Product
We do not sell the turnstile; we evaluate the signal coming from it.
The panel at the gate produces a record on every pass. In most schools that record stays inside a file. This page describes the steps that record goes through from the gate to the screen.
One diagram
The outcome appears in four places: live presence, the parent notification, the attendance row and the emergency roster.
Three ways to connect
The panel pushes the event itself
The panel sends us an event on every pass. This is the lowest latency option; the panel must be able to make outbound requests.
We poll the panel
If the panel cannot reach out, a collector inside the institution's network fetches records at a fixed interval. The latency is that interval and it is written on screen.
The panel's own interface
Some panel families expose records only through their own interface. The connector speaks that interface; its version is measured during installation.
All three produce the same canonical event. Which path is possible depends on your panel, and we measure that rather than guessing it.
The canonical event
Whichever panel it comes from, the event is converted into a single shape. The fields are:
- Who: the identity inside the institution; the raw card number is never carried.
- Which gate: the gate and reader identifier.
- Which direction: in or out; when it cannot be measured the direction stays empty.
- Which time: the device clock and the moment the server received it, both together.
- Which source: the connector identity and the connection path.
- Replay protection: if the same event arrives twice, the second is not counted.
Where the decision is made
While online the panel makes the gate decision; we record the decision and its outcome. Rules such as appointments and watchlists are pushed down to the panel as rules.
When the connection drops, the gate keeps working with the panel's own local rules. We collect the passes from that window once the link returns and mark those rows as late arrivals.
Latency
Our target is to stay under a second from the event at the gate to the row on the screen; on the event push path this target is realistic.
A system that does not go quiet
- Heartbeat: every connector reports that it is alive; when it goes silent the screen says so.
- Rejected record ledger: every event that is not accepted is written down with its reason, never dropped silently.
- Missed event recovery: when the link returns the records in between are collected and placed back in order.
For whoever writes the connector
The device schema and the dry-run endpoint sit behind the partner gate: the sample event you send is validated and nothing is written.
Partner gate