Paxton Access Blog

From the Front - July 2010

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 23:00:00 GMT

I have learnt a valuable lesson in life from sport. Stay with me, this is not going to be the usual management flim-flam where a lazy person tries to make hard work the same as golf. When I was a child, I didn't like sport very much.

I say that I didn't like it, but that's not quite true. I look back and realise that I did sometimes let warm afternoons pass by in a flash, playing 'football' which somehow managed to be fantastic fun with two jumpers, some kids and a tennis ball. Cricket could be good if you added a bat to that basic equipment set. I was a good cross country runner. My downfall was 'teams'.

Suddenly, when you get the right kit, and the right kids, you have the makings of a team. Things are all done properly, with one being the boss who selects the others. There is aggression and shouting, and everybody starts being very self conscious about being a member of a team. The word is used with heavy, almost religious significance. In my experience, this totally ruined the quality of, and more importantly, removed the fun from play.

It's not surprising that this way of doing sport has got carried forward into doing business. During my working life, I have come across people who have used the word 'team' a lot. They told me I had to be part of the team as if I would respond to them by saying, "What? This lot here? I hadn't noticed them." In one intricate meeting, one burly idiot went red in the face and after a short silence just said through clenched teeth, "It's team. Yeah, team!" I thought to myself that actually, it was more about comma separated variables but I let the moment pass.

There exists the concept of team building where, as I understand it, people who work together are sent away to hold hands and roll in the mud. I was puzzled by this when I heard about it, but I have worked out that it is just organised by the people who hated the two jumpers and a ball thing when they were young. That's a pity, because in business, just as in the playground, the best performance is achieved when people are having fun - relaxed, happy and unselfconscious.

At Paxton, I wouldn't pretend that it's all fun, or that we're all relaxed and happy all of the time. However, we do get comments from customers and guests that we seem to be calm and friendly. Certainly, the critiques on service and performance seem very positive. It occurs to me that we may already achieve what those with Pringle jumpers tell me we should achieve, which is good team work. For reasons which I hope are now clear, I can't bear to call it that, or call it anything for that matter.

Paxton has grown significantly over the last 10 years. In the year 2000, I would guess that we employed around 20 people. Today, the head count of full time staff is more like 150, spread across several countries. This makes it a challenge to keep together in a coherent way. Another danger is the team enthusiasts who do occasionally want to come along and spoil things by pushing people around and giving them team things to do.

It has occurred to me that firstly, you can't build a team - it has to happen. You help it to happen by creating the right environment. This is the physical environment in which people work, but also attitudes and values. These can be influenced, but not synthesised, and have to accumulate over time. The whole process is more like gardening than building; requiring sympathy, patience and knowledge of the whole plot. Attitudes and values are the compost, fermenting quietly over a few years. They can be poisoned in an instant by bad or dishonest management.

We are at a threshold as a company. We have reached the point where we have to change some methods of working, simply because there are more people involved. We have to use systems that allow better communication and more cooperation. Adam, our Sales and Marketing Director expressed concern to me that we might be being too introspective. I knew instantly what he meant - our work is about customers, not ourselves, and we run the risk of clumsily over working the garden. One thing that I do know is that 'team' has been ‘the thing’ in the smartest work places, although I sense that it may be starting to be 'a bit last decade' among the management speakers. I have always wondered about the sanity of those who slavishly follow trends. If you act the same as everybody else, it's impossible to be better; the logic is inescapable.

If things work out, you won't know or notice. If they don't, I'll stop writing this every month and write an airport book instead. It could be called "Cultivating and Growing Teams". No. That's got the word 'team' in it - although it could pass for irony. What do you think?

From the Front 20 Year Special - June 2010

Thu, 03 Jun 2010 23:00:00 GMT

Twenty years is a long time to spend doing anything. One week away from that milestone at Paxton, it doesn't feel like that for me. Instead, I seem to have experienced 10 different jobs, each lasting about two years.

It started on the day I nearly crashed my car. I was 26-years-old, and had just spent the morning with my favourite customer in Lewes. I was working for an electronics component distributor called Jermyn, as a Field Applications Engineer. That was a great job; I got to see a variety of companies doing all kinds of things. It was normally technically undemanding as most customers were happy just to see a friendly face, but Paxton Automation (as it was then) had a real technical problem, with which I had been helping.

Tony Ratcliffe, who owns Paxton to this day, had designed the circuit for a new keypad and was testing the prototype. He had been puzzled by its unreliable behaviour, and narrowed it down to weakness against static and radio interference. At the time, there were no regulations such as CE marking covering the behaviour of circuits in this regard. On that morning in 1990, the prototype board had been updated with a nicely designed PCB with ground planes and carefully tracked clock lines, and it proved to be bullet proof.

Returning from a nice pub lunch, to mark a satisfying morning's work, Tony offered me a job at Paxton. I was surprised to the point that my usual exemplary concentration on the road ahead lapsed, and I had to manoeuvre inelegantly to stay in one piece. "Great start," I thought. Fortunately, I now realise that Tony is far more concerned about circuits than minor traffic details - I doubt he even noticed.

My first day on June 1st 1990 proved to be a completely different world. Armed with a book on accounts and another called The One Minute Manager, I struggled with phone calls, production problems and the ever present, impossible conundrum of how to increase sales. The first two years taught me that you can't be in all places at once, and so we went knocking on the doors of distribution companies who already had warehouses, knowledge of the market and their own sales people. I also learnt how important reliability is, for any security system. An early episode where I had to take a hammer to the front door glass to let us in to work was a useful, if embarrassing lesson.

I remember that at the time, we had one Apple Mac on which we wrote all the product instructions and the trade brochure. There were also a couple of Amstrad PC’s that ran DOS for word processing and on which we used a text editor for writing firmware in assembler. The first CARDLOCK compact prototype was made on a printed circuit which I etched myself in the kitchen, using some evil smelling chemicals bought from Maplin. I can’t remember how I disposed of them, and I can’t recall being worried about a visit from the HSE at the time.

Since then, there have been many changes and memorable events at Paxton. There was the flood in 2001 that caked everything stored at ground level with er... "mud". That was an extreme demonstration of the company pulling together. From wiring in a generator set to the fuse board to jet washing the floor, we did everything possible over the weekend to be trading in some way by the Monday morning, and we succeeded. A few years after that, we bought a new building in Brighton, where we are today and had the feeling, when we picked up the keys, that it was too big and grown up for us. It took just four years before we had to acquire a second building in Eastbourne to accommodate our production department.

Looking back, I feel proud that we have all played our part in forming what is now a good and worthwhile British manufacturing company. One thing stands out as extraordinary, though. Tony Ratcliffe is still the owner of the company and is determined to remain so. As I get older, I think of company ownership like growing trees. They have to be nurtured and fed (their favourite food is cash) and they are best handed on to future generations rather than being intensively farmed or transplanted to new ground.

Access Control Doctor - As featured in Security Installer May '10

Thu, 06 May 2010 23:00:00 GMT

There are many higher end features of access control systems that are often misunderstood. This month, I have been asked about a couple of these...

What is the difference between logical and timed anti-passback?

Anti-passback is a feature designed to stop a valid user entering into a secure area and then passing their token back to somebody else so they can use it. On a normal door it doesn't often make sense to employ this feature as, if the valid user wanted to let somebody else in, they would hold the door open for them. When using turnstiles however, it can be useful. Employing anti-passback in the right way helps to ensure the access control event log is correct. Also, if you are tracking which users are currently on site, it means that the access control system can monitor this accurately. This is vital when using the access control system for recording who is present in the event of a fire. There are two established methods of anti-passback; logical and timed.

Logical anti-passback - This method works by tracking where the user is in the building and only allowing them to make logical transactions. A logical transaction in this case means entering an area that adjoins the one you're in. For example, a user enters a building via the main entrance which leads into the Reception area. From there, the system will only allow them access to areas that adjoin the Reception area. The system understands that they have gone from the 'Outside world' area to the 'Reception' area. Once in Reception, the user will only be permitted access to areas adjoining Reception. If the user passes their token back so that somebody else can get access to Reception then the token will be denied access. Logical anti-passback relies on doors being grouped into areas and the relationship between these areas being defined.

