Video Intercom for Apartments and Buildings | Falcon Security Systems

Choosing between a one-line and a multi-line system

For a single apartment, a one-line video intercom is a door station outside and a screen inside, and the whole decision comes down to screen size and whether you want to answer from your phone. For a building, the decision is much bigger and gets made once — you are choosing the wiring topology for the next fifteen years.

The important question in a building is whether each flat gets its own line back to the door station, or whether the system runs on a shared bus. A shared bus needs far less cable and is much cheaper to install in a finished building, but a fault on the line can affect several flats at once. Dedicated lines cost more up front and are simpler to diagnose later.

Retrofit is where most building projects run into trouble. If the risers are full or inaccessible, pulling new multi-core cable to twelve flats can cost more than the entire intercom hardware. This is exactly the case where a Wi-Fi door station that talks to each resident's phone becomes the sensible answer rather than a compromise.

What to settle before ordering

• How many flats, and is there usable riser space
• Do residents want to answer from their phones while out
• Is an electric door release being fitted at the same time
• Who administers the system when a resident moves out