Locks! (Smart and not-so-smart.)

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Carly Nix

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Oct 26, 2015, 1:17:11 PM10/26/15
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Hey everyone,

Wanted to resurrect the topic of locks. I saw some past threads about this, and wonder if there are any updates to what folks would recommend since last year. At Industry Lab we've been looking into different lock upgrade options, and haven't settled on a best bet yet. Here's our situation:
  • We're in a building with 2 exterior entrances
  • Our space spans 3 floors with 8 points of entry
  • We share the building with other tenants
  • Don't have tons of money to throw at this problem.

Any thoughts? What's worked for other spaces?


Jerome Chang

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Oct 26, 2015, 1:36:29 PM10/26/15
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Most lock solutions are $. I would recommend limiting access to just one door per floor, and make the others either exit-only, or entry during biz hours only.


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Jacob Sayles

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Oct 26, 2015, 1:57:50 PM10/26/15
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Lots of thoughts on this one as I've helped The Red Victorian coliving hotel in SF, Creative Blueprint here in Seattle, and of course our coworking space, Office Nomads. Your setup is going to cost a fair amount.  For a real integrated system I don't see how you are going to get away with anything less then $5K.  

For Creative Blueprint we are going with simple residential keypad solution on 2 doors.  We will have to program each code at each door and that will get annoying fast but the price point ($250 for 2) is right for getting started.  Can't give you a review yet as the hardware is coming in the mail this week.  

You can use the Lockstate Remote Lock like Angel uses.  They have a central system so you don't have to program each door, but you rely on their servers and their hardware gets poor reviews.  These are $250/door.  They have a beefier model that is more expensive but also maybe more robust?  Haven't played with these systems so I can't say much.  

For The Red Victorian we created our own system.  This ended up costing about $1K/door.  This has the most flexibility as I wrote all the code, but they have had some reliability issues.  I've only ever made one door controller so I'm not surprised I didn't get all the bugs worked out on my first try.  The flexibility is important for that application though as I'm issuing unique codes for each reservation and expiring them right away.  Eventually we will use remotely programable residential units at each room for around $250/door.  30 doors, so that is going to get expensive.  

For Office Nomads we originally dropped about $4K on an ISONAS system.  This is only for 2 doors but each door needs a strike and a commercial grade lock.  We've expanded it to 3 doors now.... but I strongly do not recommend going ISONAS.  After years of dealing with their software and their company we are jumping ship.  We are currently in the process of switching to HID Edge Solo hardware ($1K for 3 doors minus door strikes and installation).  I'm going to be able to program these from Nadine, our coworking management system, and I'm pretty excited about the possibilities.  

Not sure if that helps or answers specific questions.  I've gone 4 different ways in 3 different installs.

Jacob

Adolfo Taylhardat

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Oct 27, 2015, 9:00:31 AM10/27/15
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Thank you Jacob. 
Very valuable insights and I agree with Jerome as to try to limit to just one door per floor.
We opened TamboWorks a month ago and are still playing with the options.  We like Kisi very much as it integrates with our Nexudus system but the monthly fee makes it very expensive overall. 
Looking at all possible options.
Best.

Adolfo Taylhardat
TamboWorks Miami

Alex Hillman

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Oct 27, 2015, 9:13:22 AM10/27/15
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I agree about trying to limit the number of entrances. For me that's partially about security but also just as much about making it easier to walk through the space and see other members than it is to find the nearest exit and duck out to lunch unnoticed. A single exit/entrance is just better choice architecture, and you can reserve the other exits for emergencies only. 

One option for security I haven't seen many other places is a call box based locking system. Outside of a door, you place a box with a keypad. That keypad can be programmed to call one or more phone numbers depending on the code entered into the keypad. When the phone on the other end is picked up, you can talk through the box to the visitor or press a button on your phone (usually 9) to send a tone and the box triggers an unlocking mechanism in the door. When the door closes, the lock is set again. 

This is great for a few reasons:

1) if it's a shared entrance (like you mentioned Carly) you can have different codes on the door pad call different tenants numbers. Eg. One of them can be for your Coworking space while the other can be for the business upstairs. 

2) it's personal - you can actually greet each person who wants to gain access. If that sounds like an impossible waste of time, it could be, except...