Timed anti-passback - This method is a simpler approach to the problem and does not require any concept of areas. Timed anti-pass back means that a user will not be allowed through a door twice in a particular time period. A turnstile into a library, for example, may only permit access if the user has not already been through in the last five minutes. This stops users handing their tokens back to other people.

What is image verification and how can it be used?

Image verification is a useful feature that allows the identification of a user to be verified (by a real person) before access is granted. This is best illustrated by an example; a user presents their token at the main entrance of a high security building. A security guard at a PC somewhere will be alerted to the fact that somebody has requested entry. The access control software will display the user's photo, from their record on the system, next to a CCTV image of the user at the main entrance. The security guard compares the images and must verify that the person at the door is the genuine owner of the token. Once verified, the security guard presses a button to allow the user access. Of course, all of this happens in real time so it's important that the security guard is on their toes!

From the Front - April/May 2010

Wed, 28 Apr 2010 23:00:00 GMT

This patch of mailshot is not the only place where I let my keyboard rattle and render my computer monitor with spittle. Now and then I write a complaining letter. I try to keep a lid on it of course, but around three years ago, my daily drive to work was being interrupted by warning messages and pinging noises from the car dashboard. It was falsely accusing me of having flat tyres which is not the sort of ping I could ignore. I sent the car back to the dealers in Eastbourne a few times but was getting nowhere. I was receiving the usual "he said she said" nonsense from the helpless souls in Service Reception which got me nowhere nearer having the fault fixed.

Eventually, I gave up visiting the garage, where nobody was interested in taking responsibility for the fault, and I wrote to their head office. I accused them of being "like a jobsworth post office". "That'll shock them into action," I thought. Of course, I didn't receive a reply, and reluctantly began the process of incorporating errant pinging noises into my daily life. Weeks later, out of the blue, I received a telephone call from Paul Wilson. "I've just been reading your letter," he said. Then he laughed.

Paul was the fresh-faced, new, ever hopeful, Service Manager at Caffyns VW. I soon learned that he meant business, as he pursued the fault finding process with his technicians and VW with calm tenacity, and within a short fuss free interval, the problem was fixed. I was kept informed at every stage. It's amazing how this communication helped. Calling customers 'yerself' or stripping the inside of their nostrils of skin with cheap aftershave seem to be more common tools of 'customer facing' people, particularly blokes in garages, but proper helpful dialogue does it for me.

At the time of my letter, my VW dealer was in the bottom 20 in the country. They are now in the top 20 and they are rightly proud of that. Talking to Paul about how VW motivate their dealers, and actually, how they do everything was interesting. Perceptive as ever, Paul picked up on my fascination and suggested that my wife Amanda and I go on a trip to the VW factory in Wolfsburg in Germany. And so we did.

It was the most amazing jaw-dropping spectacle of a visit that I have ever made. To anywhere. The sheer scale of the place was astonishing. With its own power station, railway sidings and even its own Bundesliga football team, the VW site dominates the town - it really is the town. Almost every car driving around and parked in Wolfsburg is a VW. We visited the production line, being driven round in a Touran with no roof. Walking was out of the question on a six square km site! There we could see the most amazingly well organised company at work. I was struck by the quality and efficiency of the automation; body parts pressed and welded together by robots in what seemed an effortless and calm way. Amanda (who is Facilities Manager at Paxton, responsible for the tidiness and smooth functioning of our buildings) was amazed by the cleanliness of the place, and relieved to see another company where, as she put it, "They are almost as obsessed with housekeeping as we are."

We were both also struck by the lack of fuss. There were no harsh warning notices, slippery floor signs or garish orange and white barriers. Everything was just plain, ordinary and working. The fire alarm point we saw had no instructions or luminous notes next to it. We didn't see a single fluorescent jacket or bright plastic hard hat. All of this in the biggest thumping, thrashing, whirring car manufacturing plant in the Northern Hemisphere. In our country, where the purchase of a stapler may bring about a risk assessment, car manufacturing seems rather out of place. I hear VW have an excellent safety record and Volkswagen Group became the largest car manufacturer in the world in November 2009.

Several things come out of this. Firstly, we love having visitors here at Paxton, and we are going to make efforts to invite more of you here to look around. Paxton House in Brighton is worth a look as it's where we support, design, market and sell the products, and we run free training here several times a week. Our factory in Eastbourne is now well established after two years, and as I have said before, the automated manufacturing machines that we use for our electronic assemblies are mesmerizingly interesting to watch.

Secondly, if you have a VW that needs a service, go and see Paul Wilson and his team at Caffyns in Eastbourne if you can get there. He'll even help you buy a new VW if you want one.

Finally, Paxton is the place to come if you want an Access system. But I think you already knew that.

From the Front - March 2010

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 00:00:00 GMT

I'll tell you what gets my goat. Poor customer service, that's what. I am in the process of moving house and have had a bellyful of making telephone calls to disinterested people. I say people - I called a famous phone company to arrange to move my line and my number, thinking that they would be full of glee at the prospect of retaining a valuable customer. I was wrong. A digital lady told me sternly that they were "VERY busy at the moment". Well, so was I, so I immediately hung up on her and went to a less famous, but more eager supplier instead. As for broadband connections, I was amazed at how long it can take apparently important companies, oozing with shareholders' funds and replete with bank loans in their stainless steel multi-storey headquarters, to update a record in a database. I may be wrong, but surely that's what has to be done to enable a broadband connection, isn't it? I had thought that the days of overalled technicians connecting your household at the exchange with long-nosed pliers were more or less over, ending at about the time of the last episode of Crossroads.

I have run the gauntlet of customer service helplines where they want me to enter my entire digital footprint into my telephone handset; account numbers, date of birth, two for this, nine to hear it again, the whole lot. I refuse to do this any-more. I no longer tolerate the ridiculous dance where I alternate between jabbing at buttons and whisking the handset to my ear to listen for the next daft question. I guess that these exercises are carefully planned out by marketing people who are more interested in peering at spreadsheets through outrageous designs of spectacles than worrying about their customers' cuticles. You hope that there is a benefit of getting through to the right department, and being allowed to speak to a person who has your details on the screen, but they renege on the deal - you're asked the whole lot again anyway. No, the best way of dealing with these mad systems is to play dumb. After a few anxious metallic prompts from the other side, you're in.

You're in, that is, after you have been given a whole lot of silly information about how much easier it would be to visit their website at lazybones.com rather than bother them during their tea break. I have also been informed many times that my call was being recorded "for training purposes". Who on earth do they think they are kidding and why use that ridiculous Uriah Heep phrase? They record calls to catch you out should you become bolshie. The training thing is an obvious sham. This announcement seems to be one of those corporate ticks, like email disclaimers, that everybody believes they have to do but nobody really understands why.

Once you're there, finally granted an audience, at the foot of the great call centre, you can meekly make your request to be a customer; to spend some money on their services. These pleas are greeted with more requests for details. Scorn is poured on you for not remembering the password you have on the account. You are derided for not knowing the name of the calling scheme that you are on - even though it's a weird name thought up by another nameless person with hectic spectacles, and you never asked to be on it anyway. I know about calling schemes, of course I do, but I have perfected an act where I just repeat back the words "calling scheme?" as if I had been asked what species of armadillo I prefer on toast. Convincing a call centre based company that I am terminally thick seems to be the best way to get some of them to work for me. After their muffled comment of "I've got a live one here", to their taco munching colleague, they have to sort me out.

Websites I have to grapple with make me grumpy too. Some of them make my eyes wander downwards to look for the footer advertising the author. I expect to read "Web design by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin". So many of them make you jump through hoops - like entering your email twice. Copying and pasting used to work, but the more communist among those who put this stuff together have cunningly disabled that little glimmer of light that used to cheer me up. Web design is one of those areas, like dealing with telephone calls, where common sense (rather than adhering to best practice) can go a very long way. I found a book full of common sense called "Don't Make Me Think" by Steve Krug which amusingly pokes fun at stupid convention (a.k.a. best practice). He then goes on to clearly and graphically illustrate how web pages (and consequently, many other things like documents and software user interfaces) can be made easy and clear - a pleasure for the user.

