitors and tenants to interact. This communications solution involves the installation of a centralized control matrix in a telephone closet or electrical utility room — wherever the phone lines are terminated on 66/110 punch-down blocks in the building. In some systems the controller is built into the main directory.
The controller can either intercept the conventional telephone wiring that feeds the apartment telephones from the street or a special dialer module can be installed.
Using the former method, the suite telephones are used to establish communication between a visitor at the main directory — which is usually installed in a foyer along with the tenant mailboxes — and a tenant in one of the suites. This connection is established between the directory and the tenant’s phone through the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network). This is accomplished by pressing one of the call buttons on the directory unit. In turn, if the tenant wants the visitor to enter, he/she will press a specific number/digit on the telephone touch pad to automatically release the door.
The dialer module (spoken of earlier) eliminates the need for the interception of the wiring from all unit telephones. Instead, each tenant phone number is programmed into the directory controller so that when someone presses a specified numeric number, such as 24, the dialer connects the visitor to the tenant’s phone over the outside telephone system. A tenant’s cell or smartphone number also can be programmed into the system instead of a wired telephone number.
In some apartment phone access systems, both methods of operation are present right out of the box where in others you have to order the necessary modules along with the main unit. For example, some makes and models provide a ready means of programming using software and a computer. In fact, because these systems are computer ready, many of them allow you to perform programming via the Internet. This takes the muss and fuss out of the job of programming a lot of phone numbers into the system. It moves the task of system programming from local only to that of global, which is good when working with larger organizations.
For example, Doorking, a manufacturer of phone access systems, says that owners and managers can install their “Access Plus Account Manager” software on a PC (Personal Computer) so responsible parties can connect to the Access Plus system via a direct connection, LAN or the internet. This allows you to program new user telephone numbers and PINs (Personal Identification Numbers) as well as update existing tenant numbers as well as remove others who have moved, “…even lock or un-lock a door with the click of the mouse button” (Go to: http://bit.ly/1KkN6Sa).
It’s absolutely necessary to plan this type of system at the point of bidding. Each piece of equipment in the control matrix must be priced during the bid process then ordered once the bid is awarded. Distributors and manufacturers will assist you in assembling a list of optional modules and other necessary goods.
Wireless Phone Access
Cellular technology as a whole has quickly migrated its way into every nook and cranny of society, including the myriad of technologies that drives almost every aspect of business — no less phone access. As a technology, cellular will perform all the functions associated with traditional apartment access systems including intercom-only, video-intercom, access-only, and phone access.
When combined with an access control system, such as Yale’s Affinity, Smart Card-Locking system, the only wiring that needs to be installed is power. The Yale system operates using two basic radio frequency (RF) communication methods, specifically 802-11, also referred to as WiFi, and Near Field communication (NFC). For more information on the Affinity system, go to: http://bit.ly/1Pkn9tz.
“NFC is a set of communication protocols that enable two electronic devices, one of which is usually a portable device such as a smartphone, to establish communication by bringing them within 4 inches of each other” (Near field communication, Wikipedia, http://bit.ly/1SoAwJq).
In this case, NFC is used by individual tenants to unlock the main entrance doors using their smartphones. 802.11 also is used to link the access control system to the Internet so the management company can program users in and out of the system as tenants come and go.
What is 802.11? “IEEE 802.11 is a set of media access control (MAC) and physical layer (PHY) specifications for implementing wireless local area network (WLAN) computer communication in the 900 MHz and 2.4, 3.6, 5, and 60 GHz frequency bands” (IEEE 802.11, Wikipedia, http://bit.ly/1ZDMfZg).
The actual cellular-based phone access system, like the iCE-ENTRY-1, manufactured by Transmitter Solutions, is self-contained within the directory itself. Expansion options enable you to add new features. Add-on suite descriptors also provide individual tenant names with corresponding numbers, which are summoned by pressing a number(s) on a keypad built into the main unit.
