Verkada Command has the ability to integrate with Informacast and provides the end user the ability to trigger a building lockdown via the traditional Verkada Command methods as well as Informacast methods. This would include the following:
Verkada lockdown via Command
Verkada panic buttons
Verkada Alarms
Informacast number via direct number dial
Informacast Message Template
This provides the person in distress with many options to send out an alert and lockdown the doors on-premise.
To integrate with the Informacast system, customers can utilize the on-prem Informacast hardware and Verkada's hybrid-cloud physical security system to link the physical contact closure in each location with Verkada command.
Components
Informacast Fusion Server (Virtual Machine or a Physical Server)
This is the on-premise server that relays communication to the Informacast Cloud.
Contact Closure
This device will physically integrate the Verkada access control system with the on-premise server. Please refer to this link for supported contact closures.
Verkada Door Controller
The door controller manages the lockdown configuration on the Verkada side.
Informacast Cloud
From Informacast Cloud we can configure message templates, what devices receive that message (IP Speakers, digital signage, instant messaging platforms), and who receive that message. This is also where the integration with the contact closure is configured, and ultimately the integration with Verkada.
Architecture
The image below illustrates a high-level view of how the different components communicate with each other.
Configuration
Informacast Fusion Server
Please refer to the Informacast Fusion documentation. This can be either a Virtual Machine of a physical on-premise server.
Contact Closure
The list of supported contact closures and configuration instructions can be found in the following link.
In our example, we used the Barrix Barrionet 50 as our contact closure. The first step is the physical wiring of the device. We wired the Barrix inputs to the auxiliary outputs on the AC41, and the Barrix outputs to the auxiliary inputs on the AC41. This allows the lockdown to be initiated from either system.
The picture above highlights the inputs on the Barrix Barrionet and the outputs on the AC41.
The configuration of the contact closure is simply setting up an SNMP trap to the Informacast fusion server. For those instructions refer to this Informacast link.
Verkada Door Controller
The Verkada Door Controller will require all the initial setup plus the configuration of a lockdown via an auxiliary port. We will need to configure an input and an output scenario. Please refer to this help article on how to do that.
Informacast Cloud
The Informacast Cloud is where all of the Informacast configurations live. The two major parts of the configuration will be recipients and notifications.
Recipients
Here is where we configure message recipients including contact closures, IP Speakers, paging systems, and email. For our example, we will look at the configuration of the contact closure.
Contact Closures
This section is where you configure your contact closures. In our test environment we only have one, but you would have one per location in a production environment. Hit the + button to add the first contact closure.
Here you will configure the setting for the local contact closure.
Next, we configure what the inputs and outputs trigger on the contact closure. We will show the input but the output is configured in the same manner.
Here we configure the port identifier that matches the correct input on the contact closure, the value to turn it off, the message template we are sending, as well as the recipients. Please refer to this document which identifies the port identifier for the supported contact closures.
This message gets sent to the contact closure as well as emails to users. We will review the message template in the next section.
Notifications
This portion of Informacast centers around what the notifications will actually look like. For our examples we are only looking at the message templates. We chose to modify the emergency lockdown default message but you can make your own. Click on Message Template to configure the settings.
Here you will see a list of the default Informacast message templates. Click into the edit pencil for Emergency Lockdown.
Here you can set the subject and body of the message, as well as if it will include audio, an incident plan, etc.
This is also where you can set up who the message goes to whenever it has been triggered. Our configuration includes email, contact closure, and SMS.
Testing
After the above configuration, you should be able to trigger a lockdown from either system. Let’s try first from the Informacast side. In a real deployment, you can initiate this via a phone, panic button, etc, but we are going to do it in the GUI and manually trigger the message template. Go to Notification > Message Template > Emergency Lockdown > Play.
This will now trigger a lockdown to Verkada, send emails to users, and SMS as well if configured.
You can also see on the Relay status on the Enclosure the associated lock status.
You will also get an email from Verkada Command.
And will see the lockdown banner in Verkada Command.
Success! We can now do this in the reverse method triggering it from Verkada and you will see all the same messages being sent out to the same recipients. You can trigger a lockdown on Verkada through all the usual methods.
