How Much Does Access Control Cost in 2026? A Central Pennsylvania Guide for Business Leaders

If you’re evaluating access control for your facility in Central Pennsylvania, you’re probably asking a straightforward question:

“What is this actually going to cost us?”

And if you’ve already started researching online, you’ve likely found answers that feel vague, overly generic, or disconnected from reality.

The truth is this: access control pricing does depend — but not in a mysterious way. Once you understand what drives cost, you can build a realistic budget and avoid the surprises that frustrate so many organizations.

This guide is written for organizations located in the counties and communities of Central Pennsylvania — from Lancaster and York to Dauphin, Cumberland, Berks, Lebanon, Adams, and surrounding areas.

Let’s break it down clearly.

First, What Are You Actually Paying For?

A modern access control system has three cost layers:

1. The physical door hardware and installation
2. The software platform that manages permissions and reporting
3. Ongoing administration, maintenance, and support

Most budget confusion happens when companies only think about the hardware. But access control today is not just a lock upgrade. It’s a connected security platform that affects compliance, operations, and risk management.

For commercial environments a realistic planning range in Central Pennsylvania for a professionally installed, modern access control system typically falls in the range of $2,500 to $7,500 per controlled door in year one

That range reflects where Morefield expertise is contracted across:

• Professional office buildings
• Medical and outpatient facilities
• Light industrial and warehouse spaces
• Multi-site service organizations
• Education and nonprofit environments

Some doors will fall below this range.  But this gives a practical budgeting framework grounded in our region’s labor market and building conditions.  Now let’s unpack why.

The Biggest Cost Variable: The Door Itself

In Central Pennsylvania, our region is rich in history and heritage.  But that also means that we work with a wide range of building types:

• Older brick construction in Lancaster, York, and Harrisburg
• Retrofitted manufacturing spaces in Lebanon and Berks counties
• Modern office developments in Cumberland County
• Converted industrial and mixed-use facilities across the territory

Each type presents different challenges.  An interior solid-core office door with accessible ceiling space for wiring is relatively straightforward.  But the many types of exterior doors across the region add complexity as:

• Aluminum storefront frames
• Glass entryways
• Masonry walls that require core drilling
• Limited existing power near the door
• Fire-rated doors requiring code-compliant electrified hardware

That complexity affects both material and labor costs.  Two doors may look similar from the outside, but one might require 6 hours of labor — and the other a lot of creativity, investment that can equate to 1-2 days on a job site solely focused on an installation for one door.

Regional Labor Considerations

Commercial low-voltage labor rates in Central Pennsylvania range between $100–$150 per hour, depending on the contractor and project scope.  This is generally lower than major metro markets like Philadelphia or New York but still reflects skilled labor rates.  A typical door installation requires:

• Hardware mounting
• Wiring and cable management
• Power supply installation
• Controller setup
• Software configuration
• Testing and commissioning

When labor is combined with hardware and configuration time, it significantly contributes to the total per-door investment.

Hardware and Technology Choices

Hardware pricing does not vary dramatically by geography, but the choices that you make for your access control system will influence the final cost.  For example, a standard card/fob system will tend to have lower upfront credential costs.  Whereas mobile credential systems usually involve subscription per-user licensing.

Higher-security environments require more expensive reader hardware paired with encrypted credentials for critical doors.  Building’s exterior doors require robust locking hardware and fail-safe mechanisms for egress that are usually absent from interior doors.

Most professionally deployed commercial systems use enterprise-grade components — not consumer or DIY hardware — because they must withstand daily traffic and security demands.  That reliability matters.

For controlling the door hardware, cards, fobs and mobile credentials, modern access control platforms are typically either Cloud-managed or managed through an on-premises server.

In Central Pennsylvania, we increasingly see organizations choosing cloud-managed systems because they:

• Reduce on-site server requirements
• Simplify remote management
• Allow multi-site visibility
• Push security updates automatically

While cloud systems introduce ongoing licensing, they often reduce long-term infrastructure headaches and IT overhead.  The perpetual licenses vary amongst manufacturers but most base the licensing costs on the number of doors, number of users and then any advanced feature sets or integration needs

Hidden Costs That Affect Budgeting

Here’s where many Central PA organizations underestimate total cost.

