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IEMI Labs
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VisionDesign complete (stages 1–6, rev A), not built, not validated

EdgeBell Front Desk

A video door station for small offices and clinics that rings every staff phone and keeps video on site

Lets any staff member see, talk to and buzz in a visitor from their phone or the front-desk tablet, with video stored on site and the door release kept safely indoors.

Who buys it
The owner or office manager of a 3–25 person office, clinic, salon or studio with a locked front door, often through their IT or low-voltage installer; short-term-rental hosts are the second buyer.
Why it pays
About 125 staff hours a year not spent walking to the door (roughly $3,500/yr at $28/h, est.), and no $5–20 per door per month intercom or cloud video plan (est.).
Target price
$249 door station + $49 indoor relay module, no required plan; optional $4/door/month remote answering and encrypted clip backup (target)
First-minute wow
Press the button and three staff phones plus the desk tablet ring at once; whoever answers taps Release and the door opens, with no SIP server and no installer visit.
See the CAD designConcept page
EdgeBell Front Desk concept: the idea and where each part goes
The concept. The CAD design is below, under Printable CAD.

What the research found

And how this design answers it

  • No-fee home doorbells are a giveaway (Reolink PoE about $120, Eufy E340 $90–150) → sold to small businesses instead: staff ring group, door release, visitor log
  • Business intercoms need SIP and an installer (Akuvox E12 about A$244, ButterflyMX from $3,995) → PoE in, scan a QR code, invite staff by email
  • A relay in the outdoor unit can be shorted after prying it off → the release relay lives only in an indoor module that checks signed commands
  • Front-door video in someone else's cloud → clips stay on microSD or a local NAS; only events and an optional thumbnail leave the site; no facial recognition
  • Matter cameras are new → Matter 1.5 camera/doorbell on the station and a Matter Door Lock on the relay module
  • Indoor cameras are banned on Airbnb → the STR mode is outdoor only and counts arrivals against the booked guest count

Use case

Clinic front door at 08:55 with nobody at the desk

PatientTwo front-desk staffDentistEdgeBell stationRelay module

  1. 01Trigger: a patient presses the button while the desk is empty
  2. 02Ring: the desk tablet and both staff phones ring at once with live video
  3. 03Answer: the first staff member to pick up talks to the patient and taps Release
  4. 04Action: the indoor relay module checks the signed command and opens the strike for 5 s; the visit goes into the 90-day visitor log

Outcome: Nobody walks to the door; about 125 staff hours a year saved (est.)

How it works

Architecture

  1. 01

    Sense: 1080p SC2336 camera with IR night view, microphone, button, tamper switch

  2. 02

    Decide: ESP32-P4 encodes H.264 and runs person, dwell and line-count detection on the device

  3. 03

    Send: WebRTC video straight to staff on the LAN (relay off site if subscribed); events only to the cloud over MQTT/TLS

  4. 04

    Act: indoor ESP32-C6 relay module (Matter Door Lock) releases the existing 12/24 V strike

Hardware

Real parts, buyable today

Bill of materials: about $65 per door station and $13 per relay module at qty 50 (est.).

BlockPartWhy this part
Video SoCESP32-P4NRW32XHardware H.264 1080p30 and MIPI camera input
RadioESP32-C6-MINI-1Wi-Fi 6 and Thread for Matter, hosted over SDIO
CameraSmartSens SC2336 + M12 wide lens + IR-cut1080p sensor supported by Espressif's camera driver
PowerSilvertel Ag9905M PoE moduleOne cable, 12 W headroom over a 5.6 W peak
AudioES8311 codec + NS4150B ampTwo-way talk with echo cancellation
Door releaseESP32-C6 + Panasonic TQ2SA relayLock control kept indoors; fail-safe or fail-secure wiring

Mechanical

Printable CAD

8 parts, generated from code and checked as closed solids. Pick a part to inspect it, or download the STL files to print.

See the CAD parts render
EdgeBell Front Desk printable parts, rendered from the CAD
Render of the printable parts from the actual CAD. Not yet printed or photographed.

Loading the CAD…

Real CAD · drag to rotate · scroll to zoomReal CAD · swipe sideways

Open risks we are working on

  • Small offices may not pay $249 when an Akuvox E12 costs about $160; the channel test with IT/MSP installers is not done
  • Person detection speed on the ESP32-P4 is not yet measured
  • Few Matter controllers support Matter 1.5 cameras yet
  • A printed ASA front is not vandal-rated; production needs a molded PC/ASA front

Design stage only: nothing on this page is for sale. Specifications and prices are targets.