Working at Paxton makes me passionate about all of this stuff. I know we don't get it right all of the time, but we do try very hard with it. I have noticed recently how many of my colleagues are similarly affected by the type of maltreatment I describe above. We rant about it together sometimes, round the water machine or the kettle. If you want a sympathetic ear, give us a call. You may even get straight through. Or visit our website at http://www.paxton.co.uk

From the Front - February 2010

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT

I wait agog for the news this morning at 9:30 that the Great Recession is over. I feel uneasy. It's the sort of uneasiness that I felt when I was five years old and saw a life size Dalek roving around the Oxted fête. At that tender age, I cried. I expect the Prime Minister will make a speech this morning - something about having been best placed to survive a recession, by doing the right thing with fairness to hard working families. I'll hold back the tears this time because I know it's not real - it's only a costume!

Watching the news on the subject of the economy does make me want to hide behind the settee and look at the screen through my fingers. It seems to me that the UK has spent the last decade at the pub. It's been paying for rounds on its credit card and has been stuffing the bills in the dresser in the hall. Like many people in pubs, Her Majesty's Government has spent its time there talking garbled nonsense, repeating itself, being bossy, aggressive and telling everybody that it loves them. So, rather than joining in with the cheers, I can only watch with concern as the grizzled sot of an administration tries to recover and shiftily looks around it for the next binge. I can see the corners of the envelopes poking out of the drawers in the hallway and wonder when someone will get around to opening them.

I know that I am supposed to be flogging access control, and that this is not the place to be political - but it makes me feel better. When the media are all talking about recovery, they try to explain how it can happen whilst defying all known financial laws about debt, interest payments and finite resources. Economists make optimistic small talk about a jobless recovery. As far as I can see, it's really a senseless, potless and gritless recovery.

Nine-thirty came and went and the news is a 0.1% growth for the last quarter of 2009, which officially means that the UK is out of recession. That is a pitiful result for £200 billion of quantitative easing and it indicates what most of us already knew - the underlying condition of the economy is dire. We have existed for too long on borrowing too much. Now that increasing debt is no longer an option, and indeed we'll have to start to concentrate on paying some of it back, there is no money left to fill the void.

There is no doubt in my mind that we are facing more tough times ahead. What this means for the security industry is difficult to predict. I'm sure there will be swingeing cuts, whatever the chatter before the election. Many security equipment installations happen in the public sector. The question is whether this market will call for more installations because of reorganisation or fewer because of cuts in available funding.

The point behind my gloomy little homily is to explain our ways of dealing with what we assume will be a continuing long term recession. Firstly, we manufacture most of our products ourselves in our factory in Eastbourne - we do not rely on overseas subcontractors for the bulk of our output. This helps when the world's manufacturing countries view the pound in a less favourable light. Secondly, we have been working very hard to make sure that we are selling the most reliable and best value products possible. That, combined with the fearsome reputation for service built up by our support staff, should make our products a safe bet when a hard won order materialises.

Increasingly, it's dawning on us that our reputation as a reliable and successful UK manufacturer is useful for persuading customers that we are a good choice for an access control system for their building. At one time, the word Paxton never crossed the lips of anybody at the actual site where one of our systems was used. We were a rather well-kept secret. We plan to increase the presence of the Paxton brand on our products (without being too brazen about it!) If you think we are getting this wrong, let me know. To cheer me up, let me know if you think we're getting this right, too.

By working in partnership with you, our installers, we can make a more convincing case for your customers to spend money with you on access control. Our series of seminars last year about how to sell access control was surprisingly well received. Surprising, because those of us at the sharp end are not famous for tangling with the discipline of selling. This year, we plan to develop this, so listen out for our news, or just call us and ask. In my view, now is a better time than any to sharpen commercial skills.

From the Front - January 2010

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

When NASA first started sending up astronauts, they quickly discovered that ballpoint pens would not work in zero gravity. To combat the problem, NASA scientists spent a decade and $12 billion to develop a pen that writes in zero gravity, upside down, underwater, on almost any surface including glass, and at temperatures ranging from below freezing to 300 degrees C. The Russians just used a pencil.

I quite like this kind of reductionist humour, but at the same time, I find it secretly quite irritating that anything 'technical' is thought of by many as silly. I think it is a British disease. Our culture advertises the mad professor inventor type who flaps about producing not much, whereas the disciplines of engineering which are there to filter, reshape and implement the best ideas are not seen as being wildly exciting. Therefore, we don't really have many engineers any more. The word itself has been dragged through history on the greasier side of life, including maintaining and driving engines, whereas European counterparts enjoyed a happy association over centuries with the cleaner and cleverer attribute of ingenious - hence the French word "ingenieur".

Japan was a place that I warmed to. They can do engineering. Their cars are a testament to what I would call good design. They are not completely obsessed with aesthetics, but spend more time on the function of what they produce. They revel in perfection, and enjoy efficiency. They are so good at implementation that even fringe products like computer controlled toilets make it through to market. Actually, even these are not as silly as they seem. They may make your eyes go like saucers before you are used to them, but as someone who once spent an uncomfortable five minutes in a Tokyo chemists trying to mime Imodium, I can testify that they have their benefits.

So, we laugh at the Japanese with their gadgets, we bray loudly in offices about being useless with computers, and we all want to be footballers, or celebrities when we grow up. Great! If that continues, it will be the Psychiatry students who shall clean up when they qualify, their client lists bulging with Z list celebrities. Come to think of it, they have their work cut out already with those from the other end of the alphabet.

I do predict, along with many woeful commentators, that the current Celebrity - Banker - Estate Agent - Property Developer nonsense will subside. The interesting bit is the question of what replaces it, and there I am very optimistic. It has dawned on me that, although our culture, our infrastructure and our governments have all been treading on engineering, the skill and the ability are still there. My evidence for this is the very strong "Fred Dibnah" streak running through Great Britain. It's not just his generation that turn up to steam fairs, and restore classic cars. The skills are being passed on and appreciated by the young too. Similar covert engineering is in evidence in electronics, and software. The geek shall inherit the earth!

Technology is changing fast. Paxton Access has just purchased a CNC machine (or automatic lathe and milling machine combined), for the price of a new car. It can take a computer generated design and make it. It does this for very complex shapes down to an accuracy of a few microns in many materials, including steel. This has meant that our mechanical designs can be made and tested instantly - it's great fun to watch too. I chatted to the man who delivered it, and he said that these machines are selling very well to "Freds in sheds". So, although CNC machines are not new, their low price and the army of people who can be creative with them are. Look out Far East!

In the land of access control, I have had people look at me quizzically and ask "What's wrong with a key?". They see an electronic system as complication when really, it simplifies life in any building containing more than a handful of people. We realised over a decade ago that the key to success with selling access control is to show people how much simpler life becomes once the features of a good access control system are properly employed.

Different buildings have different problems. The trick is to find out what your customers' problems are and look for the weapons available to you to combat those specific needs. They range from time and attendance, through health and safety to energy saving as described in this newsletter. Hands free is not just a DDA solution, it's perfect for hospitals where good hygiene is important.

Making the case for access control is an essential part of the selling process. We ran a series of very successful seminars in 2009 to help installers with this. Let us know if you would like to attend one in 2010.

Have a prosperous and happy new year!

Access Control Doctor - As featured in Security Installer Jan '10

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Why do different proximity readers sometimes read different token numbers from the same tokens?

This can be a real problem when using the same tokens to operate different systems. Effectively, the tokens have to be added twice. Also, importing a user database (complete with card numbers) can be problematic if the card numbers are read differently by the system being imported to. The problem is usually due to one of the following:

What is being read? - Some RFID tokens have two parts; the serial number and the encoded sectors. The serial number is a fixed number that cannot be changed. The encoded sectors contain information that has been programmed onto the token. Some readers will be looking for the serial number, while other readers may be reading one of the encoded sectors.

Truncation - Most systems are limited to the amount of information they can store for each token. Sometimes this means that the data on the token must be truncated to the size required. The bits (no pun intended) of a token’s data that are discarded can vary and this will cause token number discrepancies.

Data format - A token number will often be made up of a site code, a user code and other bits of data such as parity bits (these are used by the reader to ensure that the token number is valid). These different bits of data can be mixed up in a token’s data string. For instance, the user code might be the first, sixth, ninth and twelfth digits in amongst the other information stored on the token. The way that the reader, or system, extracts this data can change and this again will affect the token number reported. To get around this problem many systems offer the ability to configure the data format of tokens being used.

