Access control systems

No. Access control works for homes as well as businesses, and we fit it at houses, estates, complexes, offices and industrial sites. At home, it gives everyone in the house their own way in, so nobody hands out spare remotes again. A common home job is a keypad or fingerprint reader on the pedestrian gate, with the driveway gate on remotes or tags. The domestic worker gets a code working only on weekdays. The garden service gets a code for Tuesday mornings. When someone leaves, you take their access away in minutes, without changing a lock or chasing anyone for a remote. For larger homes, the same system can log each opening, so you can see who came in and when. Every system starts with a visit to your property and a written quotation.

The cost of access control depends on three things: how many entrances you have, how people will get in, and how far cable has to run. A keypad on one pedestrian gate costs far less than readers, boom gates and turnstiles for an estate or a factory. Fingerprint and facial recognition readers cost more than keypads and tags, but nobody can lend or lose them. Linking the system to your gate motor, intercom or cameras adds to the price, and often saves money later, because you manage one system instead of three. We don't quote off a price list. A consultant visits the site, looks at every entrance and how it's used, and then gives you a written quotation before anything is ordered. If the budget is tight, we can plan the system in stages, starting with the entrance carrying the most risk.

No single option is best. The right choice depends on who uses the entrance and how often. Fingerprints and faces can't be lost or lent, so they suit homes, staff entrances and server rooms. Tags and cards are quick for large numbers of people, such as estate residents passing a boom gate twice a day. Keypads suit visitors and contractors, because you can give out a code for one day and change it in minutes. Remotes still make sense for a driveway gate, as long as they're rolling code remotes, which change their signal each time and are much harder to copy. Many of our systems combine two or more. An estate might use tags for residents, fingerprints for staff and a keypad code for deliveries. We recommend the mix after looking at your entrances and the people using them.

Yes. You can remove anyone from an access control system in minutes, and their access stops straight away. When a tenant moves out, a staff member leaves or a contractor finishes the job, their tag, card, code, fingerprint or face comes off the system. You don't need to change locks, collect remotes or wonder how many copies are out there. On most systems you can also limit access instead of removing it. A domestic worker can be allowed in on weekdays only, or a cleaning team between 6pm and 9pm. The record of past entries stays on the system after the person is removed. If something goes missing or a question comes up later, you can still see when they came and went. We show you how to add and remove people when the system is handed over.

Yes. We install, automate, service and repair boom gates for vehicle entrances and turnstiles for people. Most of this work is at offices, factories, warehouses, estates and business parks. A boom gate lifts for one vehicle at a time. A turnstile lets one person through at a time, so nobody slips in behind someone else. Both open with the same tags, cards, codes, fingerprints or faces as the rest of your access control, so each person needs one credential for the whole site. Both can link to an intercom at the entrance, so a visitor can call the guardhouse or reception before they're let in. Every opening is logged, which helps when you need to know who was on site at a given time. Our service department looks after them afterwards, and a service level agreement adds 24-hour support.

In most cases, yes. Access control can usually link to an existing gate motor and intercom, so one tag, code or fingerprint opens the gate and the intercom still lets visitors call you. During the site visit, we look at what is already installed, how old it is and what it can connect to. We tell you plainly what can be joined up, and what would need replacing to work properly. A gate motor in good condition can often stay. An old intercom without the right connections may need a newer unit. Once the systems are linked, you manage one setup instead of three working separately. Linking them also gives you a single record of who came and went, whichever way they got in. Every recommendation comes with a written quotation before anything is ordered.

Access control keeps working during load-shedding if it has backup power. Readers, controllers and gate motors can all run on batteries, which charge while the power is on and take over when it goes off. The weak point is the battery nobody has tested. Batteries lose capacity over time, often without any warning, and an old one gives out on the first long outage, usually at night with the gate shut. We size the batteries for the length of outage you're likely to see, and we test them at every service visit. For sites needing more, such as estates and businesses, solar power or a battery backup can keep the whole entrance running through long outages. If you already have a system, we can check its batteries and tell you how long it will last without power.