What do you think?
Rate this book
Electronic Access Control
Electronic Access Control introduces the fundamentals of electronic access control through clear, well-illustrated explanations. Access Control Systems are difficult to learn and even harder to master due to the different ways in which manufacturers approach the subject and the myriad complications associated with doors, door frames, hardware, and electrified locks. This book consolidates this information, covering a comprehensive yet easy-to-read list of subjects that every Access Control System Designer, Installer, Maintenance Tech or Project Manager needs to know in order to develop quality and profitable Alarm/Access Control System installations. Within these pages, Thomas L. Norman – a master at electronic security and risk management consulting and author of the industry reference manual for the design of Integrated Security Systems – describes the full range of EAC devices (credentials, readers, locks, sensors, wiring, and computers), showing how they work, and how they are installed.
448 pages, Paperback
First published September 26, 2011
4 people are currently reading
17 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
February 17, 2015
Before getting into the book itself, let me lend you some background on how I'm coming into it. I'm an apprentice locksmith that's employed by someone who believes that the field is moving away from traditional locksmithing on stand-alone locks to one where all locks and door hardware are becoming integrated into larger electronic access control systems. This is somewhat controversial among locksmiths as it represents a vast paradigm change from the way locksmithing has been done for decades, with all the attendant re-training, re-certification and uncertainty that it represents.
No doubt some of this resistance is driven by the fact that locksmithing has always been a cottage industry where most locksmiths consist of one to five man operations working fairly independently, and electronic access control is currently is an industry dominated by larger security and fire control design and integration firms that operate in a corporate manner. The question for locksmiths becomes "How do we compete with these guys when we have no means of matching their economies of scale?" Some have chosen to bury their heads in the sand and pretend that there will always be enough work in popping car locks and apartment lockouts, but that is becoming a difficult way of making ends meet in the age of Onstar auto systems and heightened competition for what small jobs remain. Yet others look to see what the future holds and face it with business innovation and open minds.
This book is absolutely essential for the forward-looking locksmith. While more focusing on the sort of large scale security design and control being offered by national and multinational companies and consultants, it offers us a "state of the industry" for 2012, in a field moving so fast that there's already gaps in the book (for example, there's little in the way of cloud based access control solutions discussed in the book, which is something that's pretty happening in 2015). In this book we are introduced to the basic and intermediate theory and implementation of electronic access control, and all the various material aspects of what the term represents. While some of it is not likely to ever be of use to a working locksmith (such as live human security protocols like bomb-sniffing dogs), much of it already is or will soon be.
What is now the domain of corporations with large amounts of money to spend will become another general consumer product in a few short years if not already the case. Locksmiths will have to be as comfortable with installing and maintaining IP Cameras, intercoms, various forms of electronic credentialing systems and networking them all together as they are with installing locks and door hardware into those systems. Locksmiths can leverage their already inherent skills in aesthetic and precision installation and maintenance to make sure that these systems are not only functional, secure and safe, but unobtrusive, easy to use and well-blended for the end user experience. This will result in further business and continued existence of the field.
Whether an apprentice like myself, or a master, do yourself a favor and read this book.
No doubt some of this resistance is driven by the fact that locksmithing has always been a cottage industry where most locksmiths consist of one to five man operations working fairly independently, and electronic access control is currently is an industry dominated by larger security and fire control design and integration firms that operate in a corporate manner. The question for locksmiths becomes "How do we compete with these guys when we have no means of matching their economies of scale?" Some have chosen to bury their heads in the sand and pretend that there will always be enough work in popping car locks and apartment lockouts, but that is becoming a difficult way of making ends meet in the age of Onstar auto systems and heightened competition for what small jobs remain. Yet others look to see what the future holds and face it with business innovation and open minds.
This book is absolutely essential for the forward-looking locksmith. While more focusing on the sort of large scale security design and control being offered by national and multinational companies and consultants, it offers us a "state of the industry" for 2012, in a field moving so fast that there's already gaps in the book (for example, there's little in the way of cloud based access control solutions discussed in the book, which is something that's pretty happening in 2015). In this book we are introduced to the basic and intermediate theory and implementation of electronic access control, and all the various material aspects of what the term represents. While some of it is not likely to ever be of use to a working locksmith (such as live human security protocols like bomb-sniffing dogs), much of it already is or will soon be.
What is now the domain of corporations with large amounts of money to spend will become another general consumer product in a few short years if not already the case. Locksmiths will have to be as comfortable with installing and maintaining IP Cameras, intercoms, various forms of electronic credentialing systems and networking them all together as they are with installing locks and door hardware into those systems. Locksmiths can leverage their already inherent skills in aesthetic and precision installation and maintenance to make sure that these systems are not only functional, secure and safe, but unobtrusive, easy to use and well-blended for the end user experience. This will result in further business and continued existence of the field.
Whether an apprentice like myself, or a master, do yourself a favor and read this book.
Displaying 1 of 1 review