Thousands and thousands of businesses across the United States use “prox” style access control cards to allow employees to get into their facilities. These cards are typically supplied by companies like HID, Kastle, Datawatch, Keri,and many others. These are low-frequency cards, operating at 125KHz, and each one sends a unique ID number to the access control system whenever they are held within 1 inch of a connected reader.
Typically, these cards are purchased from the security system installer for roughly $6.00 each.
Did you know you could replace those cards with a different technology, which only costs $1.50 per card? In fact, that technology is available, and is actually even more secure. The technology is called “Mifare”, and operates at High Frequency (13.56MHz). It is in fact more secure because there’s an added layer of encryption in the RF (radio frequency) protocol. In order to be able to use these cheaper, more secure cards, you just need to swap out the readers mounted next to your doors with HF compatible readers, and re-configure your access control panel to recognize these cards. Once the new Mifare cards are recognized, you’ll be able to save 75% on the cost of all your new access control cards.
You will need to ask your security system installer to replace your existing door readers and re-configure the system. They may initially object, because they generally prefer Prox technology since it affords them greater margins. But if you insist, they are all familiar with Mifare technologies, and will be able to easily accommodate your request.
InstantCard prints photo ID cards on all kinds of RFID cards, including Prox and Mifare cards. So no matter which technology you choose, we’ve got you covered.