Portal dos Ipês — a community with a connected intercom and gate
A community platform that brings resident communication, video intercom and gate opening into a single system.
- From tap to gate opening
- ~2 s
- Board back after a restart
- ~14 s
- Integrated fronts: web, Android and ESP32
- 3
The challenge
The system had to work across three very different ends: the resident's phone, an entry-level Android device fixed at the gatehouse and running 24/7, and an embedded board at the gate, exposed to power cuts and unstable Wi-Fi. Each end fails in its own way, and none of those failures may leave the gate open, stuck or reachable by the wrong person. On top of that, visitors have no login: the public intercom page had to be useful without exposing the list of residents.
Our approach
At the core, a Next.js PWA with a Fastify API and PostgreSQL, with per-community isolation enforced by the database itself (Row-Level Security) and role-based permissions. The intercom uses WebRTC: the API notifies the resident over WebSocket and Web Push and only handles signaling; video flows directly between devices, with a TURN server for mobile networks behind CGNAT and quality that adapts to the connection. At the gatehouse, a Flutter app with a native Kotlin layer runs in kiosk mode, with a watchdog and fully remote configuration. At the gate, the ESP32-CAM firmware only connects outbound, runs commands that expire after 20 seconds, accepts only digitally signed updates and rolls back on its own if a new version fails. A Python service analyzes gate photos to identify people and vehicles.
The result
The platform is in production at Portal dos Ipês, with video intercom, notices, events, documents and gate opening through the platform. License plate reading and automatic gate closing are already in the code and waiting for field validation with the camera installed.
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