What is Wiegand?

Wiegand is a standard format for proximity readers. It defines the output protocol of the reader as well as the data format of the token information.

Wiegand tokens were originally plastic cards with embedded strips of metal wire. When the card was run through a reader, the movement of the wires through a magnetic field caused an electric current. Because the positioning of the wires in each token was unique, the electrical output was a unique signature and could be used for identification. Although this technology is no longer used, the Wiegand standards have persisted right through to the vast range of reading devices and tokens that are available today.

There are various ‘flavours’ of Wiegand including some prevalent standards such as 26-bit. This 26-bit refers to the fact that the token number consists of 26 binary bits (ones and zeros). The first and last of the 26 bits are parity bits, bits two to nine are the site code and bits 10 to 25 are the card number.

What is a site code?

A site code is a number that identifies tokens from a particular site. All tokens belonging to a site will have the same site code (or facility code) in addition to a unique token number. Some systems allow for several site codes to be set up for a single site.

An historical reason for manufacturers to use site codes was to minimize the amount of information that is stored on the control unit for every token added to a system, thus increasing the number of users for a given amount of memory. This works as the site code need only be stored once on a control unit. When a card is read the site code is checked to ensure that it is valid, if it is then the individual token number can be then be checked.

From the Front - December 2009

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

One of my favourite radio presenters, Eddie Mair, is attributed with a story about a well known TV and radio personality. "Older woman. Butter wouldn't melt sort of image. Lovely woman by all accounts."

"In the 'mixed' toilets (of which there are a few at Broadcasting House), the said TV star was seen entering a cubicle. Several others were occupied. Presently, from one of them came the most almighty, appalling, shocking stream of noises. You know. Just awful, apparently. Endless rasping and associated parps. It went on and on for what seemed like an age, according to the witness. What must the poor person have eaten? Was he or she OK? Who could survive such an outpouring??? On and on it went, sounding like something from the depths of hell.

When it finally, finally stopped there was a ghastly hush. An eerie, becalmed silence. After a moment, the TV star could clearly be heard enquiring: 'is that you, Maureen?'"

Cases of unclear identity like this one are common. It happened recently to us here at Paxton Access. As many reading this column will already know, we operate a system where those calling us by telephone, or customers that we visit, may get an email inviting them to click on a web link to give their opinion. On arrival at the web page, there is an opportunity to give a mark (good, average or bad) and a space to type some text, be it an epistle of praise or a curt rebuke.

The output of this mechanism isn't the usual dusty pile of things that litter the typical marketing department. We wanted something better than that. The theory is that if you are going to go to the trouble of acquiring information, it's worthless unless you do something with it; useless if nothing changes. So, when you press the submit button on the web page, three things happen instantly. A flock of emails is sent to recipients at Paxton Access, including all the directors, containing the grade given and the comment made. The comment appears on a huge screen for all to see in our reception area. Finally, should you opt for publication, it will appear immediately on our public website on the home page banner and in our comments section.

When we get a bad comment, we are so publicly exposed by it that we all scurry round and coordinate an effort, within minutes, to sort out the aggrieved customer's problem. Such was the reaction on a quiet Wednesday (28th October 2009 at 14:03) when a red angry face icon suddenly glared at Christine and Hayley from the screen in the corner of reception.

"Transferred to too many people who did not know enough product info. Outcome of call was unsuccessful so we have now gone to another supplier."

This was a priority one call out for us - a full on shout.

In less than an hour, the mystery was solved. We were puzzled because transferring callers to many people just isn't something we do. We had spoken to somebody from that company, and when we got back in touch with him, he professed to be very happy with the way we had dealt with him. It emerged that the email requesting feedback had gone to a general address, and somebody else had pounced on it. When we spoke to her, the mystery unravelled. She was still cross; steaming from the appalling way in which she had been treated. We were at the heat of the fire now. We began the forensics, asking about products, who she had spoken to and so on. We let her down gently, explaining kindly that her product was in fact not one of ours, but was manufactured by one of our competitors. The competitor's identity is withheld to prevent blushes (although our support staff are friendly and chatty, and may let it slip if pushed).

Once the fire engines were put away, I received one or two emails from my colleagues suggesting that we delete this bit of feedback because it wasn't, after all, 'real'. For me, this misses the point. What would be the purpose of a system that gets fiddled with? It should include spelling errors, and mistakes of all sorts, including those caused by mistaken identity. An innocent reader looking at all our comments (8,632 of them as I write - see http://paxton.info/586) will not take that one in isolation and decide that we are, after all, in a mess and therefore not a worthy supplier. In fact, they are more likely to be convinced that the list is that rarest of things: a true and fair representation of our customers' opinions - unmolested, straight out of the ground, and not the sort of plastic beauty parade beloved by some marketing execs.

So, in a perverse way, I quite like bad feedback when it arrives. Our well oiled fire engines get a trip out, and I can talk about it here - and relate Eddie's funny about Maureen. We usually get to fix something in the company if there is a real issue about which we'd otherwise be blissfully ignorant. What could be better?

From the Front - November 2009

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

A nine month old South African pigeon called Winston was recently tasked with carrying a message. His employer, an IT company, chose him to carry four gigabytes of data in a USB stick tied to his back from their offices to Durban, a journey of 80km. The idea behind the stunt was to demonstrate that the competition from the more mainstream broadband providers was somewhat lacking. With Winston's help, the data was transferred in a, er... flash, taking just under three hours. By that time, the broadband link had only achieved four percent of the same throughput, a comparison that got Telkom, a large South African communications provider into a flap.

On one level, this lateral approach to the problem appeals to me. The employee from the IT company in question was making the point that we are supposed to be living in a high bandwidth world and, like a lot of us here in the UK, he has become frustrated at being at the end of what seems like a wet piece of string between him and the internet. On the other hand, I have growing sympathy with the communications providers.

I am beginning to realise how difficult high bandwidth is; and difficult always translates to expensive, somehow. Within buildings, copper wires have been the choice for providing it so far - fibre has proved too awkward in the main. 'It' began with yellow coaxial cable as thick as a hosepipe which ran at 10Mbps (Megabits per second). Look up 'vampire tap' on Wikipedia and you will see how cumbersome this was, making 10Mbps a big deal 25 years ago when computer networking was just starting to be really needed. Today, 10Mbps is relatively easy and cheap so large numbers of data hungry applications have been developed to use up the spare capacity and more. On this urgent quest for bits per second, we are at the point where 10Gbps will be routinely sent down one cable; one thousand times faster than in 1985.

Well, maybe it won't be as routine as people think. Cat5 has become the vanilla of the cable world. It gets thrown in anywhere any old how, and by and large, 100Mbps seems to fly down it. I bet more Cat5 has been installed over the last 5 years than (insert astronomical comparison here). Most of it has been done on a budget. 10Gbps data cables may have the same connections at each end, but they just don't work the same. At these data rates, CAT6a cable is recommended, but importantly, old fashioned techniques known by the old fashioned and expensive infrastructure installers will be required to make it work. As a cable puller, if you don't know that treading on a data cable will spoil its characteristics, or if you are not aware of minimum bending radii, you may be in for nasty surprises with the new technology.

As well as jostling for position on the crowded cables of today's networks, applications these days are under a different sort of pressure. The whole concept of using a cable as an umbilical cord from a device to its mother ship is becoming less desirable. Cables are untidy and costly to install, so wireless communication wins most competitions. The problem is that wireless applications all share the same bandwidth, locally at least, so there is a limit to how much of it each application can have.

By today's standards, access control should be a very undemanding application in terms of data transfer. Logic suggests that only a tiny scatter of bits is required to describe who went where and when. Unfortunately, in the olden days, access control had its own cables on which to communicate, so designs were all done to use up the available bandwidth because they could. A constant chatter that happens across an RS485 network cable may tell you within half a second if a control unit is 'offline' but it translates poorly onto a shared network.

So, in a world where everybody thinks of bandwidth becoming cheaper and more available, we find ourselves thinking carefully about new ways of conserving it. We have to wean ourselves off virtual comms ports because legacy is the enemy of innovation. By using bandwidth more efficiently, the choice of data pipes through which we can communicate will be much better. On the face of it, this sweat and toil will make no difference to our products. The result will be that as the stern gaze of IT managers turns more and more onto security products, Paxton Access control systems will gain the tick of approval.

