Q: Why would anyone pay more for an electronic access control system rather than use a conventional lock and keys?
A: The most fundamental advantage of an electronic access control system over lock and keys concerns the barring of tokens from the system. If a key is lost then the lock has to be changed, costing time and money. If a token is lost it can be barred quickly and easily from the access control system. This makes it more viable for premises with a regular turnover of key holders.
Q: Is it possible for an intruder to fiddle with the reader to gain access?
A: Of course it is. You just take off the reader cover, connect a few wires together and you’re in. Well, that’s what happens in the films anyway. In reality, as long as the appropriate equipment has been used, there is nothing that can be done to proximity or magstripe readers to gain unlawful access into a building. By ‘appropriate equipment’ I am referring to high quality systems with a separate control unit that can be housed on the secure side of the door to prevent tampering.
Q: What alarm conditions are important for access control?
A: There are three alarm conditions that are particularly important to maintain the integrity of an access control system. ‘Door forced’ alarm condition will be activated when the door is forcibly opened without permission from the access control system. ‘Door left open’ alarm will be activated when somebody props open a door using a paint pot. The delay before which this alarm is activated is usually programmable. ‘Control unit tamper’ alarm will activate when the control unit housing is opened. Door contacts are required for the first two alarm conditions. Good quality control unit housings are supplied with a fitted tamper alarm output. Other alarms can be useful, such as ‘Mains failure’.
Q: What’s better, single door or multiple door control units?
A: This is the big one, the mother of all questions. In my humble opinion (remember I’m a doctor), single door control units are far superior. My justification is that they offer flexible architecture allowing you to install them either centrally or locally. Fitting control units local to the door is preferable in most installations as it reduces the cabling and allows localised power backup. They also offer far better system resilience with true distributed intelligence rather than a central point of weakness. Distributed intelligence is vital for an access control system to ensure that it continues operating correctly even in the event of a network failure, PC failure, sabotage, cables being burnt etc. Lastly, a single door control unit offers complete scalability. Unlike multiple door control units, it is as cost effective to install a one door system as it is a 50-door system. Multiple door control units have certain sizes of system for which they are often not competitive (for a 4 door control unit these would be 1, 2, 5 doors etc).
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