Visitor access design and managed services: lobbies, turnstiles and kiosks by Orb

What “we take care of everything” means for your site

Visitor access has three layers: the physical route (gate, lobby, turnstiles, lifts), the rules (who may enter, who approves, what is recorded and for how long) and the people who run it (guards, reception, hosts). Most lobby problems come from designing one layer without the others, such as turnstiles bought before anyone decided how visitors pass them. With Orb, one team covers all three on one contract.

Assessing the site and its risks

The survey covers:

• Entry points: every gate, reception, service entrance and loading bay.
• Who comes: guests, candidates, contractors, couriers, drivers and auditors, each with its own risk.
• Peaks: when visitors arrive, read from your logbook or spreadsheet.
• What is installed: turnstiles, readers, face recognition gates and the access control software behind them.
• Power and coverage: mains power, data points and mobile coverage at the gate cabin and lobby.
• Rules: fire NOC and state fire rules, ISO 27001 or PCI DSS where held, client contracts and the DPDP Act.

The output is a risk picture per entry point (tailgating at peak, couriers sent upstairs, a register visitors can read) and the control for each.

Lobby security design: principles for the visitor flow

Move work out of the peak. Picture 8:55 am at a tech park lobby, 40 visitors in ten minutes. If each stops to be written down, the queue reaches the drop-off. Invited guests who filled in details beforehand, and walk-ins on their phones, leave the desk only the exceptions.

Keep the queue inside, and off the escape route. The waiting area should be in the guard’s view and must never narrow the way out.

One decision point per visitor. The host approves before the visitor reaches the turnstile, so the guard checks a pass showing the approval instead of phoning extensions.

Separate goods from people. ISO 27001 Annex A 7.2 (physical entry) covers delivery and loading areas as well as people. TCSA’s lead-auditor guidance advises: “Separate goods movement from people movement”, and calls the reception desk “the delivery boundary” where there is no loading dock. In practice: a courier desk, a rider pickup point and a service route for contractors. See our ISO 27001 visitor management guide.

Turnstiles, fire exits and accessible gates

Fire exits come first. The National Building Construction Standards 2026 (NBCS 2026), which replaced the National Building Code 2016 on 30 April 2026, define a fire exit as “That unobstructed component of means of egress” (Part F, clause 2.16). NBCS 2026 calls itself voluntary, and the text we checked does not mention turnstiles, so what binds you is your state fire rules and your fire NOC. Our design practice: a turnstile line never narrows an escape route. Where turnstiles sit on the way out, we design them to open on a fire alarm and if power fails, keep a free exit route beside them, count no turnstile lane as exit width unless your fire consultant does, and get the consultant’s sign-off before anything is ordered. See our evacuation roll call guide.

Accessibility is a legal duty, and its rules were sent back for redrafting. The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 counts a private workplace or commercial building used by the public as a public building (section 2(w)), and section 44 withholds building permission and completion certificates from plans that ignore the accessibility rules made under section 40. In November 2024, in Rajive Raturi v Union of India, the Supreme Court held that Rule 15(1) of the 2017 Rules gave only persuasive guidelines and directed the Union to frame mandatory ones; in April 2025 an expert committee was given six more months. Until your architect confirms what your state now enforces, design to the Harmonised Guidelines and Standards for Universal Accessibility in India 2021, which the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities lists among standards notified under the 2017 Rules. At the lobby that means:

• a step-free route from the drop-off through reception and the access line;
• a wide gate beside the turnstiles for wheelchair users, prams and trolleys;
• a reception counter with a lowered section, and any kiosk placed where a seated visitor can use it;
• more than one way to check in: the phone, the desk, or the guard reading the notice aloud.

Choosing the check-in route: phone, self-service kiosk or use-and-throw tags

Orb starts on the visitor’s own phone: they scan a QR poster at the door and check in in the browser, with nothing to download, and the phone becomes the pass. Sites can add a self-service kiosk by Orb at reception, which gives out use-and-throw visitor tags.

The tags are never reused, so a tag cannot be passed on or kept for a later visit, and nobody has to collect them back. Printed with your branding, they give visitors something to remember you by.

