Security and access for buildings
of four to forty units.

Who this is for

The owner or manager of a building the big security companies do not want and the locksmith cannot finish. A twelve-unit walk-up in Kent. A mixed-use building on Pacific Avenue in Tacoma with retail below and apartments above. A row of townhomes in Renton with one gate, a lot with a house and two ADUs, or an HOA with a lobby and a package room.

Four to forty units is the range where one package, one contractor and one monthly plan do the job. They replace a callbox nobody can update, a camera nobody can review and a ring of keys nobody can account for.

What is in the package

The intercom and the credentials

The Akuvox R-series is the multi-tenant line. The R29 is an Android door phone with a 7-inch screen and card, NFC, Bluetooth and QR entry1. The X915 and X916 add face recognition and larger directories. Behind it, the SmartPlus property manager portal holds the building, the apartments, the resident accounts and each tenant's credentials.

Where there is an elevator, it also holds the floors each credential may reach2. A courier gets a QR pass that expires. A departed tenant's fob stops working the afternoon they leave. Rivas Technology Group is an Akuvox certified intercom installer; the door phones and the residential versions are on the Akuvox page.

For unit doors, we recommend Alfred smart locks. Alfred builds them for apartment and condo managers, with entry codes changed remotely between tenants3.

Cameras and the alarm

Cameras go where the incidents happen: every entry recorded from both sides, the package room, the parking area and the main corridor. A building with more than four cameras runs on the video platform Rivas Technology Group built and operates. Recording is event-based by default, continuous where the manager wants it, and reviewed from a phone. Camera audio is off by default.

The alarm covers the rooms tenants never enter: mechanical, electrical, storage and roof access, on Ajax detectors with photo verification, monitored month to month through Becklar, a UL-listed central station. The Ajax Hub 2 Plus keeps Ethernet, Wi-Fi and two cellular SIMs live, so a router outage in the utility closet does not take the alarm with it. The commercial platform is on the business security page.

Parking, packages and the trash enclosure

Most of the losses at a small building happen outside the units. Cars get prowled in the parking lot, packages walk off the shelf, and someone else's mattress arrives at the trash enclosure overnight. Each place gets a camera placed for what happens there.

The parking camera looks along the rows from height, and a plate camera covers the lot entrance where the lot has one. The package room gets a credentialed door and a camera over the shelves, so the access log and the video agree on who took the box.

The trash enclosure gets a camera aimed where a truck backs in, lit well enough to read its plate. The back-of-house alarm already sends the operator photos when it trips. Where the manager wants a camera clip as well, the verified alarm monitoring page explains when that is possible.

Fire alarm: what the code requires and what we add

The code-required fire alarm is not ours to decide. Whether a building needs one, and what kind, is set by the building and fire codes and the local fire marshal. That system is designed, permitted and inspected on its own track, and our work never replaces it.

What we add sits beside it. Ajax FireProtect 2 RB UL detectors in the rooms tenants never enter, such as mechanical, electrical and storage rooms, report to the same monitored Ajax hub as the intrusion alarm. They are a monitored supplement to the smoke and CO alarms the code requires, never a replacement. The detail is in the monitored fire detection post.

The network underneath

Every intercom, camera, lock controller and access point rides on the building's network, and most small buildings do not have one worth the name. We install a wired router, a PoE switch sized for the cameras and the door phones, and access points for the common areas. The security devices sit on their own segment.

Where the building offers tenant Wi-Fi, that runs on a separate segment with its own rules. The design is on the business Wi-Fi page, and the cabling on commercial infrastructure. Units that want in-unit control get a Brilliant panel by the door, which the manager can reset from a phone.

Move-ins, move-outs and the audit log

The manager's job after install is small. A new tenant is added in the portal with a fob, a PIN, an app key or all three. A departed tenant is removed. A contractor gets a code for the week of the job. The log answers who opened which door and when, which settles the argument about the propped stairwell door.

Under a CURATOR plan we make those changes for the manager on request, watch the system's health, keep firmware current and document the building. The next manager inherits a system instead of a mystery.

More than one building

A manager with six small buildings wants one standard, not six systems. We install the same door phones, the same credential types, the same camera platform and the same network design at each building, and document each one the same way. The manager learns one portal and one camera app. Under a CURATOR plan, credential changes and health monitoring cover the whole portfolio, quoted rather than priced from the single-site tiers. A building added later gets the same standard on day one.

What it costs

The proposal is itemized per door and per camera. Five things move it: the number of common doors, the door hardware already in place, the camera count, the cable paths through an occupied building, and the network. An electric strike already in the lobby door is the cheapest case.

A maglock needs its own power supply, and a gate needs a relay and a UPS at the gate. The monthly CURATOR plan is quoted alongside the install, with the single-site tiers published on the CURATOR page. There is no design fee on standard scopes.

Where we install it

Kent, Renton, Tukwila, Federal Way, Auburn, Covington, Maple Valley, Tacoma, Puyallup, Sumner, Bonney Lake, University Place and Gig Harbor, from 415 Railroad Ave S in Kent. Bellevue, Mercer Island and Seattle buildings are covered on their own pages with the travel terms stated. Rivas Technology Group holds WA electrical contractor license RIVASGL799DR, active, bonded and insured4, and is an Ajax Systems dealer and an Akuvox certified intercom installer. The rest of the commercial catalog is on the commercial hub.