The Possibilities of Integrating Intercoms on a Network
Integrating intercoms onto a campus network enhances a college or university’s security and safety applications
- By Craig Szmania
- February 01, 2021
Intercoms are an ideal solution for college
and university campuses, because
they provide an appealing level of security
for a campus’ friendly flow of people.
With multiple buildings all being
used for different purposes, and up to tens of
thousands of people coming and going at all
hours, the need for effectual security communication
on a campus is ever-present.
While yesterday’s intercoms were primarily
used for convenient communication
among family members on different levels of
a home, today’s intercoms go well beyond
strictly convenience to functioning as a
sophisticated security device in commercial
and institutional applications. They are particularly
effective on campuses of all sizes.
The majority of installed intercoms use
analog technology; however, that share is
being redistributed and there will be more
IP-based intercoms than analog in the coming
years. Network-based intercoms offer
many benefits for integration with other
security and safety systems, such as telephony,
video, access control, and emergency
paging. In concert with these other technologies,
intercoms enable a fresh angle of situational
awareness that those responsible for
security may not have had before.
What Can an Intercom Do?
On campuses, intercoms are used in administration
buildings, classroom buildings, lecture
halls and auditoriums, offices, cafeterias,
libraries, dorms and residence halls, sports
centers and athletic facilities, maintenance
buildings and parking garages. They can be
especially useful at “information points”
around a campus, for example, used as emergency
“call boxes.” They also are commonly
used at gates controlling the entrances to a
campus, which in some cases may reduce the
number of security guards needed.
In its most basic form, an intercom facilitates
audio communication between two or
more people separated by distance, particularly
when one of them is attempting to gain
access to a building and the other is responsible
for granting that access by unlocking a
door or raising a gate. While the demand for
audio-only intercoms in commercial applications
is waning, there still may be some niche
applications for them on a college campus.
A growing trend in the intercom market
are units that provide both high-definition
(HD) audio as well as HD color video. The
benefits of having integrated two-way audio
communication with video verification are
powerful. Intercoms are used for vetting people,
to ascertain who the user is letting into
their campus buildings. The addition of HD
video to an intercom changes it to a more
robust security solution than audio alone. In
addition, having a unit with audio, video, and
even access control all in one device means
that one unit can function in place of several
separate products, and it communicates as
one unified security solution.
Campus Concerns
Key words for campuses today related to
intercoms are: security/verification, convenience,
low contact and interoperability.
When used for security, the first part of
vetting people through an intercom is two-way
communication with a high-quality
audio connection that works well in noisy
environments. The second part is an integrated
camera with HD resolution and lowlight
capability or night vision, so intercom
users can see who is requesting entry. Additional
features, enabled by network integration,
are things such as the capability of
sending snapshots of visitors via email, or
letting in people using a mobile device or
desktop computer.
Intercoms have to be convenient because
of the sheer number of people using them,
especially in college and university campuses
where there may be tens of thousands of students,
professors, staffand visitors who
interact with them. One example of enabling
convenience is by having an integrated
access control reader so authorized users can
enter a building using their card, smartphone
(Bluetooth-enabled), fingerprint or
PIN — or a combination of these for multi-factor
authentication — while unauthorized
users must press a button and be vetted first
before being allowed entry.
Low contact is a buzzword today, but it is
important because of the effort to stop the
spread of COVID-19. The less often one has
to touch anything, the better. That can be
accomplished in a few different ways with
intercoms. For the person at the door, using
their smartphone as a credential means they
don’t need to touch a keypad to gain entry.
For the person monitoring the intercom,
they can be in a remote location from the
people at the door, while still keeping the
entry secure by vetting visitors through the
audio and video functions of the intercom.
Underlying interoperability is integration
of the intercoms with other systems on the
campus network, so they will act as part of a
single security system that manages everything
— or at least multiple systems that all
“talk” to one another.
