Services
Enterprise Security System Service and Repair
Skyfal supports security systems that are already installed and already relied on every day. Eight service categories, from a single door that will not release to a full head-end migration.
What we do
Our work begins where installation ends
Skyfal is a service company. Everything below applies to equipment that is already in the building, already commissioned and already in daily operation.
Most calls reach us for one of two reasons. Something that used to work has stopped working, or a system has drifted so far from its original configuration that nobody is confident about what it will do next. Both are diagnostic problems before they are anything else.
We work across access control, video management, security servers and the network paths between them. In a correctional facility, a hospital, a bank branch, a data centre or a school board, those layers rarely fail in isolation. A fault reported at a door often has its cause three layers back, and the fastest way to a permanent fix is to find that out before ordering parts.
Each category below is a page of its own. Read the one that matches your symptom, or send us the symptom and we will tell you which it is.
- More than 12 years in the field. Enterprise platforms in occupied, operating buildings, not in lab conditions.
- No product line to protect. We do not sell cameras, panels or licences, so a recommendation to keep your existing hardware costs us nothing.
- Written findings every time. What was tested, what was found, what was changed and what remains outstanding.
- Work you can schedule. Change windows, escorted access and operational constraints are agreed before anyone touches a live system.
Eight service categories
Each page describes the work in detail, the symptoms that lead clients to it, and how a call is handled from intake to documentation.
Access Control Service and Repair
Controllers, readers, door hardware interfaces, elevator interfaces, credentials and the database behind them. Diagnosis, repair, replacement on existing wiring and full reprogramming.
Video Management System Service and Repair
Offline cameras, missing recordings, archiver and directory faults, storage and RAID problems, retention that no longer matches policy, and camera replacement on existing infrastructure.
Security Server and Head-End Infrastructure
Server builds and rebuilds, operating system and database layers, storage, redundancy, backup and restoration for the machines the whole system depends on.
Programming and System Configuration
Access levels, schedules, credential formats, alarm routing, operator privileges, camera and recording configuration. Commissioned and tested rather than assumed.
Upgrades, Migrations and Integrations
Version upgrades, legacy controller migrations, server moves and interfaces between access control, video, intercom and building systems, planned so the site keeps running.
Troubleshooting and System Restoration
Faults that have already defeated one or more attempts to fix them, and systems that need to be brought back to a known, documented, working state.
Preventive Maintenance
Scheduled inspection and testing of doors, readers, panels, servers, storage and backups, so failures are found on a planned visit instead of during an incident.
Ongoing Technical Support
A standing technical relationship for sites that need someone who already knows the system. Remote assistance, escalation and scheduled on-site attendance under agreement.
What Skyfal does not do
Skyfal services existing security infrastructure. We are not a product vendor. We do not sell cameras, controllers, readers, servers or software licences, and we do not carry a hardware line whose sales targets shape our recommendations.
We do not perform new cabling, drilling, conduit runs or general construction wiring. Where a project needs new pathways, core drilling or rough-in, that portion belongs to an electrical or cabling contractor, and we will say so in writing rather than quote around it.
Where cable, conduit and device locations already exist, we terminate, replace, configure, program, test and document the equipment that runs on them.
How an engagement runs
The same sequence applies to a one-time repair and to the first visit under a service agreement.
- 01 Intake and scoping — You describe the symptom, the systems involved and the operational constraints. We ask what changed most recently, what has already been tried and who else has worked on the system. Site access rules, escort requirements and clearance conditions are established at this point, not on the day.
- 02 Remote review where access allows — If we can reach the server or head-end safely and with your approval, we review event and diagnostic logs, service states, versions, storage condition and configuration before travelling. Many faults are narrowed to a single subsystem here, which shortens the on-site visit. Sites with no external access skip straight to the next step.
- 03 On-site diagnosis — Measurement at the affected device and back through the chain: power under load, communication, field wiring, panel behaviour, network path, server and database. We identify the cause before recommending a part, which is the difference between a repair and a sequence of replacements.
- 04 Findings and recommended action — A plain statement of what is wrong, what caused it, what we recommend, and what can wait. Where equipment is genuinely at end of life we say so, and where it has years left we say that too. Anything outside our scope, such as new cabling or construction work, is identified as a separate trade.
- 05 Planned execution with change control — Work on a live system is scheduled against your change window. Configuration and database backups are taken before changes begin, the sequence of work is agreed, doors or cameras taken out of service are identified in advance, and a rollback position is defined before the first change is made.
- 06 Testing and verification — Every affected point is tested and the result recorded. Door by door, camera by camera, alarm by alarm. Verification includes the conditions that caused the original fault, not just a single successful attempt in ideal conditions.
- 07 Written service documentation — A service record covering the reported symptom, the tests performed, the measured results, the cause, the parts and configuration changed, the verification results, and any outstanding items with a recommendation. It is written to be useful to the next technician, including one who is not us.
Why a specialist
Service is a different trade from installation
Installation is a project. It has a design, a drawing set, a schedule and an end date. The system is built once, commissioned once and handed over. The skills that matter are pulling and terminating cable, mounting devices, following the design and closing out deficiencies.
Service is the opposite problem. The system already exists, the design documents are often years out of date, several companies may have worked on it since, and nobody can tell you why a particular setting was made. The work is reading a configuration written by somebody else, measuring what is actually happening rather than what should be, and changing as little as possible to reach a stable result.
That difference shows up in how faults are handled. An installer under time pressure replaces the device that failed. A service technician asks why that device failed, because a strike that burns out twice a year is not a strike problem, and a controller that drops off the network every Monday morning is not a controller problem. Solving the symptom is faster once. Solving the cause is cheaper.
It also shows up in incentives. A company that sells hardware has a reason to find hardware at fault. We do not sell hardware, so the honest answer and the profitable answer are the same one. If your existing panels have another decade in them, our recommendation is to keep them and fix what is actually wrong.
Systems and environments
A fuller list of platforms is on Systems We Support, and the sectors we work in are described on Industries.
Access control
Enterprise platforms and the controller families beneath them, including sites running mixed generations of hardware on one head-end.
- Software House C•CURE 9000 environments
- iSTAR controller families and legacy CK721 panels
- HID and other proximity, smart card and OSDP readers
- Elevator access-control interfaces
- Door hardware interfaces: strikes, maglocks, motorized and mortise locks
Video management
Recording, retention and playback across multi-server deployments and single-site systems alike.
- Genetec Security Center directories and archivers
- Axis network video devices
- March Networks recorders and cameras
- Storage arrays, RAID sets and retention policy
- Client workstations, decode load and export problems
Head-end infrastructure
The servers, databases and network paths that everything else depends on.
- Physical and virtual security servers
- Database health, backup and restoration testing
- Redundancy, failover and time synchronization
- VLAN, firewall and switching paths between panels, cameras and servers
- Rack power, UPS condition and thermal problems
Environments we work in
Sites where a security system going down is an operational event, not an inconvenience.
- Correctional facilities
- Hospitals and healthcare
- Banks and financial institutions
- Data centres
- Government and municipal sites
- School boards and campuses
- Steel plants, industrial and institutional properties
Tell us the symptom, not the part number
Describe what the system is doing and we will tell you which service category it falls under and what diagnosis will involve.