video intercom

May be much cheaper than re-wiring to give the people without smart phone an IPAD which acts as a buzzer assuming they have internet access. Wiring for old systems gets old and trouble prone due to loose connections, and re-wiring for a new system is incredibly expensive.

We went through this 4-5 years ago, which thankfully one of our unitowners took upon himself to vet, but we had presentations from several of these firms for a 9 unit building. In our experience, if you answer some basic questions, the decision may largely be made for you. We wanted buttons for each apartment on the outside unit rather than an electronic directory, both because the directories can be unintuitive (particularly for technologically challenged) and most of our owners do not put their names outside so the directory is pointless. We required a system with dedicated in-unit devices for a whole host of reasons, including that many thought it illogical to rummage for your phone to answer the doorbell, hard-wired units could have a battery backup in the event of power failure, not having to patch holes in walls, and we did not want people to be able to open the door from 3,000 miles away on their phone. There are other functional and aesthetic issues with the outside and inside units that may be important to people, including button layouts, how many cameras it can handle, switching camera views from the interior unit, screen size, etc. At least back then, Butterfly did not have inside units, but as 300_mercer suggests proposed mounting a cheap tablet on the wall (but that would have required internet and getting electricity to the wall location).

We ended up using virtual doorman, which I think uses AiPhone electronics. They used the old wiring, but our building is a late 1980s loft conversion so the wiring was not "that" old. The overall value of the virtual doorman service is debatable, but previously UPS/FedEX/Amazon delivery folks would press all nine apartment buttons until someone let them in, which was annoying, a security risk and has since stopped. We also took that opportunity to install security cameras around the building, which virtual doorman installed and hosts. They are certainly not the low cost alternative, but we are happy with the outcome.

Sport, Thank you for sharing the process your building went through. Which company did you end up using for Video Doorman?

300 -- As far as I know, virtual doorman is the company. I should have added above another core ask from unit owners was a key fob entry, but that is pretty standard

Virtual Doorman is the best IMO

Thanks everyone for the feedback.
Unfortunately we are ONLY looking for a video intercom, we don't have a package room and we're not looking for any of additional services that come with Virtual Doorman (the company).