Security & technology
Access control
Card readers, face-recognition controllers, intercoms and electronic locks.
An access control system sets out who may open a given door, at which hours and with which credential. The controller reads a card, a fob, a code or a face, checks it against the rights held in the database, and only then releases the lock. Every entry and exit is recorded with a date and a time, which is why staff time and attendance is built on the same system. At the entrance lobby and the yard gate an intercom does the same job, with the call and the door release brought together at one point.
The reader is the easy part of this job. The harder questions sit in the door itself: what the leaf is made of — glass, metal or timber — how the frame is built, whether there is a door closer, and which way it swings. That is what decides whether a magnetic lock will hold it, whether an electromechanical one is needed, and where the exit button and the door position sensor go. Then comes the strictest condition of all: how the lock behaves when the power fails and when the fire alarm sounds. A door on an escape route has to open, while a strong room or server room door has to stay shut. That is why access control is planned together with the fire alarm and sized against a standby supply, and where that part is skipped the building is left either with a blocked escape door or with a lock that gives way at the first outage.
The real test is the day someone leaves the company, or a card goes missing. Cancelling one record in the database is enough to close every door that card used to open, the same day, with no lock to replace. That is also why rights are written as groups, by role or by floor, rather than as lists built around individuals: adding a new member of staff is one entry, not a round of the doors. The log then answers the questions that come up later: who was in the store room on Friday evening, and which card they came in on.
What it covers
- Time-and-attendance and access controllers
- Face-recognition controllers
- IP and analogue intercoms
- Card readers, magnetic cards and fobs
- Magnetic and electromechanical locks, door closers
Where it applies
- Office buildings and business centres
- Universities and teaching buildings
- Energy and production facilities
- Warehouses and logistics terminals
- Residential blocks and underground car parks
- Server rooms and archive rooms
Standards and regulations
The technical requirements for electronic access control systems are set by the EN 60839-11 series, which replaced the earlier EN 50133. An electrically controlled door on an escape route is treated separately: EN 13637 covers systems of that kind, and EN 179 and EN 1125 cover the exit hardware itself. On top of that sit the Georgian fire-safety technical regulation, which governs how locking on an escape route has to release on an alarm, and the personal data protection law, which applies to the processing of biometric data and of the entry and exit log. All of those requirements meet on the same door, and reconciling them is the job of the design.
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Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a card reader and a face recognition controller?
A card identifies an object, face recognition identifies a person. A card can be handed to someone else or lost; face recognition removes that problem, but it needs stable lighting, mounting at the right height, and a legal basis for processing biometric data. In practice both live on the same site: a face reader at the main entrance, cards on the internal doors.
Can an access control system also record working hours?
Yes, because the system already stamps every entry and exit with a time. A working-hours report is built from that log, and the log can be exported for use elsewhere. The detail that matters is a reader on the exit side of the door as well, otherwise the time of leaving is never captured.
How much does an access control system cost?
The volume of work is set by the list of doors rather than by the software: how many doors are read on one side and how many on both, which of them sit on an escape route, and which already carry a lock that can be reused. Every door separately needs a reader, a lock, an exit button and a cable run back to the controller, so the figure is built on the number of doors rather than on the floor area of the building. A single glass door at an entrance often takes more work than three ordinary doors along a corridor.
Can access control be fitted to doors that are already in place?
Yes. The main question is the cable route: where the line runs from the door back to the controller and the power supply, and it often fits into low-current containment that is already there. On an occupied site the order of the doors matters too: the main entrance is usually the last to change over, once the internal doors have proved the configuration.
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