UniQ Security

UniQ Security decouples the management layer of physical access control (PACS) from the field hardware: panels and controllers from Johnson Controls, HID — including Mercury-based lines — LTS and DMP operate from one platform, while doors, readers, request-to-exit devices and locks are inventoried and standardized building by building.

Open-controller architecture is what makes that possible. Mercury controller firmware became the closest thing physical access control has to a lingua franca: multiple manufacturers build on the same controller platform, so the software above it can be replaced without ripping out the panels below. That is the structural break from proprietary head-ends — the platform stays, the hardware competes, and every future bid has more than one qualified answer.

UniQ Security is designed to support the access-control requirements that Navy installations operate under CNIC, and the equivalent programs at Army and Air Force installations — with visitor management and gate operations integrated locally as the program directs.

Installation access programs share a common shape: identity proofing at enrollment, credential validation at every opening, and an audit trail that can answer who passed which door and when. The platform is built around those requirements — normalized event streams, readable audit records, credential lifecycle management — and each site is scoped against its own program's controls. Acceptance belongs to the program and attaches to a deployment, never to a shelf product.

PIV, CAC and derived credentials are first-class: reader and panel selections are made for the credential population actually in the field, with FICAM-aligned deployments where the program requires them, and graceful handling of visitor and contractor populations that don't carry the primary credential.

PIV (Personal Identity Verification) is the federal civilian smart-card credential; CAC (Common Access Card) is its DoD counterpart. FICAM — Federal Identity, Credential and Access Management — is the government-wide architecture for how those credentials are issued, validated and used; a FICAM-aligned PACS validates the credential cryptographically at the door rather than trusting the card's mere presence. Designing to that model from the start means the credential path doesn't have to be rebuilt when the program tightens.

Migration starts with an audit of what's installed — every door, panel, reader and credential population, documented. Wiring, locks and doors that still serve are kept; head-ends and dying panels are replaced first; and old and new systems run in parallel during cutover so a door never goes dark.

The sequencing is deliberately boring. The head-end migrates first because it's the layer that unifies; panels follow as they age out, one building at a time, on a schedule your project manager can actually hold. Parallel-run cutover means each opening is proven on the new platform while the old one still stands behind it — the failure mode is a fallback, not a locked building.