Integrating with existing turnstiles, card readers and face recognition gates

Orb works with existing turnstiles, RFID and card readers and face recognition gates, so no new hardware is needed to start. We survey what is installed and schedule the integration with you. With an integration in place:

• Turnstiles: Orb tells the turnstile who was approved, so the gate opens for the right pass.
• Card readers: badge taps write to the same visit record.
• Face recognition gates: the gate matches each visitor to the photo taken at check-in, and the building’s notice says so.
• Staff directory: upload a staff list, or sync from Okta or Microsoft Entra ID so joiners and leavers update by themselves.

Many installed readers use Wiegand, which Axis describes as one-way and sending data “in plain text”. OSDP, the Security Industry Association’s protocol, is published as IEC 60839-11-5:2020; its Secure Channel supports AES-128 encryption.

Three site snapshots

Illustrative situations, not customers.

A new 12-floor tower before occupation. Ritika Menon runs a developer’s fit-out. The drawings put speed gates straight across the escape route from the lifts to the main door, and goods through the visitor lobby. We move the line so a free exit route stays beside it, set the gates to open on a fire alarm and on power failure, add a wide controlled gate, put a courier desk by the service entrance and mark a kiosk spot with power. At 24 m or above the tower is high-rise under NBCS 2026, which changes what the fire consultant asks for. On opening day the lobby runs on a QR poster.

An old building with a single guard desk. Suresh Pawar guards a five-storey building with four tenants, a logbook every visitor can read, and no turnstiles. Nothing needs wiring: visitors check in on their phones, hosts approve in WhatsApp, and Suresh scans each pass and sees photo, name, host and approval. A visitor without a smartphone is checked in by Suresh, who reads the notice aloud. See our multi-tenant towers guide.

A plant gate without power at the booth. Contractors arrive in crews at shift start, and the cabin has no reliable mains supply. The phone route fits; a kiosk does not. Contractors sign their NDA and induction before they arrive, ID verification applies where plant policy calls for it, and the guard checks passes on a charged phone with a power bank. See our factory visitor management guide.

Managed services by Orb: what we run, and what you still own

With managed services, Orb sets up and runs visitor management for you and manages it from there. Some things cannot be handed over.

You remain the data fiduciary. The DPDP Act defines a data fiduciary as whoever “alone or in conjunction with other persons determines the purpose and means of processing” (section 2(i)). Your organisation decides why visitor data is collected and for how long, so it is usually the fiduciary, and Orb its data processor. Section 8(1) keeps the fiduciary responsible “irrespective of any agreement to the contrary”, including for a processor’s work on its behalf, and section 8(2) speaks of engaging a processor “under a valid contract”. Most duties apply from 13 May 2027 (Rule 1(4); Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas gives 14 May 2027). A proposal to shorten the timeline was floated in January 2026 (Business Standard), but as of 12 October 2026 no change had been notified (S.S. Rana & Co.). See our DPDP guide.

You approve retention. Rule 8(3) of the DPDP Rules 2025 requires personal data, associated traffic data and processing logs to be kept for at least one year “for the purposes as specified in the Seventh Schedule”; Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas and Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan read it as binding every data fiduciary. Section 8(7) gives way where another law requires longer retention. Our advice: keep the visit record and its logs for one year, and photos and mobile numbers for days, as a written decision your DPO and counsel sign off. Orb erases photos and mobile numbers after seven days by default, and every retention clock is configurable per detail.

You answer for breaches and visitor requests. If visitor data is breached, the notices are yours: each affected visitor and the Data Protection Board without delay, then a detailed report to the Board within 72 hours (section 8(6), Rule 7). Section 8(5) makes you responsible for security safeguards over data your processor holds, and Rule 6(1)(f) expects them in your contract with the processor, so write the breach hand-off and its timings there too. Visitors’ questions, consent withdrawals and grievances come to you as well (sections 8(9) and 8(10)).

You make the policy calls and own the approvals. Access to areas, which visitor types need ID verification, watchlist grounds, escort rules and incident decisions stay yours, as do the fire NOC, evacuation plan, accessibility and your guard agency’s contract. We advise; you decide.

You can check our work. Every look at a visitor record is logged, our support team opens visitor details only in a time-limited window you grant or in a logged security emergency, and on the Assurance plan each nightly erasure leaves a signed record. See security and compliance.

Where Orb fits

Orb starts on the visitor’s phone with a QR poster; the rest is optional.

Questions buyers ask