Rittenhouse Communications Group
Enabling 'Single Pane of Glass' Building(s) Access Control

As a technology integrator, and white-glove service provider, Rittenhouse Communications Group (RCG) strives to understand its clients’ needs and engineers custom end-to-end access control solutions. The company integrates and retrofits existing buildings with the latest security and access control system so that clients can use all of their legacy system-based infrastructure without spending a huge capital expenditure on digital transformation.

It is no secret that the proptech companies that have been active for years have adopted different types of access control and other ‘integrated’ solutions during their lifetime. As such, many buildings have implemented different access control and security technologies. For example, building A might have a different camera system than other buildings, or building B may have an access control system that differs from other buildings belonging to an entity. This difference in platforms makes it hard for the property managers to manage the buildings efficiently and ensure a fully secure premise. RCG offers building owners and managers a 'single pane of glass' access control management platform.

As Sean Edwards, President of RCG, says, “Before designing and developing anything, we first look at the whole building. Then we create our solution so that everything plays nice in the sandbox together.” The company works directly with the architects and clients' stakeholders to deliver a turnkey solution that ties every IP endpoint—be it an intercom at the front of the building, access control of egress doors, wireless locks of all units, in-amenity WiFi, AV in common areas—into one, easy-to-use platform that can be easily managed using a laptop, mobile device, or tablet. The solution can handle all the technology that the customer wishes to integrate into their infrastructure, including the low voltage cabling in the building.

RCG ensures that none of the integration is unnecessarily duplicated. For example, if wireless locks are installed on one door, there is no need to add an extra handle.

The company keeps a close watch on such duplications and eliminates them during the solution design phase itself. The company even has an innovation center where it deploys the solution for bench testing and client demonstration. The final proposal has the ‘seal of agreement’ from the architecture, ownership, and property management teams. As a result, the client doesn’t experience any confusion like change order or duplication during the solution development and gets a true, unified access control platform for the building.

RCG’s solution deployment method requires very low use of recurring/subscription software and hosting fees, making it economical. Additionally, the company offers clients camera systems that provide a hybrid of cloud-based and on-premise recording. On sites that have power and data connectivity issues, RCG deploys an access control server using which they can control it from their tablet or mobile device from anywhere in the world.

We don’t consider a project complete or even hand it off to support or account management until every stakeholder of our client is trained, comfortable with the system, and signs off on it

Following a ‘train the trainer’ approach, RCG trains the client’s admin and management teams on the solution so that they can train their staff. It also gives them quick reference guides and PDFs for them to refer to. In addition, RCG’s account management team constantly keeps the client stakeholders updated on new release features. “We don’t consider a project complete or even hand it off to support or account management until every stakeholder of our client is trained, comfortable with the system, and signs off on it,” concludes Edwards.