Secure design is now possible.

If you're a "gadget head," you probably own a Personal Digital Assistant that allows you to make phone calls, send emails, store data, surf the web, listen to music and maybe even watch TV.

Having these technologies integrated into a single, portable device has likely made management of your life easier and saved you the expense and headache of carrying around six different gadgets. In much the same way, today's security systems are being integrated with a building's communications systems to reduce costs, increase capabilities and add to the building's overall safety.

Let's talk about some of the systems revolutionizing the security industry. For example, access control systems can now let you in if you are supposed to be let in, and keep you out if you are not. The new product in access control is proximity access control that can be networked in a LAN just like your computer can. For residents, the new system seems very much like the old one. But security directors and building managers obtain lots of benefits from the new flexibility IP provides. The system allows building managers to store access control data on their LAN's dedicated personal computer. They can easily pull up records of who enters and exits the facility, through which door and when, deleting old tenants out of the system and adding new ones.

For this reason, this new technology is already in high demand among building owners and managers.

Another networkable system that has made decades-old technology obsolete is Closed Circuit Television. These cameras allow security managers to control them from anywhere in the world as if they were in the same room. They can pan, zoom and turn every camera in the CCTV network.

If you have ever downloaded a music video from iTunes, then you have worked with digital video. In exactly the same way, security directors can email images and video footage from their cameras directly to colleagues or the police, and burn them to DVDs.

Merging IP-based proximity access control and CCTV means the every element of your building's security system can be managed from the building's lobby, the manager's office, a campus security headquarters or even a headquarters office in a different state.

Finally, buildings that want to free themselves from built-in intercom systems can do so. The newest system utilizes a resident's telephone line instead, and allows tenants to call the doorman by just dialing * 7. Better yet, the call is free. The system also offers a "Do-Not-Disturb" feature and call forwarding--in case you are away, but want the doorman's calls to go to your cell phone.

Because residents have been asking for this technology for years, it is fast becoming one of the most requested products in buildings. Architects and engineers can use all three of these technologies to do a better job of protecting the residents.

MARIA F. GONZALEZ

VICE PRESIDENT

NORTRONICS CORP.