How to Specify HID Access Control for a Dubai Workplace

Name the door before you name the reader. A staff entrance, a reception lane, a server room and a plant door are not the same package. For each opening, write down four things.

1. Who enters, and whether visitors are included.
2. What they carry: a card, a phone, or neither, where the opening uses a face.
3. How the door must release in an emergency.
4. Who will issue credentials, and who will look after visitors or attendance.

That note is the brief we price against. Until it exists, a model number is only a guess.

Three reader lines are on the current list. Choose the reader for the credential you intend to issue, then confirm the pair on the quotation. Do not reverse that order.

HID Signo Readers

The catalogue lists the Signo 40 for RFID and mobile use. Specify it where the opening needs a reader that can take a card and a mobile credential, and name the credential in the same line of the quotation. The product page states the family. It does not, by itself, confirm that a particular card or phone pass will be accepted.

HID Readers

These are the iCLASS SE R40 and the RK40. They belong on a site where people already carry iCLASS. The two models are not the same opening. Say which one is required, and say so before the order is raised.

HID Amico Readers

Amico is listed as a biometric face reader. A face is personal data. Specify this reader only after the organisation that will operate it has decided how that data will be collected, stored and limited. The legal position is set out in the supply notes below. We do not decide it for you.

Seos, iCLASS and Vento are three credential families. Sharing the HID name does not make one a substitute for another. The reader that will accept the card is named with the card. If that reader is not yet confirmed, the card is not yet specified.

HID Seos Cards & Credentials

These are Seos smart cards and credentials. Where Seos is the standard for the site, the reader model is part of the same quotation. Seos is not an iCLASS card, and it is not a Vento card.

HID iCLASS

These are iCLASS cards and credentials, for a population that is already on iCLASS. Pair them with a reader confirmed for iCLASS, and with the controller on the same order.

HID Vento Card

Vento is its own access card. Confirm the reader that will accept it before anyone treats Vento as the site standard. A Signo reader, an iCLASS SE reader or an Amico reader is not assumed to read a Vento card.

The controller on our list is the HID Aero X1100. It is the panel the readers report to. Door count, wiring and the head-end software are confirmed against the project. They are not inferred from the product name. If the opening count or the interfaces are still open, the controller is not yet specified.

Two further groups sit on the same access-control list. They are quoted under their own names. They are not HID products, and a specification should not describe them as if they were.

Electromagnetic door locks are the lock on the door. Emergency break-glass units are the local release. In Dubai, the way a locked door opens in an emergency follows the building’s approved fire and life-safety design, including Dubai Civil Defence requirements where those requirements apply. Supplying a break-glass unit does not approve that design, and it does not replace the authority’s approval of the building.

iSecure is a separate range, from Security Shells Infotech. Visitors, the cafeteria, mobile identity, alerts and time attendance often appear in the same conversation as the door. Each application is quoted on its own line, apart from the HID hardware: iSecure IAM for identity and access, iSecure Trace for visitors, iSecure Cafe for the cafeteria, iSecure Mobile for mobile identity and attendance, iSecure Identity for analytics and alerts, and iSecure HRMS for time and attendance.

Send the following. A partial list produces a partial price.

1. The number of openings, each labelled in plain language: staff, visitor, plant or server.
2. The credential people should carry: Seos, iCLASS, Vento, mobile, or face.
3. Any opening that needs a face reader.
4. Whether visitors, the cafeteria, or time attendance are in scope. Those are iSecure questions, quoted apart from HID.
5. How each locked door is released in an emergency, and whether the life-safety design calls for a break-glass unit.
6. The delivery emirate, and the date the goods are required on site.

We reply with the models we can offer, the points we cannot yet confirm, and a written price. Until that quotation is issued and accepted, this page is not an offer to sell.

These notes explain how to read this article and how a supply from Dubai is handled. They are not a contract. The written quotation, and the purchase order raised against it, govern the sale. UAE law applies to that contract as the quotation states.

1. Who we are

AQS Technologies, Dubai, is a sister concern of AQS International Trading LLC. We are an independent supplier and distributor. We are not HID Global, and we are not Security Shells Infotech. Nothing on this page makes us an agent who can bind either manufacturer.

2. Names and trademarks

HID, Signo, iCLASS, Seos, Aero, Amico and Vento are trademarks or product names of their owners. They are used here only to identify products we supply. iSecure is a product name of Security Shells Infotech. Use of a name does not transfer any right in it, and it does not mean the manufacturer has approved this article.

3. Descriptions

The words on our catalogue are a short identification of the product. Features, supported credentials, certifications and dimensions are those in the manufacturer’s current datasheet for the model named on your quotation. If this page and a quotation differ, the quotation prevails. Photographs are for identification.

4. No offer on the website

Publishing a product is not an offer to sell. Price, currency, delivery terms, lead time and the quantity we can ship are stated only on a written quotation. UAE VAT is charged as the law requires, unless that quotation says otherwise. Stock, manufacturer allocation and import clearance can change availability after a conversation and before an order is accepted.

5. Goods and warranty

We supply the branded products named on the quotation. Any warranty is the warranty written there, together with the manufacturer’s terms that apply to that supply. We do not add a performance warranty, a promise that a site will be secure, or a fitness-for-purpose promise beyond that writing.

6. Life safety in Dubai

Electromagnetic locks and emergency break-glass units must be installed in line with the building’s approved fire and life-safety design, including Dubai Civil Defence requirements where those requirements apply. Selecting a product from this article does not approve an egress strategy.

7. Personal data

An Amico face reader processes biometric data. The organisation that operates it should take its own advice under Federal Decree-Law No. 45 of 2021 Concerning the Protection of Personal Data, and under any sector rule that applies to its business. This article is not legal advice, and AQS Technologies does not give legal advice.

8. Installation and licensing

We supply products. Design, cabling, commissioning and maintenance stay with the consultant or integrator you appoint, including any UAE licence that activity requires. A quotation for goods is not a contract to install them.

9. Use of this article

You may share the link with a project team. Do not copy the text as your own specification, present it as an HID document, or treat it as a term of sale. It was published on 14 Nov 2026 and describes the catalogue as it stood then.