Install a ZKTeco face terminal
A ZKTeco face terminal works the opposite way round to a Hikvision. Prism never calls the terminal — the terminal calls Prism, over the internet, every few seconds. That has a real advantage: nothing needs to be on the gym's network. No port forwarding, no staff device on site to relay anything, and a terminal at a branch you have never visited connects itself the moment it is plugged in and pointed at us.
The trade is that two settings on the device decide whether it can enforce your rules. Get them right before you enrol anybody, because changing one of them afterwards erases the terminal.
What you'll do
Set the device type, point it at Prism, confirm it has registered, then enrol your members.
You'll need: the terminal mounted, powered and connected to the internet (Ethernet or Wi-Fi), and its admin menu unlocked.
Steps
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On the terminal, open Main Menu → System → Device Type Setting.
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Set Device Type to Access Control Terminal (A&C PUSH). If it is set to Time Attendance, change it now — see the warning below about why this matters. The device restarts.
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On that same screen you will see Communication Protocol. Leave it alone. It looks similar and it is not: changing it takes the terminal off the protocol Prism speaks, and the device simply goes quiet with no error to tell you why.
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Open Main Menu → Comm. → Cloud Server Setting.
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Turn Enable Domain Name on. Until you do, the address field only accepts an IP address and will refuse a web address — which is the most common reason this step appears not to work.
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Set Server Address to the address Prism support gives you, Server Port to
443, and turn HTTPS on. Leave any proxy setting off. -
Save. The terminal registers itself with Prism within a few seconds — there is nothing to press in the app.
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In Prism, open Settings → Devices & access → Terminals. The new terminal appears by its serial number, which is printed on the device and shown under Main Menu → System → Device Info. Confirm the serial matches, then claim it to the gym and door it belongs to.
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Push your members to it, then ask someone to look at the terminal. The door should open and the check-in should appear in the Attendance tab within seconds.
What you should see
The terminal appears in Hardware Devices with a healthy status and a recent "last seen" time. It contacts Prism every few seconds, so a terminal that has gone quiet for more than a minute or two has lost its internet connection.
If something goes wrong
- The address field won't accept our web address — Enable Domain Name is off. Turn it on and the field will accept a hostname.
- Saved the settings but nothing appears in Prism — check HTTPS is on and the port is
443. A terminal set to plain HTTP is redirected and some firmware does not follow the redirect, so it looks like nothing is happening at all. - It was working and has gone silent — check whether Communication Protocol was changed on the Device Type screen. That setting takes the terminal off Prism entirely.
- Members get in but expired memberships are not refused — the terminal is in Time Attendance mode. Switch it to Access Control, then push all members again, because the switch clears the device.
- A member is not recognised — check they have a clear, front-facing photo in Prism. The terminal is given a correctly sized copy automatically, but it cannot work from a photo with no clear face in it.
Show members their days remaining
On every successful match the screen shows the member's name followed by their exact days remaining:
It appears at the moment they walk in — the moment a renewal is most likely to land. Nothing is sent, nothing is installed, and it costs nothing to run. Prism keeps the number current daily by itself.
Two device toggles must be on (both are off by factory default and after any reset): Security Settings → Display Verification Name, and System → Access Logs Settings → Display User Photo if you also want the member's photo shown.
Put your branding on the screen
The terminal shows a wallpaper when idle and can rotate a set of images as a screensaver. Prism supplies a ready-made set sized for this panel — ask support for it.
If you do try, the menus are: USB Manager → Upload → Screen Saver or Wallpaper to load, Personalize → User Interface to choose the active wallpaper and set Idle Time to Slide Show and Slide Show Interval, and Data Mgt. → Delete Data to clear them. The stick must be FAT32 — the terminal reports "failed to read disc" on exFAT or NTFS, which is how most drives over 32 GB arrive.
Restricting a plan's access hours
Set the plan's access window in Prism exactly as you would for any other terminal — nothing is configured on the device.
A ZKTeco terminal can't be taught schedules remotely, so Prism enforces hours a different way: the terminal only holds the members who are allowed in right now. When an off-peak plan's window opens, its members are enrolled automatically; when it closes, they are removed. The terminal doesn't know what a schedule is — it just always holds the correct list.
After an accidental reset
A settings reset on this terminal keeps the members and faces but silently wipes the display and clock configuration — and because wallpapers survive it, the device looks untouched. Field case, Family Mall install day: recognition kept working while the screen went mute and the clock went wrong, which reads exactly like a broken integration.
Restore these, all reset to "off" or defaults by a reset:
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Security Settings → Display Verification Name — ON, or matches show no name.
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System → Access Logs Settings → Display User Photo — ON (accept the security prompt), or matches show no photo. This one is easy to miss: it is under Access Logs, not display settings.
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System → Date/Time — set the timezone (UTC+3 for Iraq). Prism guards attendance against a wrong device clock, but the on-screen time will be wrong until this is set.
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Re-create the device admin account — a reset removes it, and an admin-less terminal can be reconfigured by anyone at the glass.
Still stuck? Email hello@prismgym.com — include your gym name, the device, and a photo of what you see.