Electronic Access Control System Toronto and The GTA

Combined Entry and Security

Your elec­tron­ic access con­trol sys­tem is high­ly cus­tomiz­able, allow­ing you to use them with oth­er lock and secu­ri­ty mea­sures. Most com­mon­ly, they are part­nered with elec­tron­ic door con­trol devices unlocked using an RFID card, PIN code or bio­met­ric scans. Today, touch­less options are in high demand to pre­vent the spread of virus­es like COVID-19.

The Benefits of Electronic Access Control Systems

There are many rea­sons you need an elec­tron­ic access con­trol sys­tem:

• Con­trol: You have bet­ter con­trol over who enters your orga­ni­za­tion and the areas they can access. You can mon­i­tor and con­trol access depend­ing on the clear­ance for each vis­i­tor or employ­ee. You can also pre­vent unmon­i­tored activ­i­ty inside your premis­es based on acces­si­bil­i­ty con­trol.
• Mul­ti-loca­tion Access: COVID-19 has made it more dif­fi­cult to ensure that essen­tial employ­ees access unique facil­i­ties. Using elec­tron­ic access con­trol sys­tems, you can con­trol mul­ti­ple build­ings from one sys­tem. Intro­duc­ing touch­less and wave to open options reduces touch­points through­out your facil­i­ty while mak­ing it eas­i­er for employ­ees to move from loca­tion to loca­tion based on their approved access lev­el.
• Avoid Rekey­ing of Doors: A lost or miss­ing key is cost­ly, as it requires rekey­ing the doors. Your EAC makes rekey­ing unnec­es­sary.
• Improved Track­ing: Your sys­tem allows you to see who is on your premis­es, where they are and when they enter and leave to look for poten­tial secu­ri­ty and per­for­mance issues.

Per­haps best of all, you can inte­grate your sys­tem with var­i­ous busi­ness apps and devices. This allows you to use your access con­trol sys­tem for func­tions such as vis­i­tor man­age­ment, light­ing and room book­ing.

Components of Electronic Access Control Systems

Your elec­tron­ic access con­trol sys­tems con­sist of:

Access Control Point (Entries)

Man­age and cre­ate reg­u­lat­ed phys­i­cal bar­ri­ers for secure access points, includ­ing doors, park­ing gates, stor­age cab­i­nets and ele­va­tor floors, where access is restrict­ed.

Credentials

Cre­den­tials include:

• RFID key cards and fobs: These are the most hygien­ic form of access con­trol. You can choose:
  • Prox­im­i­ty cards to com­mu­ni­cate using low-fre­quen­cy fields and pro­vide no encryp­tion.
  • Con­tact­less smart cards com­mu­ni­cate using high-fre­quen­cy fields.
  • Swipe cards are con­sid­ered less secure than RFID cards because they’re usu­al­ly not encrypt­ed and are easy to clone.
• PIN code: PIN read­ers use PIN codes to grant access, but are not rec­om­mend­ed for areas that require high secu­ri­ty.
• Bio­met­rics: This would include entry via fin­ger­prints or palm veins, but present a greater pos­si­bil­i­ty to mal­func­tion in dusty or humid envi­ron­ments.
• Mobile: Employ­ees use their smart­phones to make unlock requests by touch­ing the read­er.

You can choose to use a sin­gle type of cre­den­tial or a com­bi­na­tion suit­ed to your spe­cif­ic needs.

Credential Readers

Cre­den­tial read­ers are installed near the entries to allow staff or vis­i­tors to use their cre­den­tials to send the inputs to the Access Con­trol Unit (ACU) using a wired or wire­less con­nec­tion. High-risk areas are more secure using bio­met­ric access con­trol, palm geom­e­try or facial recog­ni­tion.

Elec­tron­ic Access Con­trol Unit

The ACU is used to receive the cre­den­tial data from the read­er. Once the prop­er cre­den­tial is used, access is pro­vid­ed, and the ACU will unlock the door. The ACU can make pro­cess­ing deci­sions and man­age data such as cre­den­tials, PINS, and oth­er secu­ri­ty fea­tures.

Locking Hardware & Access Control Software

This is the func­tion­ing elec­tro­mag­net­ic locks, push bars, and oth­er elec­tri­fied hard­ware used to con­fig­ure entries. It is man­aged using access con­trol soft­ware, allow­ing the infor­ma­tion to be defined in the appli­ca­tion syncs with the ACU to deter­mine if access should be grant­ed.

How an EAC System Works

While all these parts and func­tions might seem com­pli­cat­ed, in its most basic form an EAC sys­tem is quite sim­ple. It works in the fol­low­ing way:

Step 1 – Authen­ti­ca­tion: First, the user must present their cre­den­tials to the access points’ read­er. The read­er sends the data to the ACU, so it can deter­mine if the cre­den­tials meet the access point’s require­ments.

Step 2 – Autho­riza­tion: Next, the ACU deter­mines whether the sys­tem rec­og­nizes the user and if they have the right kind of cre­den­tial to trig­ger entry. This process can include a vast series of data, includ­ing:

• If the user has access to the entry that they’re try­ing to unlock
• If they are using the pre­de­fined allowed cre­den­tial types and trig­ger types
• If they are mak­ing the unlock request with­in any sched­ules defined on the entry

It will also ensure that the oth­er restric­tions, such as a sys­tem lock­down, are not cur­rent­ly trig­gered.

Step 3 – Access: Once autho­riza­tion is com­plete, com­mands are sent from ACU to the door-lock­ing hard­ware to unlock the entries.

Step 4 – Man­age: Admin­is­tra­tive soft­ware is used to sync auto­mat­i­cal­ly with inter­net-con­nect­ed ACUs for adding or remov­ing entries, user cre­den­tials, sched­ules, and alerts.

Step 5 – Audit: Your organization’s admin­is­tra­tors can gen­er­ate reports for access logs, includ­ing both user activ­i­ty and entry activ­i­ty, by audit­ing the access con­trol sys­tem. This ensures there are no issues with access­ing entries, and the sys­tem is work­ing cor­rect­ly.

Despite the many steps involved in entry and authen­ti­ca­tion, it all hap­pens almost instant­ly, pro­vid­ing quick access for autho­rized employ­ees or vis­i­tors. The EAC sys­tem is high­ly cus­tomiz­able, effi­cient, and hygien­ic, pro­vid­ing any orga­ni­za­tion large or small with a depend­able access process.