The office sees every visitor before a door opens.
Video intercoms and controlled entry for NYC private schools, charter schools, academies and tutoring centers. Office staff see and talk to every visitor at the door, then decide who comes in, without leaving the front desk.
Many school vestibules interlock the two doors, so the inner door can be released only once the outer door has closed. From inside, the handle always lets people out through both doors. We pick the lock for each door around its use and the building's fire and life safety requirements.
Entry control built around the front office.
Each part has one job: let office staff see who is at the door, talk to them, and decide who comes in.
Exterior video door station
A camera and call button at the main entrance. Parents, vendors and contractors all ring and are seen before they come in. Office staff see the visitor on a monitor and release the door with one press.
Main office monitor
A master station at the front office desk, or a software client on the office PC. The secretary or administrator sees every visitor at the door before releasing it, without walking to the door.
Electric strike or magnetic lock
The front door stays locked during school hours and is released only from the office. A strike sits in the frame and the handle always lets people out; a magnetic lock needs a free way out from inside at all times.
Every entry point covered
Gym entrances, auditorium doors and the loading dock each get a door station or an access control reader on the same system, so no exterior door is left without a way to call the office.
Door control from the office
Doors tied into an access control system can be locked or released from the main office, one at a time or together, following the school's own procedures. Locking applies from the outside only: the handle always lets people out.
Visitor log
Every call is timestamped and recorded: who arrived, when, at which door, and whether they were let in. Useful for incident records, required reports and questions from parents.
Every door calls the office. Only that door is released.
Pick an entrance. The call reaches the office master station with the door's name and camera, and the release goes through that door's relay alone.
An unlocked front door or a propped side entry is the most common gap in a school building. With controlled entry, the people who come in are the people office staff saw and let in.
Staff see the visitor on camera before releasing the door. Someone unexpected, or someone without a reason to be there, can be asked through the intercom or turned away while the door stays closed.
The intercom and door controls follow the school's own emergency procedures. We set up the controls your plan calls for, around the building's fire and life safety requirements; the plan itself stays with the school.
Insurance carriers, authorizers and accreditation bodies often set their own standards. We install to the configuration your administration hands us and give you a full record of what was installed.
What goes on the doors and in the office.
Commercial IP intercom hardware on the school network, with a lock and a relay matched to each door.
IP video door station
Main entranceWide-angle camera, call button and speaker in an outdoor housing with an IP rating for weather and an IK rating for impact. Mounted roughly 4 to 5 ft to the center so the camera sees faces, with backlight compensation for a bright street.
Office master station or PC client
Front officeA desk master station with a screen and handset, or software on the office PC. It shows which door is calling, so staff talk first and release second.
Release relays inside
Door releaseThe relay that releases each door sits inside the building, in the office or the network closet, not in the outdoor station, so nothing a visitor can reach is wired to the lock.
Electric strikes and magnetic locks
Matched per doorElectric strikes in the frame for most entry doors, magnetic locks on the header where a strike will not fit. A magnetic lock needs a free way out from inside at all times. We pick the lock for each door around its use and the building's fire and life safety requirements.
Lock power supply
12 or 24 V DCA separate low-voltage power supply drives the locks through the relays, with battery backup sized for the hardware it carries. The outlet it plugs into is coordinated with the electrician.
PoE switch and Cat6
NetworkEvery station runs on Cat6 with PoE from a network switch, each run under 100 m (328 ft). Door station video can go to the school's camera system, and every call is logged.
From the entrance walkthrough to a tested door.
Four steps, planned around the school day.
Entrance walkthrough
We walk every exterior door with administration, note how each one is used during the day, and check the frames, the existing hardware and the cable paths.
Door plan
Which doors get a station, which get a reader, which lock goes on each, and where calls ring. You get a written scope and price before work starts.
Install
Stations, locks, relays and cable installed and labeled, scheduled around school hours. Every penetration we make through a fire-rated wall or floor is fire-stopped.
Release test and training
Every door release tested from the office, every exit checked from inside, and office staff trained on answering, releasing and reading the log.
School intercoms, answered.
Can all exterior doors be locked at the same time in an emergency?
On doors tied into an access control system, yes: a keyswitch, a push button or a software command in the main office can return every controlled exterior door to locked at once, and each door can also be controlled on its own. How and when that is used belongs to the school's own emergency procedures; we set the controls up to follow them. Locking applies from the outside only: the handle always lets people out. Hardware is chosen door by door: a fail-secure strike stays locked from outside without power, a fail-safe lock releases without power, and a magnetic lock needs a free way out from inside at all times. We pick the lock for each door around its use and the building's fire and life safety requirements.
How do parents and authorized pickup people get in at dismissal?
The usual workflow is call and release: the parent rings, office staff recognize them or check ID over the camera, and release the door. For busy elementary dismissals, a secure vestibule works better: parents are let into the vestibule, the office checks ID and the pickup list at the window, and the inner door is released only if staff decide to. Some schools also give frequent, preauthorized visitors a card for a reader.
What happens to the intercom during a power outage?
It depends on the backup. Intercom stations and access control panels can keep running on battery backup or a UPS; how long depends on the battery size and what it powers, and we size it with you. The doors behave according to their hardware: a fail-secure strike stays locked from outside without power, and a fail-safe lock releases. Either way, the handle always lets people out, so leaving the building never depends on power. Which way the main entrance should behave is decided with administration, around the building's fire and life safety requirements.
Can the door station camera work with our existing security camera system?
Usually. Most IP door stations stream video in a standard format that a recorder supporting IP cameras can add as another channel. We confirm compatibility with your recorder during the assessment. If it is not compatible, the door station keeps its own record of calls and snapshots, viewed separately. Either way, video of who came to the door is kept.
Do you work with NYC DOE requirements for school security installations?
For NYC public schools, capital work usually runs through the DOE's own contracting and approval process, so that process comes first. For private schools, charter schools and tutoring centers, we install to the standards your administration, board or insurance carrier sets, and hand over complete documentation of the installed system.
Intercoms for every kind of business.
Running a residential building instead? See residential intercoms for homes, brownstones, apartments and co-ops.
Ready to plan your school's entrances?
We walk every entrance, talk through how your office runs the door, and give you a clear written scope and price. Installs are scheduled around school hours.