Replacing fobs with an apartment building access control system

Fobs get copied at mall kiosks, lost without being reported, and almost never returned when a tenant moves out. A strata still running mechanical master keys has a worse version of the same problem — one lost master can mean changing cylinders across every door it opened and reissuing keys to the whole building. An apartment building access control system replaces that physical inventory with a database record you can revoke in a minute, but the benefit only holds if the readers, controllers, door hardware and software are specified as one system.

What an apartment building access control system is made of

Four parts, and nearly every complaint a council fields traces back to one of them.

• Reader. Mounted at the door. It reads a credential and passes the data back; it makes no decision of its own.
• Controller. In a locked closet or the head-end rack, serving a group of doors. It holds the permissions, decides yes or no, switches power to the lock, and monitors whether the door opened and closed.
• Door hardware. The electric strike, magnetic lock or electrified lockset, plus a door position switch and request-to-exit device, so the system can tell a normal exit from a door forced open.
• Software. Where credentials are issued and revoked, schedules are set, and the log lives. Either hosted by the vendor or on a server in the building.

The link between reader and controller matters more than most buyers expect. Older installations use Wiegand, which sends the credential number in the clear over a few conductors, so anyone who can reach the back of the reader can capture and replay it. OSDP over RS-485 supports encryption and supervision, so a cut or tampered line is reported rather than quietly ignored.

If you are buying new, ask whether the readers and panels support OSDP, and whether the installer will commission it in secure mode.

Fobs, cards and mobile credentials, and the day a resident moves out

No credential type wins outright. The comparison that matters is copy resistance, behaviour at turnover, and where it will annoy you.

Mobile credentials solve the logistics problem and create a dependency. Nothing is handed over or collected back, and a new resident can be live before the moving truck arrives. Against that, the credential lives in a vendor's app with a recurring per-user charge.

Most residential buildings are best served supporting two credential types at once: encrypted cards or fobs for residents who want a physical object, mobile for those who prefer it.

When someone moves out

The unreturned fob stops being a problem, and that is the change councils actually feel. Deactivate the credential and it fails at every door, gate and elevator on the system that same evening. The plastic in somebody's junk drawer is inert.

Cloning is often misunderstood here. A copy presents the same number as the original, so revoking the credential kills the copy too. The real exposure is the copy nobody reports — a resident duplicates a fob for a short-term rental guest, and the original stays valid in the database.

All of this depends on the records. Every credential should be tied to a unit and a named holder, so that "suite 604 has three fobs and one belongs to a tenant who left in March" is answerable in the software. Set expiry dates rather than relying on memory: contractor and cleaner credentials should expire on a date, and a tenant credential can lapse at the end of a tenancy and be extended in seconds if it renews.

Audit trails, and what they can and cannot settle

An access log records that a credential was presented at a door at a time, and whether entry was granted. It does not record who was holding it, and that distinction decides most disputes. A log establishes what the system recorded; it does not decide an insurance claim, and an adjuster will reach their own conclusion.

The log becomes far more useful paired with a camera covering the same door, both synchronized to the same time source. A two-minute drift between the controller and the recorder is enough to make an event pairing arguable. Planning access control and surveillance together, rather than as two purchases, is mostly about this.

The events that matter are the ones nobody looks at: door forced open, door held open, and repeated denied attempts at a parkade door overnight. A monthly review of those three reports finds a propped stairwell door before an insurer does.

Privacy. Access logs describe when identifiable people came and went from their own home. Collecting, using and retaining that information carries privacy obligations in British Columbia, and the strata should decide in advance who may view logs, how long they are kept, and what they may be used for. Have that reviewed with the strata manager and legal counsel before the system goes live, not after an owner asks for a neighbour's entry history.

Parkade gates and elevator floor restriction

The reader at a vehicle gate is the easy part; the gate operator is the rest. An access controller typically provides a dry contact telling the operator to open, while the operator's own safety devices — loop detectors, photo eyes, reversing edges — stay under the gate installer's responsibility. Keep that boundary explicit in the scope of work, not after an incident.

For vehicles, choose between a reader the driver reaches out to, which is inexpensive and creates queues at the ramp, and long-range tags or plate recognition that open as the car approaches. Neither stops tailgating. Anti-passback can prevent one credential admitting two cars, but in a residential building it generates support calls — a resident who leaves on foot and drives in later is refused.

Elevator floor restriction works one of two ways: a reader in the cab with relays that enable only the floor buttons a credential may press, or an interface to the elevator controller supplied by the elevator company. Either way the elevator contractor is involved, cabling has to reach the cab through the travelling cable, and their schedule and charge drive that part of the timeline. Emergency operation, including recall and firefighters' service, takes precedence over floor restriction and stays with the elevator contractor and the authority having jurisdiction.

Fail-safe, fail-secure and life-safety egress

Fail-safe hardware releases when it loses power. Fail-secure hardware stays locked when it loses power. Neither is a preference to be chosen on price: the right answer depends on what the opening is for, whether the door assembly is fire-rated, and what the fire code and the authority having jurisdiction require for that door.

Two things should be settled in writing before hardware is ordered. First, that egress is free: leaving a floor, a stairwell or the building must never depend on a credential, a battery, or the access system working. Second, that any release device or fire alarm tie-in proposed for a door has been reviewed and accepted by the AHJ for that door.

Lock power supplies should carry battery backup and supervision, so a failed supply is reported rather than discovered. This is where a cheap decision creates a lasting liability: have the door hardware schedule reviewed by someone accountable for it, and confirm the fire alarm interface with that contractor.

What to budget attention for in an occupied retrofit

Pathway drives the schedule, not hardware. A finished concrete building rarely has spare conduit to the doors you want to secure, so the work becomes core drilling, surface raceway in common areas, and a conversation about how that looks. Have the council see a sample raceway run before it goes in everywhere.

Existing doors and frames set the hardware options. Aluminum storefront, hollow metal and solid wood doors each call for different hardware, and any door carrying power to a lock needs a power transfer at the hinge or a door cord. In an older building, confirm whether a hazardous materials survey is required before anything is drilled — a common cause of stop-work in mid-century strata buildings.

Phase the cutover door by door, keeping the old method working at each entry until the new one is proven there; a whole-building cutover in one evening means somebody stands outside at 02:00. Treat credential issuing as an event — two staffed sessions in the lobby, one on a weekend — because collecting resident details one email at a time takes months.

The head-end needs a real home. Controllers need a network path, reliable power and space, and hosted platforms still depend on working internet at the building. If the structured cabling is a decade of accumulated patches in an unventilated closet, budget for correcting that as part of the project rather than discovering it at commissioning.

Where to start

Walk the building with a list of doors: every entry, gate, amenity room, stairwell, service door and the elevator, noting existing hardware, whether a pathway exists, and who holds a key today. That list, not a product brochure, is what makes competing quotations comparable. Orbit Automation is a licensed and insured integrator in Surrey serving Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley, and can walk the doors with you as a site assessment.