Skip to main content

Access Activity

Access Activity is the reporting and investigation view for physical access-control events. It shows who attempted access, where and when it happened, how they authenticated, the result, the matching rule and action, and an event picture when one is available.

Create an Access Activity report

Building the report​

Choose Access Activity on the Reports page, then select:

  • A start-inclusive, end-exclusive date range
  • One user or access point, or all users and access points
  • A result such as granted, denied, forced, held open, error, or unknown
  • One or more access methods such as PIN or RFID
  • The columns to display
  • The maximum number of rows and pictures

Available columns include time, user, access point, method, result, reason, rule, action, facial-match result, and picture. Reports can be previewed, exported to CSV, sent immediately, or delivered on a recurring email schedule.

Investigating an event​

Run a preview and click View Event on an access row. The investigation dialog displays the complete operational details and retrieves the best available media:

  1. Stored event media — an image captured at event time or a cloud-hosted video URL stored on the event.
  2. Historical NVR lookup — when the event has no stored media, GEM asks the NVR configured on the access device for a snapshot at the event timestamp.

For historical NVR lookup, the access device uses:

  • nvr_device_id — the NVR device
  • nvr_camera — the NVR camera or video-source identifier

Images open at investigation size rather than the smaller report thumbnail. Known video formats open in an inline player. If facial matching ran, the dialog can show the user's profile photo and event image side by side.

Results and reasons​

Common results include:

  • Granted — the credential and access rule authorized the action.
  • Denied — the user, credential, schedule, or rule did not authorize access.
  • Forced — a monitored door opened without a recent authorized unlock.
  • Held open — a door remained open beyond its configured threshold.
  • Error — access processing or the configured action failed.

The reason provides the more specific explanation, such as success, unknown_credential, cooldown, lockdown, duress, forced_door, or held_open.

Facial recognition​

When enabled, GEM compares the identified user's profile photo with the event image and records an advisory match result. Processing is local to this server using the bundled face-detection and embedding models.

Two settings control evaluation:

  1. The system attribute facial_recognition_enabled must be enabled.
  2. The user's facial_recognition_enabled setting must permit evaluation.

The selectable Face Match report column and the event investigation dialog show:

  • A percentage when matching was computed
  • Off when system-wide matching is disabled
  • Opt-out when the user opted out
  • No photo when no usable profile embedding exists
  • No event face when no face was found in the event image
  • Error when the matching pipeline failed

The investigation dialog uses the same review bands as the previous operational log:

  • 50% or higher — green
  • 30% through 49% — amber
  • Below 30% — red

These are review signals, not identity guarantees. Facial-match results never grant or deny access; credentials, schedules, and access-control rules remain authoritative.

Some jurisdictions regulate biometric identifiers and facial-recognition processing. Confirm that the feature and retention period are lawful for the installation and that required notices or consent have been obtained.

Pictures, email, and privacy​

Report previews and email use bounded, resized thumbnails. CSV exports omit picture bytes. Cloud-hosted media is represented as a link instead of being downloaded into an email.

The interactive View Event action is deliberately separate: it can retrieve full stored media or perform an on-demand NVR lookup for an administrator investigating a particular event.

Retention and deletion​

Access events are managed from Data Retention. The Access Activity row controls the retention period, displays stored row and disk usage, supports immediate Purge Now, and participates in automatic daily maintenance.

Deleting retained events also removes their stored pictures from future previews, investigations, exports, and scheduled reports. Use retention controls rather than deleting individual audit rows so cleanup follows one explicit policy.