For the majority of access control systems out there, owners of these systems tend to utilize just a small portion of what the system can actually do. These features include adding/deleting users, managing user groups for different level of access, and maintaining schedules on door entries and exits.
However, access control systems these days can do so much more, and many times there is little to no additional investment. We’re talking about perimeter door monitoring. This is where your access control doors can be monitored to let you know if a door has been ‘forced open’ or if a door has been ‘left ajar’.
These functions allow you to electronically monitor the perimeter of your building, eliminating the need for a building manager or guard service to walk around and manually check each door. This saves both time and money by not having to deploy valuable resources and personnel.
Within the last several years, video surveillance has been directly integrated with access control systems for one point of management and operation. For example, when a door is open or card is read, the access control system will automatically log a video clip from a camera pointing at the door (or a PTZ directed to spin around and zoomin on the door).
In addition, if you’re interested in cameras but don’t want to invest in an onsite PC-recording solution, you can have cameras installed that will record to the ‘cloud’ over the Internet! Events you wish to record at your access controlled doors will be saved for easy retrieval from any smart device ( iPads, iPhones, Blackberrys, etc).
Please contact Pacific Fire and Security, the leading commercial security provider in Puget Sound, for more information on this topic and additional ways to mitigate risk to your people, property, and profits.