In the meantime, keep your pigeons dry and use your USB sticks for collecting installer points. So far, the internet seems to be getting these to us just fine, but contact our marketing department for help if you need it - or indeed, if you don't yet know how amazingly profitable our installer points are!

From the Front - October 2009

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 23:00:00 GMT

Am I getting old, or are HiFi magazines becoming more absurd every year? Both are true, I am sure. I opened a copy of Quack HiFi or some similar title this month to be advised that I should make sure that the equipment rack is checked with a spirit level. It advised me that, when buying a particular mains lead, “levels of detail, dynamics and clarity of sound are improved upon tenfold”. I am also assured that a cable designed to take a digital signal from an HDMI video source to a television has the following properties: “Its colour balance is full of beans without being lurid, and the picture is clean with little sign of noise.”

It astonishes me that anybody with what used to be called common sense would worry about a spirit level for a CD player when it’s perfectly obvious that the thing will play its discs just as happily on its side as in the normal orientation. Any angle in between is fine too. But you cannot call yourself a HiFi buff unless you worry about such things, apparently. HiFi buffs seem to be men, they take themselves seriously, and most of them have beards from what I can gather. I begin to wonder if the men with beards are gullible.

The mains lead that was being discussed was cripplingly expensive. I mean over £200 expensive - for a mains lead with a plug on the end. I happen to know that a mains lead costs less than £1 to produce, so that’s a lot of refinement packed into a simple product. But this is no ordinary mains lead. It uses 24 Hyper Pure Vari-Strand copper conductors insulated with Teflon. When I read about the dynamics and clarity being improved upon tenfold, I realise that there is something wrong. The author has quite simply been at the sherry. This mains lead, so lovingly and painstakingly put together connects to a random bit of equipment - so how on earth (no pun intended) can it claim to improve anything tenfold? Even more amusingly, the poor thing is destined to plug into a standard crummy old mains socket at its other end. What is the 10 metres of shoddy old copper wire between there and the consumer unit going to do for the dynamics? Will the type of circuit breakers affect the colour balance? Is clarity affected by a coal or gas fired power station?

The real beard tweaker has to be the digital lead. HDMI is a digital video standard. The job of the HDMI cable is to faithfully carry the data bits from the source to the destination without mucking them up. By and large, this is what it will do, all day and every day without error. This is true if the cable conforms to the standard and for a fiver or so, they generally do. There is therefore, no possible improvement, no enhancement and no beans that can be brought about by a change from my cheap cable to the objects of worship that appear in HiFi magazines. The secret that cannot be told is that bits are bits, they cannot be lurid. It’s impossible. A cable that is not made to the HDMI standard (too long for example) will either not work in any way, or if you are lucky enough to catch it on the brink of not working, will give speckles on the picture. No beans at all.

I do have fun though, dealing with the slight possibility that I may actually be wrong. Perhaps the cables do exhibit maverick tendencies of their own, and the huddles of men with beards have hit upon something. Perhaps bits are not binary but each has a character all of its own, like a good wine. I imagine happy bits, sad bytes, willing ones and reluctant zeros. I now foresee product problems with Net2.

Net2 software communicates from the PC to the access control units at each door and it usually does this over CAT5 cable that costs a few pence per meter. Net2 classic is the most difficult to wire, but if the termination resistors are fitted, and the connections are made correctly, the product should work, shouldn’t it? Net2 plus is easier, because it connects directly to an existing LAN with reliable patch leads, but it still uses that cheap old cable. As for Net2 nano, it has to cope with communicating through the air - will cooking smells change the data?

The event log will be populated with “Josiah Barnes, Meeting Room, oooh about tea time”. Or perhaps “I think it’s Fi - isn’t it? The one from Accounts. Has she got new glasses? Accounts office, 15:30”. We will have to change all readers to display results other than access permitted or denied. The result, “Okay, if you’re good” will be denoted with a cheerfully winking turquoise LED. A dull teal glow will mean “I’m not happy about this - do you know what time it is?”

Relax - I think I’m right. So far we have not had to deal with mischievous access control on our help line; that’s the acid test. However, if you encounter sibilance or lethargic woofers when installing our products, do give us a ring. We’ll arrange a blind test.

From the Front - September 2009

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 23:00:00 GMT

I think many of my work colleagues think I'm a neat freak. My brother Mark, who also works at Paxton Access, knows differently. As a child, I was fascinated by anything electronic, and my enthusiasm was such that I collected absolutely anything that had wires sticking out of it. It was all stored in disordered heaps on any horizontal surface in my bedroom. I was constantly in trouble for this, and for generating blobs of solder which stubbornly resisted the vacuum cleaner's attempts to separate them from the carpet.

At some point in my twenties, it dawned on me that shuffling around knee deep in junk wasn't getting me anywhere and I belatedly embarked on the path to orderliness. I am not sure what sparked it. Perhaps I had no further need to rebel. It may be that being surrounded by neglected fronds of wire tickling carelessly exposed mains terminals had ceased to be exciting and started to seem dangerous even though that was before we were all turned into milk sops by the safety police. It may have been the acrid fumes that filled my Mini on connection of my first intruder alarm circuit - I'd got the 12V power wires round the wrong way. I could have invented the smoke cloak twenty years early had I been alert.

So far, it's been a long and difficult journey to getting organised, and I wonder where it will end. A significant milestone for me was starting work at Paxton Access in 1990. Tony Ratcliffe, the owner and chairman of the company, then and now, has always tended towards working in an orderly way and so I fell in with it without too much argument. I still had a problem with paper, though. I just couldn't seem to render big piles of it into any kind of order when others around me could. My discovery of the relational database was a significant breakthrough. Microsoft Access, combined with Microsoft Visual Basic 3 transformed my life because then the PC could keep all of that stuff in neat order, and I could find what I needed at the press of a button.

It may be then when I became peculiar. The crusades started. I think the first one was about Post-it notes. It frustrated me that the important message about a TOUCHLOCK battery with too many bleeps was adhering uselessly to one person's desk when that person was out. Computer screens then were real pieces of furniture and people would surround them with Post-Its to the point that they would lose their grip. The answer to that was to write the word IMPORTANT at the top of a note and surround it with an artless jagged line to show that someone had become cross about something. So I banned them. Like John Cleese (but less tall and slightly more manic), I threw out the copious stock in the stationery cupboard, along with many strangely coloured biros, eight types of A4 paper, some binding machines and a typewriter.

Things have moved on. If you visit Paxton House for product training (please do - you're welcome, and we don't charge), you'll get an email confirming your booking, and you'll get a link to your personal web page where you can choose a bacon or sausage roll on arrival. You'll notice, I hope, a complete lack of stuff hanging about too. Some of my colleagues have taken things further. We are not allowed notices on the wall. Cardboard is frowned upon when left around, and the kitchen is kept clean. I could go on, with many more examples but the point is made. We are well into obsession territory with our orderliness - but what's the benefit to our customers?

I recently asked for eight of our new Easyprox nano units from stock as we are refitting part of our offices for our development department. One of the units had no fitting kit and another had the wrong handle in the pack. Another had no allen key. I was embarrassed and very concerned when I found out, saying "It can't be." I called Paul Rawlinson, our Operations Director at his desk in Eastbourne. He said "It can't be." He immediately opened his Net2 software and asked me to present my card to each of the units. Within seconds, he had looked up the serial numbers that appeared on my event log, and traced them. Sure enough, three of the units had come, not from stock, but had been 'used' by us for a week or two for trials before being handed to me for fitting to our building. I was relieved that our customers would not suffer the same fate.

The lesson learned was that we must push our obsessions further. Once we have finished testing, we should not have 'spare' products hanging about. All new condition products will be returned to stock after a thorough retest and repackaging. When our development department moves into its new labs, there will be no secret hordes of products that someone put there just the other week. We will be even more tidy and suffer even fewer errors as a result - even if we seem yet more eccentric!

Access Control Doctor - As featured in Security Installer Sept '09

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 23:00:00 GMT

Should I be offering my customers an access control system with a web interface?