Networking and Cybersecurity

Access control is connected technology. It touches your network, relies on connectivity to operate.  That means the network should be segmented with VLANs to isolate the controller traffic.  Firewall rules will need to be in placed to allow for access to Cloud control portals as well as secure remote access. 

If your organization must meet compliance standards (healthcare, financial services), this layer becomes even more important.

Project Management and System Administration

Professional implementation includes:

• Door behavior testing
• Fail-safe vs fail-secure validation
• Fire code compliance checks
• Access group configuration
• Credential lifecycle setup
• Admin training

When these steps are skipped or rushed, systems become unstable. That instability costs far more in the long run and ongoing operation of the system.

What Impacts Cost in Central Pennsylvania?

where regional context really matters.

1. Older Building Retrofits

Many facilities in our region were not originally built with low-voltage infrastructure in mind. Retrofitting wiring through masonry walls, plaster lathe, or inaccessible ceilings increases labor.

2. Multi-Site Growth

It’s common for Central PA businesses to expand across neighboring counties — opening satellite offices or warehouses. That growth influences whether you design a scalable platform from the start.

3. Weather and Exterior Durability

Our climate — snow, humidity, freeze-thaw cycles — requires exterior hardware rated for those conditions. Cutting corners on exterior components leads to unpredictable operation of the system or early failure of components.

4. Skilled Labor Availability

Central PA has strong skilled trades, but availability can fluctuate. Scheduling and project timelines should factor into planning — especially for larger deployments.

Building a Realistic Budget

If you’re early in planning, start with three questions:

1. How many doors need control today?
2. How many might need control within 2–3 years?
3. Are we solving only a security issue — or also operational inefficiencies?

Then use the $2,500–$7,500 per door regional planning range as your baseline, understanding that complexity pushes you higher and simplicity brings you lower.  For multi-door projects, economies of scale can reduce per-door averages because controllers and infrastructure are shared across the facility.

Access Control for Central PA Organizations

Access control in 2026 is not just about locking doors.  It’s about:

• Protecting people
• Reducing operational friction
• Supporting compliance
• Enabling controlled growth
• Integrating physical and digital security

For most organizations in Central Pennsylvania, a well-designed, professionally implemented system will represent a meaningful but manageable investment.

The key isn’t finding the lowest number.  It’s building a system that works reliably, scales with your organization, and strengthens your overall security posture.

When you want to understand the cost drivers, to plan your next system confidently — contact Morefield and avoid the frustration that comes from underestimating what it takes to do it right.

If you are responsible for budgets, IT expenses can feel opaque. Costs can show up irregularly, and invoices vary month to month, making it challenging to realize your return on investment (ROI).

Technology is essential to operations. Yet financially, it can resemble a black hole where money goes in without clear visibility into long-term value.

Managed services change how IT fits into an organization’s financial picture. Managed services providers (MSPs) treat IT as a structured, predictable investment that supports operational continuity and long-term planning. They design systems that stay secure and financially efficient.

At the center of this approach is the all-in seat price model. Rather than paying for individual incidents or hours, you pay a consistent monthly fee per user or device. This model turns IT spending into a controlled operating cost, which is valuable for organizations that rely on annual budgets or fixed revenue forecasts.

Discover how MSPs can help you maximize your ROI.

1. Get Predictable Budgeting With the All-In Seat Price

One of the most persistent challenges with traditional IT support models is financial volatility. Break-fix and block-of-hours arrangements typically link cost to failure. When systems perform well, spending remains low, but when issues arise, expenses increase. For organizations where budgets are often approved well in advance and flexibility is limited, this variability makes accurate forecasting challenging.

In these models, financial risk rests with an organization. Infrastructure problems can result in additional labor charges, often at rates not budgeted for. This situation creates uneven spending patterns that make it harder to justify IT expenditures.

The all-in seat price provides several financial advantages that support budgeting and long-term planning:

• Flat monthly costs: You pay a flat monthly fee that covers support and remediation. This transforms IT into a predictable operating expense.
• Financial risk management: The MSP assumes responsibility for labor costs when issues occur. If a server fails, the MSP covers the technician time required to diagnose the problem and restore services.
• Proactive issue prevention: Because the monthly fee includes labor, the MSP is financially motivated to prevent failures through monitoring and technology health management.
• Cash flow management: Organizations gain clearer forecasting and reduce the administrative burden associated with approving unplanned IT invoices.

