Entrance control delivers added value and critical insight through seamless product integration

It’s no longer enough for entrance control to simply prevent unauthorised access into a building. Although this, of course, remains crucial.

Terms such as integration, interoperability and compatibility have been driving product development, systems integration and the relationships between manufacturers, integrators and end users for some time but, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, this has accelerated further.

Fastlane products benefit from the capability to be integrated with all known security and building management systems. We’ve been seamlessly integrating Fastlane turnstiles and Door Detective door entry products with third-party technologies such as video analytics, time-and-attendance, HVAC and identity management for many years now, providing data and intelligence to building owners about how their asset is being used by its occupants.

This short video provides an overview of the most common integrations and the benefit they bring, including those which have rapidly risen as hero products during the pandemic. If your specific requirement isn’t covered, or if you have an integration idea that’s a little out of the ordinary, get in touch as developing new solutions is what we love to do.

Continuously designing new and improved products in response to changing market and customer needs is all in a day’s work for our team, and the most common requests – and how we solve them – include:

• Contactless entry – integrating the MorphoWave Compact by IDEMIA allows authorised users to gain access to a building with a simple wave of their hand
• Accurate payroll – with integrated time, attendance and staff volume monitoring
• Improving building efficiency – integrating with other building management systems ensures the required HVAC levels and lighting is provided in the right areas at the right times. It’s also possible to integrate with lift destination controls to deliver time and space efficiencies
• Capturing access violations – with integrated intruder and CCTV systems, it’s quick and easy to locate and identify any individuals, friend or potential foe, who don’t adhere to the security protocols and assess how best to handle the response
• Enhancing fire controls – connecting entrance control with fire systems allows you to monitor where people are within a building, so that emergency services can be quickly directed to the most critical areas
• Weapons detection – integrating Fastlane turnstiles with the Patriot One weapons detector provides a visual deterrent and a physical barrier, preventing any concealed weapons from entering a premises

Driven by the fight against COVID-19, unsurprisingly over the past 12 months we’ve also received requests for integrations which previously have been deemed less critical and therefore not as common. Some of the questions our clients have been asking, and we’ve been developing answers to, include:

“How can I monitor and control how many people enter my building, to ensure social distancing guidelines can be adhered to?” Read more about this here.

“I want authorised users to be able to gain entry without having to touch anything, and without security being compromised. Is this possible?” We’ve tackled this topic in more depth here.

“Is there a way to scan people’s body temperatures as they enter my building, and deny entry to anyone with a high temperature?” This is something Red Bull required at their new Covent Garden office, read the case study here.

“We want everyone entering our building to use hand sanitiser before gaining access, can we enforce this?”

“With more and more people now wearing protective face masks, I need an access control system to integrate with my turnstiles that is capable of recognising this and is able to identify authorised users without causing delays. Bottlenecks are out of the question! Is there anything on the market this sophisticated?”

Invention and reiteration at our core

Prior to the Coronavirus outbreak, more than 65% of our orders featured a bespoke element to them, made simple by our in-house testing and manufacturing capability.

“The IDL team is capable of integrating most things we are asked to consider, and thermal cameras or mask detection is not necessarily any more difficult than integrating card readers or lift destination controls,” comments Tony Smith, Major Accounts and Marketing Manager. “We wouldn’t want to limit our or our customers’ scope of thinking, so rather than prescribe a solution, we’ll listen to our customers’ challenges and then devise a bespoke solution to solve them.”

Tony continues: “What makes IDL different when it comes to product integration is our technical team’s ability to adapt our turnstiles to seamlessly accommodate other third-party products. You won’t see proximity card readers or other access control hardware bolted on to our products. Instead, our team works closely with our partners to incorporate their equipment and hardware into the design of our units, so that they look like an integral part of a complete system. This greatly improves the look of the units and aids user acceptance.”

If you’d like to discuss the possibilities integration can unlock, get in touch with our team on +44 (0)208 890 5550 or email info@fastlane-turnstiles.com. We love a new challenge!

In other news:

• What you need to consider when buying entrance control
• Don’t let security be an ailment of your healthcare facility
• Entrance control glossary of key terms