The idea behind Smart Door Systems (SDS) began as most great ideas do - with a need. Zeev Fonea, co-founder and VP Engineering of SDS, found that his father, at an advanced age, had difficulty opening his door with a key. So he set out to develop a solution - a small engine that would open the door automatically by pressing a button.
Now, over a decade later, the technology for smart doors both at SDS and throughout the world has significantly improved, and thousands of doors in Israel are now locked by some form of digital means.
Co-Founder and CEO of SDS Naftali Sadan, a mathematician by training and a salesman by profession, recognized the widespread need for smart doors for private customers and government organizations, even before the era of cloud technology.
“I joined the development of a product that was designed to solve a particular problem for an older person and developed the idea for door control in a smarter way. We realized we could make the door automatic and digital, by remote control via computers,” Sadan recently told The Jerusalem Post.
SDS has developed a unique and innovative solution that enables locking through cloud-based communication providing customers flexibility and scalability to expand their access control infrastructure to any type of application.
“Most companies today offer smart door solutions based on Bluetooth mechanisms, which allow control within a range of two to three meters and only in one direction, door commands,” he said. “But this leaves a whole world of remote-control solutions out of the field.”
As such, the company understood that the major innovation is in the door’s ability to communicate both ways - not just through opening or locking commands, but that the door will provide information about when it opens, real-time locking status, malfunctions and other information.
“This is a significant advantage for our customers in terms of organizational, business and economic point of view. Our diverse market includes private and commercial customers, each enjoying a different aspect of the technology,” he said.
SDS also has the ability to handle full locking of all types of doors and locks and is designed to be retrofitted on existing doors. The system is essentially installed over the cylinder, allowing it to open and close, as well as give permission to open during certain hours all from remote control anywhere in the world.
As such, SDS was one of the pioneers in Israel and in the world in developing such a locking device integrated with entrance control - turning any door and lock into a smart door. Commercial and logistical centers, hotels, as well as office buildings and private homes are the main markets for this unique technology.
One prime example is the booming AIRBNB market, in which people sublet their apartments to customers around the world.
“Integrating this solution for the door in combination with cloud services creates a kind of hotel without reception. The host can confirm entry, knowing when the guest has arrived or departed, without the need to make physical or even phone contact. In fact, the host has full control over the activity of the door,” he said.
SDS’s System enables each door to be online 24/7, by developing and delivering the most advanced technology the industry has known providing property owners and managers worldwide with new ways to secure guests, manage staff, and protect assets.
More recently, the company has entered the world of traditional hospitality and hotels, offering smart organizational solutions.
“When the door is the center of knowledge, guest service is improved through an app and smart means of identification,” he said. “The quality of management & guest experience improves thanks to real-time control of each door with a variety of new service options.”
Sadan said this offers huge savings in manpower and receptionists, all while maintaining the ability to control and monitor maintenance personnel, such as room cleaners for example, as well as rapid identification of unusual events such as the illegal use of rooms.
Another key market, Sadan said, is commercial buildings and in particular companies engaged in the rental of workspaces.
“To date, in order to allow smart entry and surveillance in commercial buildings, companies were required to set up dedicated communication racks, electrical outlets and perform many additional infrastructures worth millions of shekels. All this in order to put a coded lock that would allow keyless entry into the building,” he explained.
Instead, Sadan said, “IoT technology-based access control” like those of SDS, “make it possible to implement a product that is 8cm in size, with almost no infrastructure and wiring, and provides a uniform solution with a shorter implementation time of tens of percent and is significantly cheaper in terms of maintenance than today.”
According to Sadan the needs arising from these three key markets paint a picture of the future of smart doors in our personal lives. As such, he said he believes the near future will see an expansion of such technology that will see smart doors as the new standard in every home.
“Once a contractor had to stress that he was offering a steel door, because the standard was wooden doors. Today it is obvious, and in the next four to five years this is what will happen in the world of smart doors,” he said. “People understand the basic need for remote control, certainly in the age of smart homes and automation of almost every aspect of our lives.”
For more information: SDS
Phone number: 055-282-0000
This article is taken from The Jerusalem Post Israel Technology and Innovation Magazine 2022. To read the entire magazine, click here.
This article was written in cooperation with Smart Door Systems