2. Reduce the Cost of Operational Downtime

When technology stops working, productive output slows or halts. In office settings, staff may wait for access to applications or shared files, while in schools and government environments, instruction and public services experience immediate disruption. Brief interruptions can ripple across departments, as teams depend on shared systems to complete their work.

Emergency recovery also introduces additional expenses. Unplanned incidents may require after-hours labor and expedited troubleshooting. These responses typically cost more than planned maintenance, both in direct labor and in the operational strain placed on staff who must work around the outage.

Managed services reduce these costs by prioritizing early intervention. MSPs continuously monitor systems to identify and address issues before they escalate into outages.

Preventing downtime also protects productivity. For example, when systems go down for an hour, employees may need several additional hours to catch up. By keeping systems available and stable, managed services preserve immediate productivity and the downstream efficiency that uninterrupted operations enable.

3. Minimize the Hidden Costs of Internal Management

Internal IT management appears cost-effective, but the financial impact extends beyond a salary. Hiring an internal IT professional involves ongoing expenses, including training and professional development. These costs can accumulate as technology evolves and skill requirements change.

Turnover also introduces financial exposure. When an internal IT employee leaves, organizations incur recruiting costs and a temporary loss of institutional knowledge. During these transitions, projects can slow, and issues may take longer to resolve.

Technology tooling adds further complexity. Effective IT management requires remote monitoring and management platforms, endpoint security solutions, backup systems and patching tools. Maintaining these systems independently can be costly for smaller teams.

MSPs save you money through specialization. Instead of funding a single role and a fragmented toolset, you gain access to a team of experts supported by enterprise-grade platforms. This structure allows multiple issues to be addressed simultaneously, which improves operational efficiency.

Access to a deep bench of specialists improves coverage. Organizations get specialized knowledge when needed, and service continuity remains consistent.

4. Use Cybersecurity as a Cost Avoidance Strategy

Cybersecurity reduces exposure to high-impact costs. When security controls are inconsistent or outdated, organizations can experience a range of downstream expenses, such as:

• Ransomware incidents
• Extended recovery efforts
• Reputational damage
• Regulatory scrutiny
• Reporting obligations

MSPs treat cybersecurity as a standard operating framework. Consistent controls, including data backup and endpoint detection and response, help support operational stability.

Organizations can also reap insurance benefits. Cyber insurance providers may evaluate minimum-security posture, including multifactor authentication (MFA), vulnerability management and encryption at rest and in transit, when determining premiums and coverage terms. Organizations that demonstrate consistent security practices and documented compliance may qualify for more favorable pricing. These savings contribute to a lower total cost of risk.

Cybersecurity also supports compliance. Meeting established industry standards helps organizations avoid fines and audit-related disruptions, making cybersecurity an investment in cost containment.

5. Maximize Employee Productivity to Lower Soft Costs

Employee productivity is often an overlooked cost center. When technology issues slow people down, the financial impact shows up through lost time. Employees may spend time waiting for access to systems or dealing with slow applications.

These delays can compound. For example, a connectivity issue can stall multiple workflows simultaneously. While the direct cost appears minimal, the cumulative effect across departments and days results in measurable productivity loss.

MSPs save you money and help you maximize your ROI by resolving issues quickly. With a dedicated help desk and established response processes, employees spend more time focused on their work. When support includes local technicians, teams can address on-site issues faster.

This approach also removes the burden placed on the accidental IT person. Organizations may expect office managers or administrators to provide technical support roles simply because they are available. While well-intentioned, this arrangement diverts time away from their core responsibilities.

Maximize Your ROI With Managed Services From Morefield

If you want predictable IT costs and dependable performance, consider partnering with a top MSP business technology solutions company. Morefield has over 80 years of experience supporting organizations across Pennsylvania with trusted managed services. We provide all IT products and services under one roof, which simplifies infrastructure management.

We offer a single, manageable monthly payment that includes unlimited help desk support, proactive maintenance, and both on-site and remote technician coverage. Our experienced team stays current with evolving technology and is responsive, so your systems remain reliable.

With a customer-focused approach, we aim to keep technology running efficiently.

Connect with us today to discover how we can save you money and maximize your ROI.

