Mad Systems’ front door uses a magnetic lock, and all employees have key fobs so that they can walk in. We have added a camera at the entry, and an overhead speaker at the door connected to a QS6212 self-amplified audio replay unit. This unit plays a bird sound scape – it just sounds nice when you’re walking in. The real reason the unit is there is so that we can use the camera, which is connected to our in-house Facial Recognition system, to send a command to the audio replay unit to activate one of its outputs, which in turn controls the magnetic lock so that the door opens when it recognizes staff, or other regular visitors to Mad Systems such as the postman and various delivery people.
There’s one additional thing it does – our TeaParty control system, which is permanently running in our office, also sends it a text string. The QS6212 has a text-to-speech synthesizer built in, so that it converts that string to audio which is heard by the front door with a personal welcoming message to each staff member. Of course we can also control the door using a personal device such as a phone or tablet this way.
Just one of those things you do… because you can.