Vimar adds KNX Secure hotel access control and Tactil panel

What happened

Vimar has extended its hotel access-control offering with KNX Secure products, including a new Tactil landing panel. The expansion sits alongside View Suite, the manufacturer’s platform for managing hotel rooms, building systems and services centrally. The announcement covers both the equipment used for room access and the software used to oversee the wider property, rather than an access reader alone.

The changes also cover Vimar’s landing readers and pocket card readers, which now incorporate KNX Secure. The manufacturer says these products support system integration while maintaining a consistent appearance with its wiring-accessory series. For hotel projects, that places the reader update within an existing coordinated product range, rather than presenting Tactil as the only access-control option in the announcement.

Vimar identifies integrated Bluetooth connectivity as part of the access offering. It enables guests to enter rooms through the View Key app on a smartphone instead of presenting a card. The company therefore describes a choice of guest credentials within the expanded range, with app-based entry offered alongside the physical-card approach rather than described as its replacement.

The background

Hospitality is the stated application for the expanded range. Vimar places room entry within a broader package intended to combine building technology, management functions and coordinated design. That scope is important to the announcement: the manufacturer is addressing the accommodation facility as a whole, with guest access forming one part of its room, system and service offering.

On Tactil, an integrated RFID reader provides the card-reading function. Bluetooth provides the smartphone connection, with View Key named as the application used for entry. These are separate from View Suite’s stated role in facility management: the announcement assigns the guest-facing access function to View Key and the central supervision of rooms and building services to View Suite.

The distinction between a user-facing control product and its surrounding system also provides a useful way to read related product announcements. Smart Homes Today has covered the Apple HomeView hub launch and Schneider Electric’s Apple Home thermostat and HomeView mounts. Those are separate announcements; Vimar’s information does not identify either offering as an integration partner for these hotel products.

Mounting, finishes and outdoor use

Tactil accommodates two mounting-box formats: round boxes with two modules and rectangular boxes with three modules. Vimar also specifies horizontal and vertical configurations. These are the installation choices explicitly described for the panel, giving project teams concrete mounting information alongside the access features. The announcement does not provide dimensions or further detail about installation tolerances for either box format.

The front cover is glass, with black and white versions available. Vimar also allows customisation of the hotel logo, room numbering and icon appearance. Those options extend the specification beyond a choice of colour: the panel can carry information and visual elements specific to the property. The manufacturer presents this as a way to align the device with the hotel’s identity.

An IP55 protection rating supports outdoor use, according to Vimar. That expands the panel’s stated application beyond internal hotel circulation areas, although the announcement does not describe a particular outdoor installation. IP55 is the environmental protection specification supplied; the material gives no operating-temperature range or additional exposure limits. Those details remain separate from the mounting and finish options identified for Tactil.

Centralised building management

View Suite is accessible from a PC, tablet or smartphone. Vimar says operators can monitor and manage the building both locally and remotely, making the management interface available across those device categories. The described access is for facility oversight, in contrast to the View Key app’s room-entry role. No particular PC, tablet or smartphone model is specified in the announcement.

The platform’s stated control scope includes lighting, air conditioning, blinds and access control. Vimar brings these functions together under central management rather than describing View Suite solely as access-control software. For a hotel specification, that establishes which building functions the manufacturer includes in the platform’s remit, although the announcement does not provide individual equipment lists or detailed control sequences for those systems.

Vimar also says View Suite can supervise devices and integrate systems from third parties. It describes the platform as flexible and scalable, but supplies no device-count limits or named third-party interfaces in the announcement. The stated integration capability is therefore broader than the product-level detail provided: the material establishes the intended management scope without setting out a compatibility schedule for a particular hotel.

What people are saying

Vimar links the adoption of KNX Secure in its readers to security, reliability and flexibility. These are the manufacturer’s stated reasons for the update, rather than findings from independent testing presented with the announcement. The company also describes smartphone room entry as highly secure. It does not provide test results or a detailed security configuration to substantiate or qualify that description.

The manufacturer presents smartphone credentials as a convenience for guests and says the option can help them avoid reception queues. That claim concerns the experience of obtaining and using access, rather than a measured reduction in waiting times. The announcement gives no queue-time figures and does not explain the wider check-in process or how a hotel issues the smartphone credential.

For hotel operators, Vimar’s stated aims include more efficient management, greater security and guest well-being. It connects those aims to the combination of technology, management tools and coordinated design. These are positioning statements for the hospitality range, not quantified operating results: the material includes no hotel case study, energy-saving figure or measured change in staff workload associated with the products.

What happens next

View Suite’s configuration tools cover rooms and services, giving the management platform a role beyond displaying the status of connected equipment. Vimar says those functions support the planning and coordination of hotel activities. The announcement identifies the configuration capability but does not set out a commissioning sequence or describe how a particular property should organise its rooms and services within the platform.

Consumption monitoring, system monitoring, user management and reporting are also included in the stated feature set. These functions extend the operational scope beyond issuing an entry command or adjusting a room setting. Vimar says they help operators coordinate and optimise activities, although it does not specify report formats, monitoring intervals or the level of consumption detail available for individual rooms or systems.

The announcement provides no prices, regional release dates or ordering references for the new access products. It also leaves View Suite licensing and the supported third-party interfaces unspecified. Those omissions limit the information available for a complete project specification: the published details establish the access methods, mounting options, finish choices and management functions, but not the commercial terms or a confirmed deployment timetable.

Why this matters

For integrators, Vimar’s announcement brings hotel access hardware and wider building-management functions into the same product discussion. Tactil supplies specific mounting, finish and outdoor-use options, while View Suite covers access alongside lighting, air conditioning and blinds. Clients gain a stated choice between card and smartphone entry. However, pricing, licensing, detailed compatibility and deployment timing remain unspecified, so the announcement supports initial product assessment rather than a complete commercial and technical project specification.