★Carried & Installed
HID Mercury access controllers · Kansas City.
IntegrateIT carries and installs HID Mercury access controllers across the Kansas City metro — the boards at the door that decide whether a card, a code or a phone opens it. One precision first, because the trade is sloppy about this word: HID Mercury is a line we carry and install under distribution, not one we hold our own dealer agreement on, so we do not call ourselves an authorized HID Mercury dealer. What we are is the people who walk the doors, specify the hardware and the software that runs it, and commission what we install. Phone: (913) 804-7575 or office@integrateit.tech.
What we carry and install from HID Mercury
Mercury describes its range as access-control hardware on an open-architecture platform, and the families below are its own, read off its controllers and products pages. The hardware is one layer of a system: the software on top decides what the cardholder and the administrator see, and we specify the two together. We specify, install and commission to order.
- MP Intelligent Controllers. The line Mercury lists first on its controllers page: the MP4502, MP2500 and MP1502, and the MP1501 PoE+ edge-capable controller. The MP1501 matters on a small building because one network cable can feed it. These are the panels we reach for on a new access control scope.
- LP Intelligent Controllers. The LP4502 Intelligent Controller with Extended Applications, the LP2500 and the LP1502. Mercury lists the LP line as still receiving new features, bug fixes and cybersecurity updates under MercOS, which matters on a takeover where the panel is already on the wall.
- MR I/O Series 4 (S4) modules. Expansion boards that add doors, readers and devices without replacing the controller: the MR16IN-S4 input interface panel, the MR16OUT-S4 output interface panel and the MR50-S4, MR52-S4 and MR54-S4 reader interface panels. Mercury says its MP controllers also work with the earlier MR SIO Series 3, 2 and 1 modules, so an existing expansion chain is not automatically scrap.
- The embedded application environment. Mercury lets developers run applications directly on its MP controllers, so a system can be extended without replacing hardware, and lists Secure Boot and data encryption among the security features. We do not write those applications; we name the capability because it is the reason an MP panel installed now is not a dead end.
- Readers and accessories. Mercury’s current readers include the MR5, MR10 and MR20, which it describes as magnetic-stripe and keypad-enabled card readers, with the WS-10 Weather Shield, WP-10 and WP-20 wall plates and the MUX8 Access Platform as accessories. The credential you want to issue decides the reader for each door, and that decision comes before the controller choice.
- Legacy controllers. Mercury groups its older families — the AP Series, EP Intelligent, SCP Series and the M5, MI and MS bridges among them — under Legacy Controllers. We meet these on system takeovers, where the first job is identifying what is on the wall and what software talks to it.
How a HID Mercury site gets designed
A controller count is not a design. What makes an access system work two years later is that every door was thought through, and that somebody can administer it after we leave.
- The software is chosen first. Mercury’s own FAQ says firmware and compatibility questions go through the maker of the host access-control software, so we settle the software and confirm it supports the controller and firmware before a panel is ordered. The pairing goes into the proposal in writing.
- A door schedule, door by door. Lock type, request-to-exit device, door position contact, the credential, the hours, and on a maglock the fire alarm release and egress hardware that makes a door a code item rather than a wiring item. A panel is sized from that schedule, not from a door count.
- Cabling and power are the design. Home-run cable to each reader and lock, a power supply sized for the locks it feeds, battery backup where the door must behave through an outage, and an enclosure that a technician can reach without a ladder. Our rack build scope covers where the panel and its switch live.
- Commissioning means testing the failure. Every door is tested with a valid credential, an invalid one, a held-open door and a forced one, and the network is unplugged to see what the door does alone. Video from the nearby camera is tied to the event where the site has commercial surveillance, so a door alarm arrives with its picture.
- Documentation is the deliverable. Panel addresses, door schedule, wiring labels and administrator credentials land in your portal. A system nobody can administer after the integrator leaves is a system you will replace early.
