The Problem Your building is secure at night, but during the day there are several doors that have to be open. Anybody could walk in. What can you do? The Solution You need to purchase and install an Access Control System. What is an Access Control System? Access...

An intercom system is an electronic communication system that is commonly found in hospitals, schools, offices and other large buildings, in ships and liners, and even in homes. With just the push of a button, an intercom system enables people in different rooms to...

It was, pure and simple, a communication breakdown. The hardwired intercoms in the six-story, pre-war co-op on the Upper West Side were beginning to fail. The talk/listen/buzz-in system was performing erratically, the audio sometimes so garbled that it was impossible to understand what the person on the other end was saying.

System integrators count on video intercoms to secure virtually any facility, whether it’s a remote water pump station, a pharmaceutical manufacturing plant or a multitenant apartment building. Intercoms add a valuable layer of security by letting employees or residents control who enters their facilities.

Packages, including mine, have been taken from the mailroom of my rental apartment building in Hudson Heights. I filed a police report and alerted building management. Someone was arrested. But I am still concerned about security in our non-doorman building.

Multi-tenant buildings present security challenges not found in single-user facilities. Tenants may come and go at different times. The numbers and types of visitors needing access will vary, and then there are differences between commercial and residential multi-tenant buildings.

When an untoward incident occurs where we live, our first reaction is often to look at the security system, including front- and roof-door locks, intercoms, exterior lighting, and video cameras. It is tempting to tech up: who wouldn’t be awed by the programmable telephone entry and access system DoorKing 1834?

Metal door keys may be going the way of the fax machine and the phone booth. “Everything is becoming cell phone-based and we’re doing more and more electronically,” says Matthew Arnold, president of Academy Mail Box, an apartment house security firm that has been in business since 1948.

Back in the day, visiting a friend in an apartment building without a doorman could be a uniquely New York experience. If you were lucky, the arcane buzzer system worked. Otherwise, you had to find a pay phone or yell up to a window and wait for a set of keys to be tossed down.