What to Watch for After You Understand the Basics

By the time most senior living leaders finish learning how a life safety system works, they feel confident. They understand pendants. They understand repeaters. They’ve reviewed coverage plans and installation timelines.

And yet, many of the real problems don’t appear during installation week.

They appear months later—after residents move in, after staff changes, or after the first serious incident tests the system under real conditions.

This article isn’t about how the technology works. It’s about the quiet failure points that experienced operators learn to watch for in wireless, RF-based life safety systems.

Where Good Installations Start to Drift

Most “bad installs” aren’t the result of negligence. They’re the result of reasonable decisions made under pressure.

A repeater gets installed where it’s easiest to access instead of where signal margin is strongest.  Fingerprinting gets rushed to meet a move-in date or deadline.  Documentation gets skipped because “we’ll remember where everything is.”

Each decision feels small at the time. Together, they create risk.

The False Sense of Coverage

One of the most common assumptions after go-live is: “We tested the pendants—everything works.”

The challenge is that RF environments change.

Empty resident rooms and apartments behave differently once residents move in. Furniture, beds, medical equipment, and even wall décor can absorb or reflect signals. Human bodies themselves affect RF behavior.

If the system wasn’t designed with enough signal margin from the start, coverage can slowly erode—without obvious warning signs.

Strong installations don’t just work on day one. They’re designed to tolerate change.

When Supervision Gets Tuned Down

Life safety systems are intentionally vocal. Devices check in. Batteries report status. Infrastructure confirms it’s online.

Problems arise when supervision is treated as “noise” instead of early warning.

When alerts are ignored—or supervision intervals are relaxed—devices can fail quietly. A repeater loses power. A pendant battery weakens. A gap forms without anyone noticing.

Supervision isn’t an inconvenience. It’s how the system tells you something needs attention before there’s an emergency.

Supervision isn’t an inconvenience. It’s how the system tells you something needs attention before there’s an emergency.

Power Is Unexciting—Until It Fails

Power design rarely gets much attention during installation.

Transformers are plugged in temporarily. Outlets aren’t labeled. GFCI circuits seem like a safe choice.  Months later, someone unplugs a device during cleaning or a breaker trips. Coverage disappears silently.

The most reliable senior living systems treat power as permanent infrastructure, not temporary convenience.

Documentation Protects You From Turnover

Senior living communities change. Staff changes. Administrators change. Vendors change.

Repeaters installed above ceiling tiles are intentionally out of sight. Without clear documentation, institutional knowledge disappears. What once made sense becomes guesswork.

Good documentation isn’t about today’s team. It’s about protecting the community years down the road.

Fingerprinting Is Easy to Rush—and time consuming to Redo

Fingerprinting is often the most time-pressured step in an installation.

When it’s rushed, location accuracy suffers. Alerts still come through—but staff may second-guess where to respond. That hesitation matters.

Redoing fingerprinting after a system is operational is far more disruptive than doing it right the first time.

Wrapping up – And What to Do Next

When life safety systems underperform, it’s rarely because the technology wasn’t capable.  It’s because small process decisions—made under pressure—compound over time.

A rushed system installation
An undocumented repeater or supporting hardware.
Supervision alerts that get ignored.
A power source that wasn’t secured properly.

Individually, they seem minor. Collectively, they create risk.

The Senior Living Communities that experience the fewest issues treat their life safety system as critical infrastructure. They document it. They test it. They revisit it. And when questions arise, they don’t guess—they validate.

If you reviewed the self-assessment above and found yourself hesitating on a few answers, that’s not a failure. It’s an opportunity.  An independent system evaluation can quickly identify:

• Coverage gaps
• Supervision configuration issues
• Power or infrastructure vulnerabilities
• Documentation deficiencies
• Fingerprinting inconsistencies

And in many cases, the fixes are straightforward when addressed early.

If you have concerns about your current life safety system—whether it was installed recently or years ago—Morefield’s team can perform a structured evaluation and provide clear, actionable recommendations.

Because in senior living, confidence isn’t optional.

It’s built on knowing your system will work when someone truly needs it.

If you’d like a professional review of your environment, contact our team to schedule a life safety system evaluation. We’re here to help you make smart technology decisions that protect your residents, your staff, and your community.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become an integral part of everyday life, with over a quarter of the U.S. working population reporting that they use ChatGPT every week for work. In the corporate world, many businesses are adopting AI tools to streamline their workflows and ultimately provide their customers with an enhanced digital experience.

