The idea for Visible Access started early in the pandemic when many people were having food and packages delivered. All kinds of delivery people were coming by and getting buzzed into apartment buildings unsupervised. They would drop the package at the tenants door and then were free to roam the halls. Nobody really laid eyes on them. As can be expected, some of them weren’t delivery drivers at all. They were there for nefarious reasons.According to the National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC): “Apartments have an 85 percent higher chance of being burglarized than single-family homes. The threat is real and it is getting worse. Ask any insurance agent the best way to lower the number of burglaries in apartment buildings? They will all tell you, “be careful who you let into the building”. What is the best way to do that? “Add video cameras to your door entry system.”

In single family homes, the solution is to install a simple doorbell camera. They have become incredibly popular. Currently more than 20 million homes in the US have one installed. But it’s not so simple in an apartment environment. Doorbell cameras are designed to ring one subscriber’s app. How do you handle a building where there are lots of different tenants? It turns out there are some very expensive door entry systems with video built in. But apartment buildings generally already have a system installed. They don’t want to rip out a perfectly good system and spend $10K to put in a new one with video capabilities.

This is what motivated us to start Visible Access and develop a way to add video cameras to a door entry system without having to replace the door entry system. After doing some research, we uncovered some other issues with existing door entry systems.

• Most rely on old fashioned copper phone lines from the telephone company. Those are being phased out in almost every community in the US.
• Some door entry systems can’t dial to phones outside the home area code. Well people keep their same cell numbers when they relocate, so that is a problem.
• Many people are tired of carrying a key fob to get into their building. They always have their phone with them. Why can’t they just use that like a key fob?
• What about guests or cleaning services? People are looking for a way to give them access to the building without having to dial the tenant.

Visible Access has solved all of those problems and is now available for install. You’re welcome!