Cloud-based Solution Brings Great Mobility to High-End Communities

The Situation

A residential community located in Brighton Beach Avenue, Brooklyn, New York has a total of eight buildings with more than 60 apartments in each building. The existing analog intercom system coupled with a RFID access control system was aging and presented a few problems over the years, such as data loss in the long-distance transmission in such a big community, audio-only communication and poor expandability.

The Solution

Akuvox's smart cloud-based solution was selected to address these problems. The Akuvox R29 door phone with a a7'' touch screen was installed in the main entrance of each building. The Akuvox IT83 Android-based indoor monitor with a 10'' touch screen was selected as an indoor answering unit, which was installed in the living room of each apartment. The best part for the resident is the Akuvox SmartPlus mobile intercom app, which offers rich features for on-the-go, such as two-way communication with the door phone and remote buzz-in of visitors, bringing great mobility to the tenants.

The solution provides excellent user experience. For tenants, they can choose one of the multiple access control methods of the door phone, including facial recognition, NFC, Bluetooth, PIN code and RF card, to get door entry. With a pre-imported contact list, visitors can search the tenant to visit by searching on the 7'' touch screen of the door phone, which is as easy as using the phone book on a smart phone. Or they can simply present the time-limited QR code key created by the tenants to the door phone to get access.

Thanks to the great expandability of Akuvox’s intercom solution, the transition from the old intercom system to the new system was quite smooth. R29 was seamlessly integrated with the existing RFID access control system via its Wiegand port. In this way, tenants can still use their RF cards to get access via the legacy system as well as remotely manage door releases with Akuvox SmartPlus. Even the elderly without a smart phone for installing SmartPlus are happy with the new system, as the features of audio calling and door unlocking are also supported in a standard phone call.

The Results

It has been more than half year since the solution was deployed. The overall level of satisfaction of the residents and the property manager are high. Residents not only didn't feel a tiny bit of trouble with the new system as they can continue to use old access control device, but also enjoyed a better building living experience provided the cutting-edge door phone and the cloud-based app. Thanks to the great openness and easy integration of the solution, the installer of this project, even successfully copied the solution to several other communities.

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