Upgrading apartment entry/camera system
September 24, 2013 11:31 AM Subscribe
Do you have an awesome system that works well? I am looking for advice, experience and any general wisdom as I look to find a replacement entry and video security system for a multi-unit condo building.
On behalf of my condo building in Seattle, I am looking to upgrade our existing entry system in order to provide more flexibility and security.
I am trying to get smart about this so I can have informed discussions with vendors and the building management company. If you live in a building with a great system that does what I describe below or have any pointers, I'd appreciate the knowledge.
Background
> Our downtown building has 18 residential units stacked on the top of a commercial building/parking garage.
> Residents are occupied by owners, though at any given time about 1/2 - 2/3 of residents are somewhere else (so remote access control is important)
> Given the commercial parking garage, there's lots of foot traffic (think drunk sports fans) who get confused about how to get to their car who end up buzzing residents/ getting belligerent, etc (so we'd ideally have a video feed to see who's at the door)
> There's a need to provide access for delivery people and service staff
Status Quo
> We have an aging system (TAS-2000 ADC from Mircom) which let's visitors look up a resident's name, enter a four digit code, and then the resident can unlock the door via a phone that's associated with the code (landline or mobile phone)
> Every unit has cable TV with a "building security" channel--at one point in time before I moved here apparently this worked and you could see who was at the door *if* you turned on your TV, found the channel, etc. Not ideal
What We Want
> At a minimum, a system that provides some sort of video surveillance of the door entry so that resident's can actually see the person they're letting in. (Today all you have to do is say "UPS" and most of us will buzz that person in. This is fine 98% of the time, but we've had packages go missing, those drunk sports fans seem particularly aggressive this year, etc)
> My ideal would be a system that provided a feed to the TV as before but also had a mobile app option -- nearly 100% of residents have an iPhone
On behalf of my condo building in Seattle, I am looking to upgrade our existing entry system in order to provide more flexibility and security.
I am trying to get smart about this so I can have informed discussions with vendors and the building management company. If you live in a building with a great system that does what I describe below or have any pointers, I'd appreciate the knowledge.
Background
> Our downtown building has 18 residential units stacked on the top of a commercial building/parking garage.
> Residents are occupied by owners, though at any given time about 1/2 - 2/3 of residents are somewhere else (so remote access control is important)
> Given the commercial parking garage, there's lots of foot traffic (think drunk sports fans) who get confused about how to get to their car who end up buzzing residents/ getting belligerent, etc (so we'd ideally have a video feed to see who's at the door)
> There's a need to provide access for delivery people and service staff
Status Quo
> We have an aging system (TAS-2000 ADC from Mircom) which let's visitors look up a resident's name, enter a four digit code, and then the resident can unlock the door via a phone that's associated with the code (landline or mobile phone)
> Every unit has cable TV with a "building security" channel--at one point in time before I moved here apparently this worked and you could see who was at the door *if* you turned on your TV, found the channel, etc. Not ideal
What We Want
> At a minimum, a system that provides some sort of video surveillance of the door entry so that resident's can actually see the person they're letting in. (Today all you have to do is say "UPS" and most of us will buzz that person in. This is fine 98% of the time, but we've had packages go missing, those drunk sports fans seem particularly aggressive this year, etc)
> My ideal would be a system that provided a feed to the TV as before but also had a mobile app option -- nearly 100% of residents have an iPhone
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