Open-platform IP intercoms can easily
integrate into a university’s other network-based
systems, including first and foremost,
the IP telephony system. SIP protocol support
makes it easy to link the intercom with
IP phones and PBX from other producers,
without having to connect to the server.
By means of this integration, when the
intercom button is pressed, it triggers a predefined/programmed group of phones to
sequentially or simultaneously ring. Staff
assigned to allowing access can then view a
video of the caller prior to answering on a video phone or on software on their computer. They are then able to answer and have
a conversation with the visitor. If the request to enter is deemed appropriate, the door is
released through the IP phone.
Integration with the campus telephony system
through the SIP protocol allows users to
make calls from one place to another from the
intercom, and to tie the intercom into the paging
and emergency call system. Most universities
have a paging system, which is used for
audio communication to classrooms, zones
(parts of the campus), or the entire campus,
for making announcements or alerting people
to emergency situations. An intercom can
integrate with these third-party systems,
allowing it to become a speaker end-point
where the announcement can be heard. Due
to their programmability, the intercom also
can become an initiation point of the alert.
Integration with the video management
system (VMS) allows for video feeds from
intercoms as well as other cameras to be
monitored centrally such as in a security
center and/or distributed to people in remote
locations on campus or further away. In
addition, by integrating the intercom camera
feeds into the VMS, they can be recorded,
searched and archived.
If there is an access control system on
campus, by integrating the intercom it
becomes another reader on the network, collecting
data on card swipes, Bluetooth reads
and key fobs.
Examples of Integrated Applications
Dormitories are one example of where an
integration can benefit users from a security
standpoint. By integrating the intercom to a
campus access control system, the users’
access cards allow authorized students into
the residence building during scheduled
hours, but after-hours they can no longer
enter by using only their cards. Instead they
have to use the intercom to call the desk
attendant to ask to be let in. This provides a
way for the university to double-verify who’s
actually getting in and to make sure there
isn’t a big group of people entering with the
authorized student, which is a good method
for controlling the spread of COVID-19 by
limiting large gatherings on a campus.
In buildings that house offices of professors
and counselors, intercoms can take the
place of a receptionist. Students who wish to
see a professor can scroll through the intercom’s
virtual phone book to find the person
they want, and then have a video call with
that person, vetting them before remotely
releasing the door.
Intercoms can provide gate control for
entrances and in parking garages. With
built-in access control with RFID or Bluetooth
capability, as a user approaches the
gate, the intercom will automatically open
the gate. Integration with an access control
system can provide additional features such
as audit trails. Guests who don’t have credentials
will push the intercom’s button, which
would call a guard center somewhere on
campus and a guard would perhaps ask to
see a driver license that they can check
against a list before raising the gate.
Intercoms can act as emergency call boxes.
When the emergency button is pressed, it
will call the campus guard or university
police for assistance. Integrated on the university’s
network, the system can pull in
video from that intercom or from adjacent
cameras so police will have situational
awareness. It may also be able to fire a strobe
for immediate attention to the area.
Beyond Simple Communication
Today’s intercoms are generally easy to program
and can be programmed for many additional
functions that weren’t offered in older
models, such as triggering silent alarms,
detecting motion, and detecting sounds.
For example, an intercom on a campus
can be programmed so that if it’s 2 a.m. and
there is a high level of noise or there is
motion by the door at which the intercom is
installed, it can then send a message, trigger
an alarm, turn on a light or fire a strobe. A
unique code can be set on the unit that opens
the door, but also triggers another action
without warning the person. Some intercoms
can do time-and-attendance, which could
keep an audit record of students’ work-study
hours as they enter and exit a building.
With these additional features, as well as
the capabilities offered by integration, it’s
easy to see how an IP intercom fits into a
whole solution for a campus. A campus can
do all kinds of things from a security standpoint
with what was once considered just a
simple convenience device.
This article originally appeared in the January February 2021 issue of Campus Security Today.