Door entry and access control equipment from Intratone has been installed at over 900 different sites across Hounslow Council’s estate.
The access control systems across the council’s residential and commercial portfolio had become obsolete with the desire to move from keys to a fob-based system. Residents had been complaining at the delays in receiving new keys — in some cases taking up to six weeks for them to be delivered. New fobs can now be obtained straight away by residents when visiting their local housing office through the new cloud-based technology. The Intratone fob readers have been installed at low and high-rise apartment blocks and council offices, commercial buildings and operational sites, and complaints have dropped significantly.
Ian Williams, Electrical Engineer for Hounslow Council, commented: “We hadn’t heard of Intratone before it was recommended by the installer. So far, we have been very impressed. Although it is a sizeable investment for the council initially, the build and technology of the readers means that they will last for at least 10 years.
“At one point, the fob programming was carried out by two full-time members of staff who would visit site daily to programme residents’ fobs. This can all now be programmed remotely by the relevant housing officers at the local housing office which will be a large long-term saving to the council.”
The cloud-based fob-reader system has significantly enhanced control over who has access, for how long and to which properties. Because it is cloud-based, changes made to key fobs are almost immediate and can be facilitated from anywhere with internet access — whether that’s at a PC, laptop or a smartphone onsite.
Ian added: “The simplicity of the database is such that some of our concierge and caretakers are being trained to manage the system themselves, which frees up even more of the engineers’ time.
“With the older technology, residents were also able to copy fobs in some local shops which did not give the council full control over who could access certain blocks.
“The new Intratone fobs have similar technology to an Oyster card — you cannot rewrite or copy them so when someone tries to use a copied fob it sends the system a notification. We can check the system when a certain fob has been used so we can assist Police when they have been trying to track someone’s whereabouts.”
Daniel Bacon, Area Sales Manager at Intratone, said: “Our access control and door entry systems are installed across social housing, private properties and HAs all over the UK and Europe, and prove popular for residents of all ages, but especially the elderly, because they are very easy to use. Installers and customers also like them because they are very easy to install and competitively priced.”