3) it's automate-able! We have our call box set up to call a number that's hooked up to a little piece of software that plays pre-recorded greetings. It's personal, but automatic. Guests get instructions to dial 0, and the call is routed to our team to buzz them in. Members can skip the greeting by typing in a unique 6 digit code we provide them. If that code is valid, and it's between the hours that the code is allowed to work based on their membership, the software automates the tone of pressing 9 and buzzes them in. 

Ongoing cost is very low, about $10 worth of credits to Twilio, the company that provides the connection between the phone number and the software. 

Setup cost was around $1000-1200 per door (we only have one). 

-Alex
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Carly Nix

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Oct 27, 2015, 1:49:08 PM10/27/15
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Thanks for all the great ideas everyone! :D

Anyone considered trying hotel door locks?

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Carly Nix
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288 Norfolk Street
Cambridge, MA 02139

Matt D.

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Nov 5, 2015, 8:45:25 AM11/5/15
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Hi Carly. 

I'm no locksmith - and can't really offer many detailed suggestions… but I'll say this:

We opened our space (which has four exterior doors) with regular old-school locks… and it was a nightmare. We were always responsible for opening and closing doors, locking and unlocking the space, shifting keys to and from guests and others who may need after-hours access…. it was brutal. 

We invested about $1000 to install an electronic entry system on our main entrance (just one of the four - we keep the other three locked when we're "closed".) The system has key fobs, which we can program for specific members, and an iPhone app which allows us to remotely lock or unlock the door. Whether that's the right or wrong solution for you, know this: It has saved us a TON of headache, and it's been worth every penny. It's more secure, it's easy to manage, it gives us a simple way to offer 24-hour access to full-time members, which we couldn't do previously… but, most of all, it saves us *time*. Don't underestimate the importance of that when considering the expense…. for us, the trade-off (spending the cash on the key fob system to save our team valuable time) has been well worth it. 

Good luck!
-Matt

Eric Lituchy

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Nov 6, 2015, 1:00:42 PM11/6/15
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Look at Kisi (getkisi.com). They work with a bunch of cowork spaces and have a really cool solution.

Good luck, Eric

Alex Hillman

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Nov 6, 2015, 1:23:58 PM11/6/15
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I mentioned in a previous post that we use a little piece of software that our call box actually calls so that instead of the office phone ringing for every single person who wants to be let in, they can let themselves in with a code they get as a member. 

Some folks have asked if we could share the code for that software, so here it is: https://github.com/indyhall/intercom/

It costs us $9/month in hosting and...maybe $10-20/month in Twilio credits to keep this running. 

Fair warning, this is completely undocumented at this point, and isn't really "designed" at all, just the standard user interface that Django spits out. 

But...it works, and allows us to generate a custom codes for as many members as we want instead of having to manually buzz them in. 

It even create membership groups with time restrictions so you can allow peoples' codes to only work during certain hours.




It tracks usage too through an audit trail. 




It'll take some elbow grease and knowledge of Django/Python programming to get up and running, and I recommend recording your own greetings unless you want to welcome people to Indy Hall (though you can hear ours, including some of the fun hidden "easter eggs" Adam recorded).  

If someone gets this up and running and wants to contribute documentation, I'll happily accept pull requests :)

-Alex




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The #1 mistake in community building is doing it by yourself.

On Fri, Nov 6, 2015 at 1:00 PM, Eric Lituchy <elit...@gmail.com> wrote:
Look at Kisi (getkisi.com). They work with a bunch of cowork spaces and have a really cool solution.

Good luck, Eric

Mike LaRosa

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Nov 6, 2015, 4:30:14 PM11/6/15
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Carly,

I recently connected with a company called KISI. They seem to have developed a pretty cool app that allows your members to use their smartphones for entry to spaces and even different meeting rooms. You should check them out - www.getkisi.com They are incredibly coworking friendly (their team is based out of a space in Brooklyn) and have an affordable price point that is perfect for coworking spaces. If you'd like an intro to their team, let me know...

M


On Monday, October 26, 2015 at 1:17:11 PM UTC-4, Carly Nix wrote:

Carly Nix

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Nov 10, 2015, 10:25:14 AM11/10/15
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Matt, that sounds like a good solution. I'm going to ping you for more info. :)

Alex, that's brilliant. Sharing with the tech savvy on my team. 

Mike and Eric, re: KISI, I'm in touch with them already. We are evaluating them as an option. A space nearby is experiencing technical difficulties with their system, which is why we're considering alternatives.

Thanks everyone!


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