Learn with AI-Powered Education

Access Control 101

IPVM's unique educational AI agent guides you from onboarding, teaching, answering questions, taking quizzes, the final exam, and certification.

Watch the video below to learn how this novel technology, internally developed by IPVM, works and helps you learn far better:

You can take it whenever you want, as quickly or as long as you want.

Learn far more as you can ask questions, and it will explain what you want help with.

Customize the tone and depth to your liking. It can be an encouraging coach, a comedian, a strict professor, or whatever you choose. 

Plus, you can take as many quiz questions as you want to really ensure you understand the material.

Course Content

Understand the most important terms, technologies, and trends in access control. Aimed at those with limited technical exposure, the IPVM Access Control 101 course is uniquely designed to provide an introduction for those new or wanting to understand the fundamentals of access control.

1. Life Safety

We start with an overview of the code requirements behind access control systems, familiarizing you with the various levels of codes and regulations governing system design.

2. Credentials

This section introduces the form factors and tradeoffs for credentials in access control, from radio frequency cards and fobs to mobile and biometrics.

3. Readers

In the readers section, we cover physical form factors, including mullion mounts, wall mounts, and more. We also introduce critical considerations in choosing readers, including credential compatibility, location, range, and required infrastructure.

4. Doors

The doors section covers an often-overlooked parts of access control, teaching components, materials, swing, operators, closers, special listings, and the basics of installing access control to pre-existing doors.

5. Locks

This section examines both mechanical and electric locks, their use, pros and cons, and how to select a suitable lock for a door.

6. Controllers

We then cover the functions and purpose of controllers in access control, as well as the various designations, including open vs closed, edge vs central, and the form factors of controllers.

7. Management Software

Our management software section covers the software that controls how the system behaves, including monitoring, configuration, and rules.

8. Architecture

In architecture, we combine all of the physical components covered individually, explaining how they interact and the key considerations in planning and installing an access control system.

9. Business

We provide an overview of how the access control market works, from the giant incumbent companies to new entrants and from A&E firms to access installers.

10. History

In our penultimate section, we explore the history of access control to provide key context in understanding the state of the market and technology today, as well as prepare for our next section on the future of access control.

11. Trends

Our last section, Access Control trends, examines some emerging trends in access control, leveraging IPVM research and reporting into class material to help students understand what to look out for as you enter the access control field.

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Video Surveillance 101 - AI Course

IPVM's unique educational AI agent guides you from onboarding, teaching, answering questions, taking quizzes, the final exam, and certification.

Watch the video below to learn how this novel technology, internally developed by IPVM, works and helps you learn far better:

You can take it whenever you want, as quickly or as long as you want.

Learn far more as you can ask questions, and it will explain what you want help with.

Customize the tone and depth to your liking. It can be an encouraging coach, a comedian, a strict professor, or whatever you choose. 

Plus, you can take as many quiz questions as you want to really ensure you understand the material.

Course Overview

Understand the most important terms, technologies, and trends in the video surveillance industry. Aimed at people with limited technical exposure to video surveillance systems.

The IPVM Video Surveillance 101 course is uniquely designed to help those who want to be more confident and proficient in the fundamentals of the business.

Fundamentals
We start by covering the foundational technologies and trends that have shaped the video surveillance industry. This includes the evolution from analog to IP, from VGA to megapixel, from VCRs to DVRs to NVRs, and from local to network and remote monitoring. We explore what’s now considered legacy and how it informs today’s landscape.

We also explain the core architecture of surveillance systems—how cameras, recorders, analytics, and cloud services fit together. This includes the main system design options and how technical choices affect performance and flexibility.

Cameras
We teach the essential components of cameras, including sensors, lenses, and system-on-chips (SoCs). We also cover the tradeoffs in camera form factors, such as box, bullet, dome, turret, PTZ, covert, and multi-imager designs.

We dive into fundamental camera features such as codecs, streaming protocols, ONVIF compliance, and bandwidth considerations. Key image quality factors like wide dynamic range (WDR) and low-light performance are demonstrated and explained.

VMS/NVRs
We clarify the distinctions between DVRs, NVRs, and VMS platforms, and explain their respective strengths and weaknesses.

We walk through core video management functions such as live monitoring, video search, user administration, and remote access.

Analytics
We break down video motion detection (VMD), video analytics, and AI technologies including neural networks and deep learning as applied to surveillance. We explore tradeoffs in where analytics are performed—on the camera, recorder, server, or in the cloud.

We also introduce advanced topics like facial recognition and behavioral analytics, covering use cases such as abnormal behavior detection, aggression, loitering, and crowd analysis.

Storage and Cloud
We examine different storage technologies including HDDs vs SSDs, local storage vs NAS/SAN, edge storage, and RAID configurations tailored for surveillance use cases.

We explain cloud options, comparing hosted storage with managed video services, and look at major cloud providers (e.g., AWS, Azure). We also address important bandwidth and cybersecurity considerations.

Video Surveillance Business
We explore the business ecosystem—manufacturers, rep firms, distributors, dealers, integrators, online platforms, and consultants—explaining how each contributes to the industry.

Finally, we analyze major trends shaping the future of video surveillance, from AI and VSaaS to ethical challenges and geopolitical pressures that are influencing product development, regulation, and deployment worldwide.

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