Where HID Mercury sits beside the other lines we carry
HID Mercury is the hardware layer; the other lines below are the systems people compare when they ask for access control, and the honest comparison is about size. On a small or medium site already on UniFi, Ubiquiti UniFi is the proportionate answer. For cloud-managed access across several sites, Brivo is the line to compare. Where the site wants cameras and doors in one suite, Avigilon is the other enterprise-scale option. Where the building will run unified security software, the Genetec page covers it. Mercury is the answer when the building is large enough to want open controller hardware under software chosen on its own merits.
Common questions
Who installs HID Mercury access controllers in Kansas City?
IntegrateIT (Overland Park, KS) carries and installs HID Mercury across the Kansas City metro — office and commercial buildings on both sides of the state line, multi-door sites that need a log that holds up, and larger properties out to Lee’s Summit. To be precise about the relationship, because the trade is sloppy about this word: HID Mercury is a line we carry and install under distribution, not one we hold our own dealer agreement on, so we do not call ourselves an authorized HID Mercury dealer. What we do is walk the doors, specify the controllers and the software that runs them, install and commission the system, and leave you the documentation. Phone: (913) 804-7575 or office@integrateit.tech.
What is HID Mercury, and is it a whole access-control system?
No, and that is the first thing worth understanding. Mercury makes the controller hardware — the intelligent boards that sit between the card reader and the lock — and describes it as built on an open-architecture platform. The screen where you add a cardholder, set a schedule or pull a report belongs to the access-control software installed on top of it, and the software is a separate decision. That split is why one Mercury panel can live inside systems that look completely different to the people using them, and why the first question on any Mercury site is which software is running it.
Can you take over a building that already has Mercury panels on the wall?
Often, and the first visit is a survey rather than a quote. Mercury lists its older families — the AP Series, EP Intelligent, SCP Series and the bridge modules among them — as legacy controllers, so we start by identifying what is actually there: the panels, the software that talks to them, the firmware on each board and who holds the administrator credentials. Mercury’s own FAQ says firmware and compatibility questions go through the access-control software maker, so we confirm that pairing before promising anything. Where the panels are sound we keep them and take the system over; where the software is the problem we say so. Our system takeover page covers the same process for other trades.
Do HID Mercury controllers work with Genetec?
Genetec’s own Synergis page lists HID among the makers whose readers, door controllers and electronic locks it works with, and points to its supported-device list as the authority for specific models. That list is what we check before a design is final, rather than assuming a panel and a software release get along. Synergis is Genetec’s access-control system, and we describe it on its own page. The same check applies to any software we pair with Mercury hardware: the pairing is confirmed on the software maker’s list first and written into the proposal.
Is HID Mercury the right choice for a house?
Usually not, and we will say so. Mercury controllers are enterprise door hardware — the right answer for a building with many doors, schedules, a log that has to hold up and a team that administers it. A house with a gate and three exterior doors is better served by a proportionate system or by smart locks tied into the home automation. Where a large private property has a separate commercial-style building, a workshop or an estate office, Mercury can make sense for that building alone, designed to sit beside the home system rather than inside it.
What does a door do when the network is down, and what does an install carry?
Mercury describes its controllers as making decisions at the controller rather than on a remote server, and says the embedded application environment keeps security operations running during a network outage. What a particular door does with the cable pulled — grant a known card, log events for later upload — depends on the controller model and on how the host software is configured, so we test it at commissioning by unplugging the network and presenting a card. Every door is then labelled, addressed and recorded, with the door schedule and the settings landing in your portal with the rest of the project record. Our installation carries a five-year workmanship warranty from the final invoice.
Tell us the doors and who walks through them. The panels follow.
Or read about access control · system takeovers · commercial surveillance · commercial networking
Written by Daniel Alon, founder of IntegrateIT LLC, with twenty years in IT and AV integration — Control4 Platinum Dealer, Crestron Elite Partner, Lutron Certified Installer, CEDIA member, HTA Certified. Overland Park, KS.