If access control verifies authorised personnel using their credentials – their face, fingerprints, PIN number, key card etc – and decides whether or not they are permitted access, entrance control is the system which enforces that decision, by either opening to allow users to cross a threshold, or remaining closed to bar entry and potentially raising an alarm. Tony Smith, Major Accounts and Marketing Manager at Integrated Design Limited, comments: “A card reader may act as an access control device, recognising the card holder as having the correct permissions and saying ‘yes, this person can pass’. But, it’s the entrance control system – a turnstile, for example – which actually physically allows or denies the access. So, entrance control enforces the correct use of the access control system, keeping people honest by making them present their credentials in the correct way, before allowing entry.”