Want to keep the bad guys out of your facility and prevent your precious know-how from falling into the wrong hands?
by Ray Coles

Controlling access to your facility is of vital importance, whether your facility is a high security area such as a Hospital, Airport, or Bank, or even if it is an everyday situation such as an Insurance Office, School, or Department store. Whatever the scale of your access control problem, Magicard Printers are an essential part of the solution.

Portrait ID System
The simplest access systems use portrait ID or Membership cards, which rely on a receptionist or colleagues at work to recognize interlopers by the absence of a valid, matching portrait card.

Such systems require the printing of clear, easily visible, portrait cards. Unfortunately however, that alone is not enough, because with current PC and scanner technology, creating fake or counterfeit cards is all too easy for the bad guys.

Even simple access control systems need to use an anti-counterfeiting system which provides an overall security "watermark" feature which is proof against all attempts to copy it.

Fortunately, the Magicard Rio range not only prints superb color portrait cards, they also apply a patented security overlay feature called HoloKoteTM, which can eliminate the threat from counterfeiters.

This type of access control is extremely cost-effective, and it may be all that many facilities need to achieve the security level they require. Contact us for details of your local Magicard Portrait ID Solution Providers.

Swipe Card Systems
If you need controlled access without relying on the presence of guards or reception staff, you may need to add swipe card readers and electronic locks to your controlled entrances. All Magicard Printers can be used to print Barcodes onto portrait ID or Membership cards, and this simple swipe-card solution may be adequate.

A higher level of security can be achieved by using mag-stripe readers, and all Magicard color printers can be supplied with a built-in Magstripe encoder to program a secure code into each portrait ID during the printing process. Magicard partners and access control solution providers can supply the required software, lock hardware, and installation services to implement any kind of swipe-card controlled-access system. Contact us for details of your nearest swipe card solution providers.

Proximity Cards
Proximity Cards, or "Prox" as they are often called, are standard size plastic ID cards, which contain a coil antenna and a pre-programmed micro chip containing a unique code. When the prox card is within a foot or so of the Prox reader, the 125 KHz signal from the reader is picked up by the card antenna and used to power-up the micro chip which then replies with its own unique code.

The reader and its associated processor compares the code with a list of authorized entrants, and if it's OK, the door is opened and a record of entry is logged. All Magicard printers can be used to print directly onto the latest generation of prox cards, or onto peel-and-stick cards which can be applied to the prox card on issue, thereby facilitating reuse of the expensive "prox".

Prox cards must always be "personalized" with a portrait ID to eliminate the misuse of "loaned" or stolen cards.

Biometrics
For the very highest level of security it is possible to use a "biometric", or body measurement, such as a fingerprint or retinal scan to reliably identify authorized persons seeking access. The most practical way to implement a system like this is to store the encoded biometric (e.g. fingerprint) on a smartcard containing a micro chip which has a built-in memory and encryption processor.

When the card is used, the reader checks to see if the code on the card is valid, then waits for a live fingerprint scan which matches the fingerprint stored on the card, before opening the door. The cards used in a biometric access control system can either be of the 'contact' type which requires the direct insertion of the card into a reader, or of the "Contactless" type which operate in a similar way to a prox card, but which usually use a higher frequency around 13.5 MHz.

Magicard printers are available with a built-in contact station for encoding "contact" smart cards, or with a built-in encoder for Contactless technologies such as Mifare and I-class. Any of these smart cards can be directly printed and encoded in one operation for the highest level of security protection.

Contact us for details of your nearest Magicard biometric solution providers.