A secured area is an area entity that represents a physical location where access is controlled. A secured area consists of perimeter doors (doors used to enter and exit the area) and access restrictions (rules governing the access to the area).
In the presence of a threat, access to secured areas can either be restricted to keep the danger out, or relaxed to allow people to get away from danger by activating threat levels.
- Access rules
- Antipassback
- Interlock
- First-person-in rule
- Visitor escort rule
Access rights
The basic access restrictions to an area are defined by granting access to specific cardholders (who can access this area and when). When nothing is configured, no one is allowed to enter or exit the area. Access rights can be granted through access rules (recommended approach) if it is constrained by a schedule, or directly to cardholders, if there is no schedule constraint. Access rights can be granted on the entire area, or individually to each access point of the area.
Antipassback
Interlock
An interlock (also known as sally port or airlock) is an access restriction placed on a secured area that permits only one perimeter door to be open at any given time. This is typically used in a passageway with at least two doors. The cardholder unlocks the first door, enters the passageway, but cannot unlock the second door until the first door is closed.
First-person-in rule
- When enforced on door unlock schedules, the doors remain locked until a supervisor enters the area. Cardholders who have access can still enter the area. Once an unlock schedule is enabled, it remains in effect till the end of the current time interval defined in the schedule.
- When enforced on access rules, no one can enter the area even though they have valid
credentials, until a supervisor enters the area. A schedule defines when the
first-person-in rule applies. You can configure cardholders to be exempted from this
constraint. An exempted cardholder can access the area without any supervisor being on
site, but cannot clear the constraint for other cardholders.NOTE: The first-person-in rule schedule must define discrete time intervals to allow the constraint to be reset. The Always schedule cannot be used.
- To clear the first-person-in rule constraint, the supervisor must arrive within the
time frame defined by the unlock schedule or the first-person-in rule schedule, up to a
few minutes earlier, defined by the On-site time offset value.
After the constraint is cleared, normal access (free or controlled access) resumes until
the end of the current time interval defined in the schedule.
If the unlock schedule or the first-person-in rule schedule comprises several time intervals, then the supervisor must re-enter the area at the beginning of each time interval to clear the constraint.
Visitor escort rule
The visitor escort rule is the additional access restriction placed on a secured area that requires visitors to be escorted by a cardholder during their stay. Visitors who have a host are not granted access through access points until both they and their assigned host (cardholder) present their credentials within a certain delay. The host must present their credential after the visitors before access is granted to both. If multiple visitors are accompanied by the same escort, the escort only needs to present their credential once all visitors have presented their credentials.
Visitor escort for turnstiles in delegation mode requires the host to badge and enter before the visitors. For two-host visitor delegations, the tail host must present credentials and enter the area after the visitors. This mode requires Synergis™ Softwire 10.7 or later with dumb interfaces.