How does AI improve the customer experience, and how can your business seamlessly incorporate AI tools into its operations? Discover the different tools companies use in their customer service, and our expert tips for using AI to improve customer satisfaction.

AI Tools to Promote Customer Service

As AI tools become increasingly popular in internal processes, businesses are seeking new ways to restructure their workflows. While many organizations are still in the process of integrating AI tools into their customer service, the benefits of AI for sales and retention are undeniable. Seventy percent of customers who use AI feel comfortable with these tools making purchasing decisions on their behalf. Discover the AI tools available to businesses today:

Natural Language Processing

Natural language processing (NLP) is an AI technology that enables computers to comprehend human language and respond in a similarly intelligent manner. NLP allows chatbots to interpret a human’s prompt by analyzing speech patterns and understanding and relaying semantics across different languages.

Machine Learning

Machine learning (ML) allows systems to learn from customer data by analyzing search and purchasing behaviors. Systems can then utilize these learnings to provide more effective responses, including personalized recommendations tailored to individual needs.

Generative AI

Generative AI has the distinct ability to create new content and formulate ideas. By learning human language and various systems, generative AI leverages its existing knowledge to provide new solutions. Large language models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT and Gemini, are common examples of generative AI in practice.

Predictive AI

Predictive AI utilizes historical data to identify patterns and suggest the most probable outcomes. By basing its recommendations on real-world metrics, predictive AI offers reliable insights and enables key stakeholders to make data-driven decisions.

10 Ways AI Can Benefit Your Customer Service

Since 83% of customers report that a good customer experience increases brand trust, your business can benefit from an improved customer service approach. Here’s how AI can help achieve this goal:

1. Optimize Workflows

AI tools allow your business to free up time spent on common questions or repetitive tasks. Since AI can take over these functions, your teams can dedicate their time to more business-critical projects.

2. Increase Productivity

Streamlined workflows allow your business to increase productivity by automating repetitive tasks. By reducing your team’s workload, AI lets essential employees focus their attention on more complex issues that require a human touch.

3. Reduce Response Times

AI tools enable you to automate customer responses, leading to improved response times. By training AI tools on common questions or queries, your customers can receive immediate assistance regardless of your team’s capacity.

4. Personalize Experiences

By analyzing and interpreting customer data, AI tools enable businesses to deliver personalized experiences to their customers. For example, chatbots can guide customers through unique buying journeys tailored to their needs.

5. Provide 24/7 Support

No matter how dedicated your teams are or how well you overlap shifts, it’s unlikely that your business can answer any customer request at any given time. AI tools enable your business to provide customers with uninterrupted support, even in the middle of the night.

6. Reduce Burnout

Your teams will spend less time on mundane tasks, meaning they can better manage their time and reduce work-related stress. When your teams have more capacity, they’ll be more productive without risking burnout.

7. Lower Costs

Restructuring your teams to include AI tools is a great way to reduce overhead costs. With fewer employees handling calls, your business can save on customer service while preventing the often costly human errors that can occur when teams are overworked.

8. Anticipate Problems

AI tools have the unique ability to identify patterns in seemingly unrelated data or information. Utilizing these pattern recognition features enables your business to resolve issues before they occur. For your customer service, this could mean anticipating customer questions so you can tailor the most appropriate response.

9. Improve Quality Assurance

When you give AI tools access to your service interaction data, you can improve quality control measures by following the flags and opportunities outlined during data monitoring.

10. Enhance Brand Consistency

Utilizing AI tools for customer service can also help your business enhance its brand perception across various platforms. By providing unified messaging and a consistent engagement process, you can increase customers’ trust in your business.