Listen to the salesmen and they’ll tell you about a world where people with wavy hair and busy lives change access permissions to their building using their phone/PDA/wristwatch whilst striding purposefully through an international airport. Personally, I nearly always fall for these visions of how a new bit of technology will change my world. Years ago, Bi (Before iPhone), I bought a Nokia for a large sum of money because I would be able to use it to respond to emails, manage my calendar and surf the internet. I must say, in ideal conditions, it did all of these things quite well. Most of the time however, I was not in what can be described as ideal conditions and the thing either didn’t work or, arguably even worse, worked intermittently. In addition, it was the size and weight of a housebrick and I had to endure the ridicule of my less enlightened colleagues for the full 12 months of the contract. Maybe that’s the price you pay for being at the forefront?

There are tons of other examples where I have done exactly the same thing. To be honest I think I enjoy it. I have, however long ago, accepted that I am not normal. That is to say not typical.

I suppose the moral of the story is that technological advancement usually happens in stages. During the first stage the offerings are often clumsy and don’t hit the spot in terms of usability. The cost of first stage solutions is often high and as such is only used by ‘early adopters’. The second stage comes about when a company brings a solution to market that really hits the nail on the head in terms of functionality, usability and price. If marketed properly this propels the new technology into the mainstream. Apple did it very well with the iPhone.

A lot has been written about ‘cloud computing’ over the last few years. During the 60’s and 70’s computing systems used a centralised mainframe structure in which computer operators used a terminal that was connected to a central server. In the late 70’s the personal computer was invented and the 80’s and 90’s were decades in which computing was centred on the user’s local machine. While things are broadly still that way, the 00’s have seen the ascendance of companies such as Google that are challenging this distributed model. There is a move back to a centralised approach where all computation happens and information is stored in ‘the cloud’. Or more precisely; internet connected PC’s owned by companies such as Google. Google Docs is a good example of cloud computing and competes directly with Microsoft Office.

Back to access control. I believe that the current crop of web interfaces used by access control manufacturers are firmly in the first stage of technological advancement. That is to say that there is not yet a compelling combination of functionality, usability and price. On the other hand, the ascendancy of cloud computing will bring about improvements that are relevant to all web interfaces and this leads me to believe that there is a solid future for this technology. In support of my assessment I have listed here some pros and cons of web interfaces for access control systems:

The pros

You don’t have to install software onto every machine that uses the system. Only an internet browser is required.

There are no issues with operating system compatibility. Users can use a PC, a Mac or any other machine with a web browser.

As the access control system is upgraded there is no need to upgrade software on every client’s PC.

The cons

Every company network must have a firewall to protect its computers and data from external access. Firewalls present the biggest single difficulty when using web interfaces from outside the company network. One of the most touted benefits of a web interface is that you can use it anywhere. This isn’t strictly true however, unless you have a device and IT infrastructure that supports remote network connections such as VPN.

Although the issues with operating system compatibility are far worse, there are some browser compatibility issues that affect the user’s experience. The web interface may look very different when using Internet Explorer compared to Mozilla Firefox, for example.

Web browsers and the technology behind them are increasing in sophistication. Currently however, it cannot be said that a web interface can rival an installed application in terms of the user experience. The web technologies available just aren’t there yet and this limits usability and appeal. On the positive side, the ascendance of cloud computing is pushing developments in this area along very quickly.

There are some current offerings available that include an embedded web interface in a single door solution. Manufacturers taking this approach often have to make compromises in the performance of the interface to make the solution cost effective. This can lead to a frustrating user experience.

Going back to the original question, the answer is...not yet. However, keep your eyes peeled for an access control manufacturer releasing a second stage solution. It will happen soon...

From the Front - August 2009

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 23:00:00 GMT

You know that the country is in deep trouble when the phrase "green shoots" is being bandied about. It's one of those contraindications whose face value is opposite to its significance,like when the maximum number of people are investing all their savings in the stock market, it's time to get out. The same phrase was used during the recession in the early nineties. Years after the media had tired of the cliché and put it back on the shelf next to "sick as a parrot", unemployment at last started to fall and house prices ceased their alarming plunge.

In 2007, some months before the infamous Northern Rock fiasco, I had that queasy feeling that all was not well. Smiling bankers and politicians on the TV were citing "new paradigms" that meant there would be no return to boom and bust. On TV were hoards of people with no taste or IQ making fortunes out of doing up houses. Worst of all, debt seemed to be the new prosperity. To me, it seemed at that time a bit dark over Will's mother's, as my grandmother used to say.

Conversation in the Paxton Access boardroom had already turned to the topic of how we would survive a recession. It was a rude prospect at first. We have been in the fortunate position of our turnover growing at around 25% per year for some years, making a profit every year since 1993. The prospect of say a 20% fall in turnover instead turned the board's collective gills to a colour that matched our logo perfectly.

Some interesting strategies emerged. It was clear that cash would become an important resource - we'd never had to worry about that before. On the other hand, we would also have to invest in manufacturing machinery that would allow us to reduce our stock levels and we would also have to increase our R&D effort to make our products more competitive and recession proof. We realised that we would have to become more self sufficient in terms of manufacturing so that we would be able to adapt quickly to changing market conditions. On the other hand, unnecessary expenses were cut - no new cars! All of this felt like preparing a ship for a storm, and I am now very glad we did it.

One of the few UK politicians who, in my opinion, 'gets it' is Vince Cable - the Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader and Shadow Chancellor. He has just written a book appropriately called "The Storm - The World Economic Crisis & What It Means". He pulls no punches about the disgraceful behaviour of the banks, making quite clear that he sees their lending as insanely out of control. He also makes an interesting point about global debt, pointing out the implications of the developing nations being the savers. Their savings were their security, being lent to the developed nations like us who were the debtors. It's clear to me where this is heading. There is a lot of paying back to be done. Worse still, the cost of borrowing for a developed nation, like the profligate UK, will in future become higher. UK banks have balance sheets like punctured tyres. This means that once repaired, they will have to inflate them again by charging their borrowers much more than they give their savers. Whatever the Bank of England say in their monthly meetings, the cost of all borrowing is on the way up, for a very long time.

Well, somehow we managed to buy our imported manufacturing machinery while the exchange rate was still at two dollars to the pound. If we bought it today, we would have to pay a quarter of a million pounds more for it. We bought our factory in Eastbourne to put it in and radically changed the way in which we bought in raw materials. The machinery is a state of the art surface mount assembly line. I visit Eastbourne frequently to be found, slack-jawed and saucer-eyed as the six headed pick and place machine busies itself with picking up electronic components (they look like sugar granules to me) and places them with an accuracy of a few microns and a rate of up to 16 thousand components an hour or four every second.

In essence, our plan seems to have worked. There are side benefits too, which I hadn't considered. Before we brought our manufacturing in house, there was a long lead time between ordering say a Net2 ACU from our subcontractor and its despatch from our distributor to the installer. It could be six months or more. Now, we can manufacture directly to current demand, and this means that equipment is often installed within a week or two of being made. There is something really nice about this 'freshness' - we don't have to sell the old stock first. Also, we have managed to improve on the quality offered by our subcontractor - whose target was fewer than 1% rejects down to a figure of one in 1,000 - we hadn't banked on that at all! Finally, the satisfaction of our improved cashflow leading in future to no overdraft requirements is tangible. I see that today, our account is in credit, so the prospect of not having to man the pump to reinflate the banks' tyres feels very good indeed.

From the Front - July 2009

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 23:00:00 GMT

There was a time when electronic goods, once purchased, stood still. You bought a radio or a TV and you would keep it until it either wore out or broke. It did the same job in the same way for ever. That's all changed because in the modern world we have stuff called firmware.

For the uninitiated, firmware is in the no man's land between hardware (electronic components like transistors, capacitors and resistors) and software like Microsoft Word. Firmware is really software that is loaded into a specific bit of hardware and left there to perform a specific task. Many things from cars to washing machines contain firmware. In a washing machine, it predetermines how all the wash cycles work, when it dispenses soap and at what speed it mangles your trousers. You could think of the spiky cylinder in an old fashioned musical box as firmware.

