What is a Commercial Intercom System?

A commercial intercom system facilitates two-way communication using audio and video transmission. It is designed to streamline property access control, allowing building occupants to confirm the identity of visitors before granting them access to the building.

If you are considering a commercial intercom system for your enterprise or commercial building, this article will help you learn the features you need.

Types of Commercial Intercom Systems

Commercial intercoms are available in various forms, including video intercoms, wireless intercoms, wired intercoms and more.

Commercial Intercom Systems with a Door Release

Not all companies can afford to hire a security guard. A commercial intercom system with a door release is suitable for commercial properties that want to grant property access without anybody being present at the main entrance.

This system allows visitors to speak with the building occupant through an intercom, confirming their identity and the purpose of their visit. If the building occupant wants to allow the visitor into the property, they can open the gate with a press of a button.

Video Intercom Systems

A commercial video intercom system is an entry system with a built-in camera that facilitates video calling between building occupants and visitors. This facility allows building occupants to see the visitors before granting them access to the property. 

Video intercoms are available in two forms: One-way and two-way video calling.

  • One-way video calling: It allows tenants to see visitors before granting access. However, it does not allow visitors to see tenants during the call.
  • Two-way video calling: It allows both tenants and visitors to see each other during the call.

Wireless Commercial Intercom Systems

Wireless intercom systems are connected through Wi-Fi to facilitate audio or video communication. If the commercial property has high-speed internet, it can connect remote door stations to the master station. A large-scale commercial property with many connection points should use wireless intercoms to streamline access control.

Wired Commercial Intercom Systems

Wired intercom systems have dedicated cables to connect the base station and substations. This intercom may not be suitable for properties with many connections or substations. Depending on the security needs, front desk executives of commercial properties can use a video or audio intercom device to speak with the visitor.     

commercial intercom system. talking into intercom

Features of Commercial Intercom Systems for Access Control

While choosing a commercial intercom solution for access control, you should look for features that enhance security as well as user convenience.

Smartphone Capabilities

Typically, commercial intercoms have a base station (referring to the commercial intercom unit itself) at the main entrance and several substations throughout the building. For example, if you have a large-scale industrial building with hundreds of workers, you may need to spend a lot of money on installing substations to streamline access control.

A commercial intercom with smartphone capabilities may help you avoid extra expenses. Smartphone-based intercom stations come with a mobile app that allows building occupants to speak with visitors and open gates from anywhere. Since smartphones act as substations, you will no longer need to spend money on substations.

With Genea, your smartphone is your credential. Learn more about our mobile access control features to see how you can transform your security.

Cloud-based System

Cloud-based access control enables security admins to manage access permissions, monitor access activities, and update their system, remotely. Many cloud-based access control providers integrate with commercial intercom systems.

Genea Security provides a centralized dashboard from where security admins can manage access control operations of multiple properties and monitor access activities in real time.

Integrations with Other Systems

Different companies and organizations use varying types of technologies such as access control systems, video management systems, smart door locks and visitor management systems to streamline physical security at their premises.

To increase the efficiency of your access control, choose a commercial intercom that integrates with your existing tech stack.

Let’s look at how some of the commercial intercom integrations, below:

  •  An integration between commercial intercom and smart locks can enable visitors to open doors from a mobile application.
  • An integration between commercial intercom and access control systems can help security admins restrict visitors’ access to some parts of the office building.

Touchless Entry

Today, many owners of multi-tenant commercial real estate prefer using touchless access control systems in order to maintain workplace hygiene and increase user convenience. 

Touchless entry is a mechanism that allows users to enter the building without touching any access control devices, handsets, doors and gates.

For instance, the building occupant can generate a one-time virtual key in the form of a QR code. Visitors can use the QR code to open the gate without touching any devices.

Mobile access control will also facilitate touchless entry. For instance, Genea’s mobile access control enables tenants and visitors to use their BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) or NFC (Near-field Communication) enabled mobile phones to open gates and doors.

Access Control for the Future

Genea is a leading access control solutions provider offering a range of solutions, including cloud-based access control, mobile access control and touchless visitor management. It facilitates integrations with your existing tech stack using API tokens.

  • Video Management: You can integrate Genea with video management platforms like Rhombus Systems, Milestone Systems, and Tyco Cloud VMS to enable features such as door mapping, real-time video feeds, incident notifications and facial recognition.
  • Visitor Management: Genea offers a touchless visitor management system that allows visitors to pre-register themselves through the mobile application, fill out pre-arrival paperwork and generate a QR code that acts as an entry pass.
  • Identity Management: Adding or removing users is no longer a hassle with Genea. Genea integrates with identity managers such as Okta, Azure Active Directory and Active Directory to automate provisioning and de-provisioning user workflows with a click of a button.

Book a demo of Genea Security to learn more.