What Aiphone actually is

Aiphone makes IP video intercoms. The two lines that matter for most buildings are the IX series and the IXG series, and they share one underlying platform. The IX series is built for commercial and enterprise entry, the kind of door where staff at a desk or phone answer and let people in. The IXG series is built for multi-tenant and mixed-use buildings and adds a tenant mobile app, so a resident can screen a visitor and unlock the entry from a smartphone whether they're inside the unit or on the other side of the country.

The stations are network devices. Door, entrance, and interior stations run over Cat6 on Power over Ethernet, so the intercom shares the same network plumbing as your cameras and access control instead of needing its own proprietary wiring. Door and entrance stations include touchscreen displays and can record events to an onboard microSD card.

Because the stations are SIP and ONVIF compliant, they don't stand alone. A door call can ring a VoIP desk phone, the station's camera can feed into video management as an ONVIF source, and door release can run through your existing access-control platform. For multi-tenant and remote management, an IXG gateway lets AiphoneCloud reach the system, which also powers the tenant mobile app. The platform scales from a single commercial door up to thousands of stations on one property.

Where Aiphone fits, and where it doesn't

We install intercom from more than one platform, so here's the honest read on where Aiphone fits and where it doesn't.

Where Aiphone is a strong fit:

  • Multi-tenant and mixed-use buildings: The IXG line was designed for apartments, condos, and mixed-use properties. Tenants screen visitors and unlock the entry from the mobile app whether they're home or across the country, with or without a station inside the unit. That removes the per-unit hardware cost older buzzer systems carried.
  • Network-native, not a separate wiring world: Stations run on PoE over the same Cat6 your other IP devices use. No proprietary cabling backbone to pull, which keeps a retrofit cleaner and lets the intercom share switch and network infrastructure with cameras and access control.
  • Ties into what you already run: SIP and ONVIF compliance means the stations talk to VoIP phone systems, IP cameras, video management, and access control instead of standing alone. A door call can ring a desk phone, and door release can run through your existing access platform.
  • Scales from one door to a large property: The same platform covers a single commercial entrance and a property with thousands of stations. You're not switching product lines when the building grows.

Where another approach may fit better:

  • Pure cloud-managed, zero-on-site expectations: Aiphone is network gear you own and run. Remote management goes through the IXG gateway and AiphoneCloud, but this isn't a fully cloud-hosted subscription appliance. If you want a single cloud dashboard for everything with no local config, a cloud-first intercom like Verkada Intercom may fit your operating style better.
  • Sites with no network at the door: These are IP devices. If an entry has no path to pull Cat6 and no PoE switch within reach, the cabling work can outweigh the hardware. We flag that in the site walk before it surprises you on the invoice.
  • When you want one vendor for camera plus access plus intercom: Aiphone is excellent at the intercom job. It is not a full access-control or video-management platform. If a single-vendor stack is the goal, a unified platform that bundles intercom with cameras and doors may be cleaner. We'll model both.

How Tec-Tel installs Aiphone

The hardware is the easy part. What separates a clean install from a frustrating one is the cabling, the door wiring, and the configuration. Here's the work, step by step.

  1. Site walk and design: We map every entry that needs a door or entrance station, where the answering points live (a guard desk, a leasing office, tenant units, or the mobile app), and how doors release today. Output: a station count, a wiring plan, and a network plan with the PoE budget your switch has to carry.
  2. Cabling and network: Cat6 runs pulled to every door, entrance, and interior station. We confirm the switch has PoE headroom and the VLAN is sized for the traffic. If the system needs the mobile app or remote management, we set up the IXG gateway so AiphoneCloud can reach it.
  3. Mounting and door wiring: Door and entrance stations mounted at the right height, weather-sealed where they face outside, and wired to the electric strike, maglock, or existing access-control relay so the right people can release the door. Station cameras aimed at face height, not the top of a head.
  4. Configuration and tuning: Call routing built so a press at the door reaches the right station or phone, audio levels tuned against the ambient noise at that entrance, and the visitor-screening and door-release flow set up the way your front desk or tenants will use it. SIP and access-control integration wired where it applies.
  5. Training and handoff: Front-desk staff, property managers, or tenants trained on answering, screening, and releasing. A written runbook so the system doesn't live in one person's head, plus a service agreement in writing.

The biggest source of surprises is the network at the door. These are IP devices, so every station needs a path for Cat6 and a switch with PoE headroom. On a retrofit, the old analog intercom wiring usually can't be reused, and new runs are the real cost. We test what's in the wall during the site walk and put that in the proposal instead of burying it inside the hardware line.

Integrating Aiphone with what you already run

Aiphone is at its best wired into the rest of the building rather than living as a standalone box. On the access-control side, door release can run through your existing platform instead of a lonely relay, and Aiphone also pairs with its own AC access series for controlled entry and visitor screening. On the phone side, IP-PBX integration lets a door call ring and be answered on the internal telephone network, with door release triggered from the call.

On the camera side, the ONVIF-compliant stations can feed video into your management platform, so the view from the door lives in the same place as the rest of your cameras. The IX line also integrates with platforms like Genetec Security Center, so operators can talk to the intercom and trigger door release from the same interface they use for video and access. We confirm the integration path for your stack during design, then wire and test it, so the intercom is part of the system on day one rather than a second screen nobody watches.

If you're standing up access control alongside the intercom, see access control for the door hardware and credential side, and visitor and contractor management for the screening and entry workflow the intercom plugs into.

What Tec-Tel adds versus going direct

Anyone can order an IX or IXG station. The value is in the install: the site walk that finds the cabling problem before it's a change order, the Cat6 runs and switch sizing, the mounting and weather-sealing, the door-release wiring to your strike or access platform, the call routing built the way your front desk works, the audio tuned against a noisy street entrance, the gateway and mobile app set up and verified, and the training so tenants and staff can use it.

One accountable project manager runs the job from the first call through handoff. We use our own team plus vetted, supervised field technicians held to one spec, with a written runbook and service standards delivered at the end. Because we install intercom from more than one platform, we have no reason to push Aiphone when it's the wrong fit. If your doors and IT model point somewhere else, we'll tell you. The full set of platforms we install, all install-side, is at vendor guides.