How to Choose an Intercom: Audio, Video or IP

An audio intercom is the minimum: you hear the guest, a button opens the door. For an apartment entrance with settled habits and for service doors it is enough. A video intercom adds the main thing — you see who came before you open: the hallway monitor shows the door panel's picture, and many models record visitors to memory.

An IP intercom is the modern standard: the call travels over the network, and besides the monitor it reaches your smartphone wherever you are. A courier at the gate while you are at work — you answer from the phone and open remotely. Hikvision and Dahua IP models integrate with cameras and access control: the intercom becomes part of the overall security system rather than a separate box.

A gate kit is more than a panel and a monitor. You need an electromechanical lock (it stays locked during power cuts — the right choice for a street gate), a power supply, and optionally a reader so family members enter by card or fob without ringing. Take a vandal-proof panel with IR illumination: guests arrive after dark too.

The cable to the gate is what people remember too late: the run for the panel and the lock should be laid in advance, ideally when the fence or the paths are built. If there is nothing left to dig, wireless kits and Wi-Fi IP panels help out — but a wired solution is always more stable, especially in winter.

In an apartment served by an old coordinate entrance intercom, the handset can be swapped for a monitor with an adapter — you will see the guest at the entrance panel without rebuilding the whole system. A full entrance upgrade to IP suits residential complexes and homeowner associations: every resident gets calls on a monitor and a smartphone, iButton keys give way to cards or an app, and the management company sees the event log.

An office follows a different logic: a door panel at the entrance linked to reception or the security desk, opening from an app or a desk monitor, integration with access control — staff pass by card, guests by call. Such a kit is installed in a day.

Panel resolution: old analog panels give a soapy picture, modern IP delivers Full HD where you see a face, not a silhouette. A 90–120° viewing angle shows not just the face but the space beside it — important if the guest did not come alone. Event memory, motion detection at the panel, lock behavior during outages — questions to ask before buying, not after.

We select and install Hikvision, Dahua and other brands turnkey: panel, lock, monitor, smartphone setup and training. The survey and calculation are free, equipment comes from Tashkent stock, with warranty and service across Uzbekistan.