Nowadays, the rolled out brass hedgehog sausage thing from the musical box has been transformed into electronic components with inscrutable acronyms like PROM, EPROM, OTPROM and FLASH. These things store the 'code'; each 1 or 0 mimicking the presence or otherwise of a brass pin in a musical box. In the security industry, some installation engineers have been used in the past to driving round the country with tubes full of these chips, plugging them into alarm panels, access control units and other security equipment to 'upgrade' them, replacing the previous incumbent with a newer version which doesn't lock people out, or squeak at them when it's not supposed to. That's very convenient, because it means that you don't have to throw away the panel and wire in a new one when you want to fix a wrong note, or even want to make it play a newer, better tune.

The even newer world of networks and FLASH memory brings another advantage. If a set of control units are wired together and can talk to a central PC, the ones and noughts can be squirted down the wire at the control unit, and so it can have its firmware changed remotely. No more need for tubes of EPROMS to be plugged into the innards of countless boxes, all located in dusty voids above ceilings. This facility is creeping into domestic equipment - my DVD player at home is plugged into the internet, and every so often it has a chat with its mother ship back at Sony and politely asks if it can download new firmware. I'm always obliging about it, but have no idea what marvellous improvements happen as a result.

There are some potential problems with this adaptability. How reliable this process is depends on a couple of things - how fiercely cheapskate were the bean counters at the design stage, and how much the Design Engineer cared about reliability. There is a woeful amount of kit around for which a firmware upgrade is as risky as a heart transplant. The dead giveaway is red angry warnings in the instructions about not unplugging or fidgeting unduly during the process. The fact is, a properly designed circuit should be able to recover from an interruption of a download without problems.

I once upgraded the firmware in a CD player by inserting a firmware update CD. Its display was potentially capable of reassuring me that the process was underway, that it was perfectly happy about things, and that normal service would be resumed shortly. Instead, the sullen miserable thing just sat there whirring for what seemed like ages, so I assumed it had got stuck. I put it out of its misery and put me blithely into mine by switching off the power. I explained to the man in the shop when I took back the now useless lump of plastic what had happened. I managed to convince him to blame the manufacturer's deficient engineering and finance departments and to give me a replacement.

With Net2, we did our best. I remember well the design meetings over ten years ago at its inception when downloadable firmware was exciting. We spent as much as we possibly could on FLASH memory and RAM - enough to make any sane accountant see red. The result has been that every single Net2 ACU has been able to keep pace with new features and bug fixes ever since. This means that over years of ownership, adding new doors to existing systems has been a reality on many sites without the need for nasty financial shocks for system users. So far, so good.

Only on rare occasions have we seen problems. We learnt early on that some installers favour the use of say a mint humbug and two bent staples instead of the supplied termination resistors. Other systems have had creative use of network connections that would baffle an expert knitter. Amazingly these systems often work perfectly well in normal life, but firmware downloads really do put the network through its paces, and an otherwise functioning system can then stumble.

Ten years is a long time for an electronic product to survive as Net2 classic has. It will continue to be sold, but we have now reached the limit of what its little old fashioned FLASH memory can hold. So I can heartily recommend Net2 plus for new sites where a further ten years (I hope!) of seamless enhancements will be vital. See http://paxton.info/1299 for more information and ring us to ask for a datasheet.

Access Control Doctor - As featured in Security Installer July '09

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 23:00:00 GMT

Why should I try and sell access control systems to my customers?

As we all know, the investment required to get a customer to spend money with you is substantial. Meetings, quotations, phone calls and site surveys all cost money and there’s no guarantee that you’ll actually get anything out of it. Once the customer is spending money, and delighted with the service of course, it’s a perfect opportunity to offer them something else. This principle is used just about everywhere, try ordering a McDonalds meal without being offered the opportunity of ‘Going large’. Don’t let that put you off though.

As well as wanting to maximise the profit from every customer, it is also important to say that installing access control systems uses the same broad skills as installing intruder alarms, CCTV and other systems of this type. Your engineers will be able to use their existing knowhow and tools.

Compared to intruder alarms, access control is not as commonplace. This means that your customer is more likely to be in the market for a system and the margins are still good!

How do I get my customer interested in access control?

A good hook to get your customer interested is to look for current problems they may be experiencing. This might be to do with the way they handle visitors, fire alarms, ex-employees or restricting access to restricted areas. Here are a couple suggestions that might apply:

“I noticed one of your staff walking around with a big bunch of keys earlier. Don’t you have electronic access control? It would make life much easier and your building would be much more secure.”

“I noticed your communications room is open to all staff. Ever thought of sticking an access control system on there?”

“Your car park is very full, are you sure that only employees and visitors are using it?”

Most access control systems are scalable meaning that you can add to a system over time. Install one door and they’ll soon be back for more. You could even try installing the first door at a very low cost to get them interested. Profit can be made on the installation of subsequent doors.

How can I differentiate myself from my competitors in order to win more quotations?

If several companies are quoting for the installation of an access control system it’s important to give yourself every opportunity to win the business. The good news is that there’s a lot that can be done to make you stand out from the crowd. You can increase the usefulness of the system to the customer for not much more money.

Integration - Integrating with the customer’s intruder alarm system will save them the frustration and hassle of false alarms. Integrating with CCTV increases the usability of both systems and adds real benefit to the customer by making valuable data more accessible.

Energy saving - Most companies are keen to reduce their energy consumption. Using products such as Energy saving readers can make sure that electrical equipment such as air conditioning is only used when it is required. Simple things like automatically turning the lights off when the intruder alarm is set can make a big difference to energy bills and requires little in the way of equipment or extra costs.

Service - In some cases manufacturers offer free of charge replaceable covers for readers. Offering to replace these on a regular basis is a touch superficial but gives the customer a new looking and presentable system for years to come.

Testing, testing!

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 23:00:00 GMT

I'm pleased to announce that Easyprox nano is now available. Have a look behind the scenes at some of the testing effort involved in getting this product ready.

This video shows our great new workshop facility. Our product development staff use these facilities for endurance testing products, prior to release, and for creating representative prototypes of new products. We hope this will make our products even better than ever.

Have you responded to this month’s mail shot and ordered your Easyprox nano starter kit?

For just £50, plus postage, you get a great value kit including Easyprox nano, desktop reader, wireless dongle and tokens, which you can use to learn all about the ground breaking new Easyprox nano product.

Try setting a timezone for working hours, Easyprox nano can leave the door un-locked during the working hours and it will consume little or no power. It will automatically re-lock outside your working hours.

We are already working on great new features for Easyprox nano including a graphical indication of battery condition in Net2 so you can be warned of the need to replace the batteries well ahead of time without the need to go to the door.

All these new features are provided by new software that automatically updates the firmware on each and every Easyprox nano. This happens in the background, without taking the unit off-line, so doors can be used as normal during updates. No more waiting for the firmware to install first, a small but significant improvement.

Manchester United

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 23:00:00 GMT

Manchester United Football Club needs no introduction. As one of the founding members of the UK premier league, its home stadium at Trafford Park has almost iconic status with the club’s fans.

With a capacity of 76,000, security and the safe movement of both home and visiting fans on match days is of paramount importance to the club.

On match days, entrance to the ground is controlled via turnstiles, while departure is facilitated via a series of gates at the rear of the stands. To prevent the log jam which would be caused by emptying the entire stadium at exactly the same time, departure from the stadium’s stands is staggered by seating block. This enables a fast, safe and efficient means of clearing the stadium.

Mark Gyves, Manchester United’s Electrical Services Manager, said: “We had a system in place which enabled us to open the doors at the back of the stands individually. However, as each stand has a number of doors to be opened this wasn’t very convenient. The system was also pretty old and that presented its own problems.” Specifically, when the new quadrants were built in 2007, it was not possible to extend the existing system, which was no longer in production, to the new areas.

Garndene Communications Ltd was asked to source a suitable solution for the new quadrants. They suggested using Net2 – an access control system from Paxton Access. Although the system was required for egress rather than access control, Garndene was confident that the Net2 system could do the job.

Manchester United continued for some time using the new Net2 system alongside the existing system on the established stands but was keen to make further improvements.

Eventually, Garndene were asked to quote for replacing the existing system on all the stand exit doors with Net2. They were awarded the project and a total of 82 doors in the stadium are now controlled using the system.

