Access control prevents unauthorised personnel from entering a building or areas of that building. This technology is used across the built environment sector and has helped create a safer society. But how is it developing? In this article, we explore how access control is changing the built environment for the better and what the technology could mean for the sector’s future.
Key benefits?
Safety of residents, students, employees, hotel guests etc.
Mitigates risk in the form of intruders.
Flags potential threats.
Increases security and decreases chances of break in e.g. key copying can be made harder/if not impossible using biometric technologies.
What exciting features are we seeing?
Automatic door management - stops people accessing the building/specific rooms at certain times of the day e.g. to prevent employees entering before the manager.
Alarm notifications - used to notify the owner of intruders when they are away from the building. These can be sent via email and highlight the type of event e.g. ‘forced entry’.
Lockdown - shuts off all access to a given area e.g. in a situation where the building / inhabitants are under threat.
Customised reports - these can tell you who opened which door and at what time or if someone tried to access an out of bounds area without the correct key/badge.
Photo notifications - designed to improve visibility of who is entering the location and when/how.
Automatically unlock/lock doors as and when required.
Live video - particularly useful when an alarm goes off and you want to see what’s going on!
What does the future of access control look like?
Biometric reading technology is already playing a large role in improving access control and is considered to be at the cutting edge of security technology. Using bluetooth and cloud-based solutions, the technology has the ability to recognise humans and confirm their identity in real-time. Airports are already using this technology at passport control to improve security.
Geofencing is another interesting development which uses GPS technology and specialist software to create virtual boundaries. If those boundaries are crossed then an alarm will be activated.
Last but not least, we have digital on-boarding. This is designed to prevent risk to construction workers on-site by ensuring they are aware of the safety procedures ahead of visiting the site. Training can be completed remotely and managers can check if all paperwork has been completed/that their team is cleared to start on-site.
This is just a glimpse of things to come, so watch this space! Here at Pillar Partnership we look forward to seeing what technological advancements next arrive in the built environment space.
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