How to Implement AI in Your Customer Service

As studies have shown a positive correlation between AI and customer service, many businesses are planning to incorporate this technology into their workflows. Follow these tips on using AI to improve the customer experience:

• Set objectives: Before incorporating AI tools into your business operations, be specific about what you want to achieve. Whether you wish to provide more personalized experiences, save costs or improve productivity, defining your goals will indicate which AI tools can meet your needs.
• Remain human: While many customers are open to the possibilities of AI tools, negative sentiments toward this technology could deter customers who prefer a human approach. Remember that AI tools should enhance your customer service, not replace it. The key is to utilize AI for its strengths and keep dedicated teams for more in-depth customer interaction.
• Use data: It can be tempting to closely follow how other brands use artificial intelligence to enhance customer experience. But first, assess your business and identify the data points that you can streamline with AI. Always base your business decisions on real-world evidence, since your customers may have different needs than the general public.
• Allow feedback: As with any new business approach, you should remain open to feedback from your audience and teams. Take this feedback into consideration before deciding whether to continue using AI tools or incorporate them into additional business verticals.
• Monitor and report: When introducing AI tools to your teams and customers, the first step is to implement tracking and reporting protocols. Often, AI tools themselves have built-in monitoring functionality, which enables you to assess how well the tools perform for your business. If anything isn’t working, streamline the process sooner rather than later.

Implement AI Tools Into Your Customer Service With Morefield

While AI can provide a host of benefits to streamline your business’s customer service processes, seamless implementation should be your priority. Using advanced AI technology, Morefield can enhance your unified communications for more effective customer service.

Our team of experts will assess your business to identify the most effective approaches for optimizing your customer service while ensuring full compliance with the relevant regulations. Connect with Morefield today to discuss how we can help you embrace the increasing adoption of AI tools.

Understanding the components of a life safety system

In senior living communities, a life safety system is more than technology—it is a promise. A promise that when a resident needs help, the system will work. Every day. Every time.  Everywhere.

Choosing the right life safety system for senior living requires more than comparing features or price. Reliability, location accuracy, and long-term maintainability all depend on how the system is designed and installed. That is especially true for wireless emergency call systems, where RF performance and environmental factors play a critical role.

 Emergency call system is purpose-built for assisted living, independent living, and memory care environments. To make an informed buying decision, administrators need to understand how the system works, what components are involved, and what to expect during a professional life safety system installation.

This guide walks through the core system components, senior-living-specific installation best practices, and common challenges every operator should understand before deployment.

The Core Components of a Senior Living Life Safety System

1. Transmitters – the devices residents use to call for help
2. Repeaters – the infrastructure that ensures those calls are delivered reliably

Each plays a distinct role. Both are critical.

Transmitters: Emergency Pendants and Initiating Devices

Transmitters are the initiating devices in a senior living emergency call system. These are the tools residents rely on to request assistance during a fall, medical issue, or emergency.

What Transmitters Do

Transmitters detect an event—most commonly a panic button press, pulled cord from a room or fall detection trigger—and wirelessly send a unique digital signal into the system. That signal is then received by nearby repeaters and routed to the gateway and monitoring platform.  Because each transmitter has a unique identity, the system knows:

• Which resident initiated the alert
• When the alert occurred
• Where the resident is located (when fingerprinting is properly completed)

Common Senior Living Use Cases

The most common transmitter in senior living is the emergency pendant. These wearable devices are designed to be easy for residents to use, comfortable for all-day wear and reliable in a variety of living spaces.

Depending on the transmitters, different models may support manual panic button activation as well as fall detection.  Transmitters are intentionally designed to be.

• Low-power
• Battery-operated
• Mobile and unobtrusive

This makes them ideal for senior living—but it also means performance is directly influenced by battery health, RF coverage, and proper system design.

Repeaters: RF Signals That Power Wireless Life Safety Systems

Repeaters are the fixed infrastructure that makes a wireless life safety system reliable at scale. Residents never interact with them—but without repeaters, the system cannot function.

What Repeaters Do

Repeaters act as intelligent signal relays. They listen for transmissions from pendants and sensors.  Receive and validate that data and then boost and re-transmit the signal across the community.

In senior living environments—where buildings often include concrete walls, mechanical spaces, elevators, and long corridors—repeaters are essential to ensure no alert is missed.

Directed Messaging and Supervision

Directed messaging, meaning signals are routed through known, supervised paths—not random broadcasts.

The system regularly checks in with each repeater to confirm it is:

• Powered
• Communicating
• Fully operational

If a repeater goes offline, the system knows immediately. That supervision is critical in a life safety application.

Power Requirements

Repeaters require constant, dedicated AC power—typically via a secure transformer. Because these devices are part of a life safety system, power reliability is non-negotiable and must be treated differently than standard IT equipment.

