How to identify which intercom your building has
Identify your building intercom by reading three things at the lobby panel: the brand name on the faceplate, the display style, and any model line etched on the trim. Mircom, Enterphone, DoorKing, SES, Comelit and Aiphone all print their name on the plate. A large glass touchscreen usually means a smart panel such as ButterflyMX, 1Valet or Latch instead.
Buildings say things like "our system cannot do that" all the time. Sometimes that is true. Sometimes it is a technician’s answer from 2009 being repeated by somebody who has never opened the panel. Knowing the make and model is how you tell the two apart.
This takes about five minutes and you do all of it standing in your own lobby.
Why does the make of your intercom matter?
- It decides whether a phone number can ring at all. Some panels dial the public phone network. Others only ring a handset inside your apartment over building wiring.
- It decides who changes your number, and how fast. Some directories are edited in a web browser in two minutes. Others need a technician standing at the keypad with a password.
- It gives you the manual. Mircom, DoorKing, Comelit and SES all publish their documentation openly. Quoting the right page is how a "cannot be done" becomes a work order.
What can you tell from the faceplate alone?
Go to the main entrance and look at the metal plate around the keypad. The brand name is usually etched or printed near the speaker grille, along the bottom edge, or just under the display.
These are the names you are most likely to find in a Canadian lobby.
| What you are looking at | Likely make | What that means for you |
|---|---|---|
| Stainless plate, blue backlit LCD, resident names you scroll through, MIRCOM on the plate | Mircom TX3 | Dials a real phone number. One number stored per unit. What the TX3 holds |
| Narrow stainless plate, small two or four line display, ENTERPHONE or VISCOUNT printed on it | Enterphone, an Enterphone MESH, or an older Elektra | Usually dials out. A few older models never touch the phone network. How Enterphone stores it |
| One line of large characters and a single CALL button, DKS or DoorKing emblem | DoorKing 1810, 1835 or 1837 | Dials a real phone number. Very common on townhouse complexes and gated driveways. |
| A two, four or ten line LCD with SES or TEC on the plate | Select Engineered Systems TEC series | Dials a real phone number. Same one number per unit arrangement. |
| Square modular blocks, blue LED lighting, Italian styling, COMELIT on it | Comelit | Often hardwired to a monitor inside the suite. Ask before assuming a phone number can go in. |
| Cream or grey plastic, camera lens, AIPHONE on it | Aiphone GT or IX | Normally hardwired. It only dials a phone if the building fitted a line interface module. |
| A large glass touchscreen with a big camera and a search box for resident names | ButterflyMX, 1Valet or Latch | The resident phone number lives in an app account, not in a building directory. Different problem. |
| Paper name strips behind a glass or plastic window, no display at all | An older panel of any brand | Could be either kind. Test it rather than guessing. |
Where is the model number actually written?
The brand is on the outside. The model is almost always on the inside, on a label stuck to the back of the faceplate or to the controller board. That panel is locked, and it belongs to the building.
- Photograph the whole panel One wide shot and one close shot of any lettering. Include the display while it is sitting idle.
- Watch the idle screen for thirty seconds Plenty of panels cycle a brand name or a firmware line when nobody is pressing anything.
- Check the trim and the edges Look along the bottom lip, the hinge side, and the small plate beside the postal lock. Model lines are sometimes etched there.
- Look for a service sticker Intercom contractors leave a sticker with a phone number, usually inside the vestibule or beside the panel. That company knows exactly what is installed.
- Ask the superintendent Supers call the same contractor every year and normally know the brand by name. In a rental building this is the fastest route by a wide margin.
- Email property management with two questions Ask for the make and model of the entry panel, and ask whether it dials an outside phone number. The second question is the one that decides everything.
How do you tell a dial-out panel from a hardwired one?
This is the question sitting underneath the brand question, and it has a faster answer. Walk to your own apartment door and look at the wall beside it.
