The migration to IP in the video and telephony industries has resulted in IP Telephone handsets and IP CCTV cameras, devices that have an IP address, are native to the network and in some cases are powered from the network.
In the Access Control world, however, things are not so clear cut. The majority of systems claiming to be network capable, use more legacy serial wiring than they do network cabling. End devices (door controllers) are connected on serial bus architecture and rely on IP gateways to communicate with a network based server.
The Access Control solution manufactured by Netgenium Systems was developed from the ground up with the network in mind and was the first of its kind to utilise IEEE 802.3af Power Over Ethernet (PoE) to power the end devices and onwardly power industry standard locking hardware. This innovation saw the Lock Controller win the award for best hardware product at IIPSEC 2005.
Central management is provided by PolicyServer, giving the Building Manager the ability to control and react to Access Control ‘events’. PolicyServers ability to control the entire range of Netgenium products and integrate with third party systems now mean that an authentication request from a card reader doesn’t have to just open a door. This ‘event’ can be reacted to differently depending upon the time of day. During normal office hours it may well only open a door, out of hours it may refuse entry, request the CCTV system records footage of the person requesting entry and alert security with a phone call, it could even turn the lights on!