Installation Best Practices for Senior Living

Installing an emergency call system is not a “plug-and-play” exercise. Best-in-class deployments follow proven standards designed for long-term reliability.

Device Supervision and Check-In Intervals

All devices must be programmed for supervision, allowing the system to detect missing devices, failed hardware, low or dead batteries.  The recommended check-in intervals for supervision that balance responsiveness, battery life, and system stability.

• Repeaters: Every 20 minutes
• Transmitters: At least every 60 minutes
• High-risk pendants may use 5-minute intervals

Power, Testing, and Ongoing Maintenance

Senior living administrators should pay close attention to how infrastructure devices are powered and maintained.  Begin by securing transformers for the repeaters within the facility.  Transformers are secured to outlets with screws, out of reach so that they are protected from accidental unplugging with each location clearly documented.  Loose or unplugged transformers are a leading cause of avoidable system downtime.

Avoid GFCI Circuits

Life safety repeaters and gateways should not be powered from GFCI outlets. While appropriate in wet environments, GFCIs can introduce unintended power interruptions that compromise emergency systems.

RF Site Surveys and Routine Testing

Professional installations include RF surveys using an Inovonics survey kit to ensure a minimum 4-decibel signal margin for every device and reliable coverage across resident units and common areas.  While the site survey is necessary to aid with the installation.  Following that installation, weekly system and device testing is strongly recommended. Regular testing identifies issues early—before they impact resident safety. 

Mounting and Environmental Considerations in Senior Living

Wireless life safety systems are sensitive to their surroundings.  When possible known RF obstructions should be avoided.  Large metal objects—ductwork, steel studs, wire mesh—can block or distort RF signals. Repeater placement must account for these obstacles.  

Maintain proper separation of the repeaters within the facility.  Devices should be installed at least two feet away from other electrical equipment to reduce interference.  The height of the repeater installation can improve reliability.  Mounting repeaters as high as possible improves line-of-sight and reduces signal absorption from furniture, residents, and daily activity.

Why Professional Installation and Documentation Matter

Repeaters are typically installed above drop ceilings in senior living communities. This keeps them out of sight where they are physically secure and protected from tampering.  However, while this approach has its benefits, hidden infrastructure must be documented properly.

What Senior Living Administrator Should Expect from an Installer

• Detailed documentation of every repeater location.  This is important as you should expect that the Repeater hardware will require replacement
• Physical markers or labeling for future reference.  In the event you decide to change vendors or your current vendor is no longer available, the new vendor will want to know where each repeater is installed.
• Updated system diagrams.  As a secondary reference to physical markers and in the event an administrator, executive or IT leader leaves the organization.  

Without documentation, identifying repeater locations can require a disruptive manual RF survey—something that can be avoided with proper professional services.  Manual surveys are labor intensive, expensive and only provide limited value to the operational efficiency of the system.

Fingerprinting: How Emergency Pendant Systems Determine Location Accuracy

Fingerprinting is one of the most important—and least understood—steps in a senior living life safety system installation.

What Is Fingerprinting?

Fingerprinting allows the system to associate a transmitter with a physical location by analyzing signal strength from multiple repeaters.

How Fingerprinting Is Performed

After repeaters are installed:

• An installer uses a survey tool
• Walks each resident unit
• Stops at multiple locations to capture RF data

This process is repeated six, seven, eight, or more times per resident room or apartment to build a reliable data profile.  Fingerprinting is both technical and experiential. Done correctly, it enables accurate resident location during an emergency.

Common Challenges in Senior Living Installations

Even well-designed systems must account for real-world variables.

Environmental Changes

Fingerprinting may occur before move-in. Once furniture is added hard surfaces may reflect signals, upholstered items may absorb those signals.  Experience and expertise will account for this by building in adequate signal margin.

Battery Variability

New pendants transmit differently than older ones. Supervision and proactive battery replacement are essential to maintain accuracy.

Repeater Maintenance and Replacement

Repeaters will eventually need service. When replacements follow proper process, system fingerprints remain intact. When shortcuts are taken, re-surveying may be required.  Process discipline protects system integrity.

Safety Depends on More Than Hardware

A senior living life safety system is only as strong as its design, installation, and ongoing support. 

• Faster response
• Accurate location
• Confidence for staff
• Peace of mind for residents and families

That is what a modern senior living life safety system should deliver—every day.