Once the standard Net2 software had been loaded onto the computer in the control room, where it was used to control all exit doors from the stand, Mr Gyves spoke to Garndene about designing some bespoke elements to the software. This would involve doors being grouped together in a block; one single icon on the computer screen’s graphic could then control that particular block of doors.

Garndene visited Paxton Access’ premises to discuss the specifics of Manchester United’s requirements. It was agreed that Paxton Access would work on the software and design a package that would serve the client’s needs. The parameters were agreed and Paxton Access allocated one of their software engineers to work on the project.

Once the software was written, it was loaded onto the dedicated PC in the stadium’s control room.
The software is designed to make it easy to see which doors are locked or unlocked, straight from the graphics. By being able to unlock and lock the doors in blocks, and see by the colour code on the graphic what the status of each door is, the stadium can be emptied effectively. The doors can instantly be locked and secured once each stand is empty.

Adrian Brown of Garndene is very pleased with the result. “I know there are proprietary systems out there that could come close to doing what Manchester United needed, but we wanted to be able to meet their exact requirements and working with Paxton Access has enabled us to do this.”

From the Front - June 2009

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 23:00:00 GMT

Shopping on the internet for clothes is hazardous. A well known high street name supplied me recently with some fine garments, but amongst the collection were two pairs of shorts which were not quite the thing. The look on my wife’s face said it all. It was something like "You really shouldn’t wear those outdoors where somebody might see you, and if you do, you’re on your own, Mr 118 man." I was not unduly worried by this, as I knew I could take the offending fashion bloomers back to the shop.

My first queue ended in disaster. "This is Ladies’ Wear," said the insouciant sales assistant as if I were the one original Mr Magoo. "I know," I said, "but all you need to do is to read a couple of bar codes, zip my credit card and the job’s done." I might as well have been speaking in Clanger. (Remember them - the pointless collection of pink socks on children’s television in the early seventies that used to communicate by tooting at each other?) She just said "This is Ladies’ Wear" again, so I sighed and toddled upstairs to the Men’s Wear department.

Once I reached the end of that queue, I was ready. My shorts, neat and geeky in their cellophane were in one hand and my despatch note was in the other hand. "I’d like to return these, please." I was smiling, but my new assistant was not. She seemed to understand Clanger though. "Have you got yer email?" she asked, showing me her chewing gum. "Pardon?" "A copy of yer email. I need a copy of yer email to give a refund."

Was she mad? Didn’t she know that I worked for Paxton Access and that we have a rule not to print out emails for the sake of it? Anyway, a red mist descended and by repeatedly jabbing with my index finger at the rubric on the back of the despatch note, I proved that a copy of an email was not necessary.

"It’s head office," chomped Mrs Chewing Gum. "They have changed the policy." This ridiculous pantomime, complete with "Oh no they haven’ts" carried on as the growing queue behind me tutted and huffed. In the end, I produced my wonderful iPhone and with a flourish the required email animated itself onto the screen. The chewing stopped. Mrs Gum was impressed, and the refund proceeded without a hitch.

I reflected afterwards that I would not be returning to shop there. There is something crushing about being put through a company’s procedures when they are not friendly. By friendly, I mean people smiling at you (without the Wrigley’s) talking to you kindly as if you are not stupid, being efficient and helpful - that type of thing. The main thing for companies to avoid though, are rules. "Thou shalt not accept the clothing of blokes for refund at the till of ladies" is an obviously daft commandment. You would only enact that if you hadn’t a clue about human behaviour, or if you really enjoyed annoying customers.

And another thing; returning goods is a tricky business, stirring up subtle but difficult emotions. It’s a type of rejection, I suppose - a message to the supplier that they are somehow no good. The seller, on his part may be suspicious that the buyer has been borrowing goods for nothing and put in safeguards, measures, procedures and regulation to ensure that he is not ‘taken advantage of’.

We had a mad moment here at Paxton Access, one of many, I should add for completeness. We decided to accept returns without quibble. If you order surplus goods and wish to return them to your distributor for credit, go ahead. You could even cut a reader cable to length, realise that you have the wrong one, and return it to us. Something could go badly wrong, like mains connected where it shouldn’t have been or most unlikely, the item may develop a fault. You’ll get a credit from your distributor, along with pictures of the returned item, and a full repairs report.

So much for all the fussy stuff, but how do we avoid being taken for a ride by unscrupulous returners? Well we decided initially that we should use discretion and solve that problem when it arose. The good news is that two years in, we are still waiting. We spot trends where one installer has an unusual return rate of a product and we talk to them about it. This has been rare, and has always been an early warning system for a required product improvement.

One rule applies - I know that I'm supposed to avoid rules, but this is the exception that... well you see what I mean. We do insist that our products are carefully looked after when they leave our doors, so we sell through just six distributors in the UK. These are companies that we trust to handle the stock properly so we only accept returns that they have sold directly to the installer. We do not accept goods that have been resold via a friend down the road, mysecurityweb.com or ebay. I hope that isn't too annoying!

From the Front - May 2009

Thu, 14 May 2009 23:00:00 GMT

Electric cars have been in the news recently as the Next Big Thing. Government ministers have been seen fawning over bonnets and promising large handouts to those buying these greener vehicles in years to come. I love it when new technologies come along, and I think electric cars have great prospects. I do however see flies in the ointment for the near future.

An electric car will consume quite a bit of power from the mains while it’s charging, in the area of 10 to 25 units depending on the size and range of the car. Look at the average car park and imagine each bay occupied by a three bar electric fire glowing away for a few hours. I can imagine an NCP multi storey having power feed cables the diameter of ships’ funnels, or a large transformer plant room. The National Grid and power generation infrastructure would have to be substantially beefed up if the electric car were to enjoy serious popularity.

The problem with technology is that sometimes the snags with it are not intuitive. You wouldn’t try to carry an elephant in a wheelbarrow, because the hilarious and disastrous results would be evident, but why not send a 3 gigabyte file by email?

Even the great Engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel fell foul of such a pitfall when he chose and promoted an Atmospheric Railway for a Devon line covering a 20 mile stretch from Teignmouth to Newton (now Newton Abbott). This device relied on engines in buildings every three miles with 15 inch cast iron pipes running between them to suck the train along. The scheme ran into trouble, partly because the link from the train to the piston inside the pipe had to be sealed, and this was done with leather flaps sealed with soap and cod oil, requiring a gang of men to maintain it. Not only was this a boring, and smelly job but rats took these flaps to be their equivalent of Marmite on toast. The railway shut after just a year or so of operation.

An interesting technology for access control is Power over Ethernet (PoE). If a door has a data connection using Ethernet - an increasingly common occurrence these days - it would make sense to use the Ethernet cable to carry the power along with the data. It would then remove the need for a local mains connection at each door with all of the cost that that entails.

PoE has its limitations, however. Although one would have thought that the available power of 12W should be sufficient for an access control system, there are many situations where it isn’t. A double maglock, for example will break the power budget by itself, without adding a reader and a control unit. There is an argument to say that this is enough to rule out PoE for access control systems but the future may provide some solutions.

Man (or woman) must be able to invent something better than a maglock. It’s heavy, very power hungry and it’s very very ugly. Its advantages are that it is easy to fit, it is tolerant of door wear, and it fails unlocked, which is useful for fire doors. A low power and attractive device that has the same advantages will be a winner. I think this will be essential when the world starts to view 12W burning continuously at every door as wasteful.

Coming along is a new standard of PoE which doubles the available power at the other end. As long as the planet can stand it, this will help. However, I see some other potential problems. Most PoE power sources are all in one place in any particular installation, such as a comms room, and kept in a 19 inch rack. Get the design wrong, and a failure at this single point could render a whole building inaccessible, a cardinal sin for an access control system. One MBA type even tried to convince me that a central uninterruptible power supply in the comms room would be able to provide back up power for a large access control system. Well it won’t, and for those manufacturers trying it, I foresee a leather and cod oil fiasco.

I break a rule here by making our problem your problem. Of course, I don’t mean to. Rest assured that we are busy using up our profits worrying about these things, and when we bring out new products in the future, we will have made rafts of improvements.

In the meantime, if a person with a useless business qualification offers to charge your car with a network cable, I strongly advise making other travel arrangements.