- A handset on a cradle, or a flat speaker plate with a talk button. Your building is hardwired. The lobby rings that box over dedicated wiring and no phone number exists anywhere in the chain.
- Nothing on the wall, and the buzz reaches somebody’s phone. A dial-out panel. It places an ordinary phone call to one number stored against your unit.
- Nothing on the wall, and the buzz reaches nobody. Still a dial-out panel, with a wrong or dead number sitting in it.
The full comparison of the two types covers what each one can and cannot be made to do.
Aiphone is the case worth knowing. An Aiphone GT entrance panel rings hardwired stations by default. Add the GT-TLI line interface and the same panel can dial a telephone number for a given unit instead. A handset on your wall does not always rule out a phone number. It only means the building had to pay for that ability.
If you are not sure which you have, press your own unit code at the panel and watch what happens. Three ways to find what number is stored walks through it.
Your panel dials out. What do you do next?
Once you know the panel places a real call, the only thing left is which number sits in that one field. The chain in full is short: the panel calls, you answer, you press a digit, and a tone travels back down the call to release the door. That digit is usually 9, but it is configured per building, so check yours.
BuzzMeBro: paid, and every phone in the apartment rings at once
BuzzMeBro gives your apartment its own local phone number. You hand that number to the building once, and it goes into the panel like any other number. When a visitor buzzes your unit, every phone registered to the apartment rings at the same time, up to 4. Whoever answers first gets the call and can open the door.
The buzz arrives as an ordinary inbound phone call, so there is nothing to install to receive one. Setup happens once on the website. Billing is $11.99 a month or $109.00 a year, per apartment rather than per person. A local number is checked at signup, and a building with no number available goes on a waitlist.
Carrier call forwarding: free, but it moves the buzz instead of sharing it
Your carrier can push the buzzer call from one phone to another. Only one phone rings at a time. Your roommate gets the delivery or you do, never both. What forwarding does and does not do has the detail.
If you live alone and the panel simply has the wrong number in it, forwarding is the wrong tool and so is a subscription. Ask the building to change the directory entry to your mobile. That is the right answer for one occupant and it costs you nothing.
Google Voice: free, but the door digit often does not survive the call
A Google Voice number rings several phones, which is why people reach for it. The door digit is the problem. Google Voice re-encodes the call audio, so the tone you send often arrives at the panel too mangled to trigger the relay. You get the call, you hear the visitor, and the door stays shut. Why that happens.
Identifying the panel is the cheap part, and it is worth doing before you spend anything. Once you know it dials out, the useful move is choosing what number goes in that field. BuzzMeBro puts a number there that rings the whole apartment at once. Check whether your building has a number.
Questions people ask
My lobby panel has no brand name on it at all. How do I identify it?
Photograph the panel and show it to your superintendent, or email property management and ask for the make and model of the entry system. Blank plates are often replacement faceplates fitted over older electronics, so the plate would not have told you the truth anyway.
Does knowing the intercom model change what I can ask my building for?
Yes. Mircom, DoorKing, Comelit and SES publish their manuals openly. If you know the model you can point at the page showing the directory field your unit uses, which makes a flat "the system cannot do that" much harder to hold.
My building has a big touchscreen panel. Can I still put a phone number on it?
Sometimes. Smart video panels route the buzz through their own app by default, and the resident phone number lives in that account rather than in a building directory. Some will place a real phone call to a number you enter instead. Ask the building which mode yours is set to.
The panel calls my phone but the call goes to voicemail. Is that the intercom model?
Usually not. Carrier spam filtering now routinely sends lobby panel calls to voicemail, because a panel dials many numbers briefly from a line nobody ever calls back. That problem sits on the receiving phone, not on the panel.
Does BuzzMeBro need to know which intercom my building has?
No. BuzzMeBro gives your apartment a local phone number and the building stores it in the panel like any other number. What matters is whether your panel dials an outside phone number at all. A hardwired system that only rings a handset in your suite cannot be given a number by anybody.