Case Study

City of Perth Parking
Introduces ticketless car parks withGenetec AutoVu Automatic License Plate
Recognition (ALPR)
Major Australian city leverages AutoVu ALPR cameras to streamline parking,reduce environmental output and cut costs
Business challenge
City of Perth is a local government area and body, within the Perthmetropolitan area, which is the capital of Western Australia. While
the City’s population has reached just over 21,000 people, its
central location and growing business district draw in a workforceof 124,000 people who commute into the city daily fromsurrounding areas. For these reasons, the City’s parking unit, Cityof Perth Parking (CPP), offers 34 car parks which accommodate
over 11,000 parking bays. A limited number of monthly permits
are allocated to each car park, and the remaining parking spaces
are reserved for transient customers.
Over the years, City of Perth Parking has become known as ‘The
Greener Place to Park’, implementing many initiatives to reduce
its environmental impact. So when the opportunity for a ticketlessgated parking application was made apparent by using Automatic
License Plate Recognition (ALPR) technology, Patrick Abernethy,
Manager for City of Perth Parking was eager to start a trial.
“For a ticket-operated car park, a customer needs to stop at the boomgate, press a button, retrieve a ticket and then the boom gate will
open and they can proceed,” he said. “This process takes about 15
seconds, and on the way out, it can take even longer as people do notalways have their ticket ready. We wanted to speed up the entries andexits, reduce Co2 emissions from vehicles that are idling at the gatesand reduce the costs and waste associated with tickets.”
In search of the most effective ALPR solution for its parking
application, CPP relied on the expertise of OPS Australia Pty, alocal Genetec distributor and its integrator partners, and chose
Genetec AutoVu ALPR system. According to Abernethy, theunified offering from Genetec was a vital factor in the selection:“Many organizations in Australia were already using Genetec
solutions. We also wanted to upgrade our video surveillance andaccess control systems within the car parks. Genetec Security
Center was an easy-to-use solution that offered all three systems
within one unified platform.”

Summary
Client name: City of Perth Parking
Organization size: 98 employees
Industry: Municipal Parking
Location: Perth, Australia
Products: Security Center, AutoVu, Omnicast & Synergis
Partners: Hills OPS Australia Pty, Axis Communications, HID Global,
Hub Parking Technology

parks that are fully functional, and another three on the verge ofbeing operational.
“There is no more stopping at the boom gates. The AutoVu
ALPR cameras read the license plates of incoming vehicles andthe gate opens— it’s all so seamless,” explained Abernethy.
“There are also no more lost or wet tickets, since all license plateinformation is digitally stored. Our customer service has
definitely been enhanced.”
The City of Perth Parking has also experienced a tremendous
savings in the management and operation of car parks– not juston the tickets themselves, but also concerning all the associatedcosts such as printer heads, ink ribbons, jams and maintenance.
According to Abernethy, “We are saving about $25,000-$35,000
AUD per car park annually.”

Ticketless Parking Saves $25,000 Annually
per Car Park

When vehicles enter a car park, the AutoVu Sharp ALPR cameraautomatically captures the license plate, along with a time and datestamp, as well as a full colour image of the vehicle and prompts
the boom gate to open. AutoVu then sends that information backto the Genetec Security Center platform which is managed byoperators from a central monitoring station. Thanks to its open
architecture, Genetec Security Center is openly integrated with aDATAPARK parking management system, allowing both systems
to sync databases of transient customers and monthly permit
holders in real-time.

After the first trial, CPP was confident in its selection of GenetecSecurity Center with AutoVu ALPR. Today, the City has two car“When a customer is ready to leave the car park, they simply enter
their license plate number at the DATAPARK pay station or theCity of Perth Parking · Case Study

approximate time they entered the car park,” elaborated Abernethy.
“For the latter, the pay station will display a colour image of all
vehicles around that entry time so they can select their vehicle andpay whatever is owed.”
Upon leaving, another AutoVu Sharp ALPR camera captures
license plates of outgoing vehicles, raising the gate to vehicles
that are associated with a paid transaction or a monthly permit.
If a vehicle has not paid, a digital signage triggers the following
message: “Please pay at the pay station”. In the event that there isa mishap, drivers can prompt an intercom button, which sends analarm within Security Center. Operators can then engage in a twoway conversation to resolve the issue at hand.

ALPR information and unified security offers moretangible benefits
Apart from enhancing customer service and becoming even more
‘green’, the AutoVu ALPR system has provided CPP with valuable
tools to improve operations and help local law enforcement withoccasional investigations.
“We do a lot of reporting to see how many vehicles are entering
our facilities and how long they are staying, which helps us identify
opportunities for parking improvements around the city,” said
Abernethy. “Also, when law enforcement needs assistance in an
investigation, we are able to conduct searches using the license plate
number to identify what time the vehicle entered and left, andprovide a colour image of the vehicle and sometimes even the driver.”Since the City of Perth Parking also undertook a full video
surveillance and access control upgrade by implementing theunified security platform, Security Center, other benefits haveensued. One example has been the ability to schedule automatedaccess control lockdown of car parks at closing hours, eliminating
the need to have someone physically secure all doors. If there is apotential break-in or access-denied event, an alarm is prompted
in Security Center with the associated video so that operators canrespond accordingly.

Moving ahead with more ticketless car parks andbetter service
Since the CPP has seen significant savings by moving to a ticketlessparking application, eventual expansion across all other car parks isin the plans. Shortly, CPP will also be offering a mobile app service
whereby transient parking customers will be able to pre-book abay within specific car parks. Information will be automaticallysent to both the DATAPARK and AutoVu systems, and added
to a permitted database which will allow them to come and leave
without hassle.
“Moving to a ticketless gated parking application with AutoVu
and DATAPARK has helped us save money and live up to ourgreen-friendly reputation, all while offering our customers a moreseamless parking experience. Choosing Genetec Security Center
also gave us the ability to work from one platform for all threesolutions, which has been so much easier and efficient for ouroperators than what we had before,” concluded Abernethy.

Infrastructure at a Glance
Two AutoVu Sharp ALPR cameras are installed at the entry and exit of each car park to capture the license platesof vehicles entering and departing. All information is sent over a city-owned fiber optics network back to Genetec
Security Center, which is synched to the DATAPARK parking management system, from HUB Parking Technology.
DATAPARK pay stations are also integrated with Security Center, ensuring real-time accuracy when vehicles approachboom gates. HID Global iCLASS SE® access control readers and VertX EVO V1000 networked controllers were chosen
for the approximately 30 doors per car park, and about 300 network cameras from Axis Communications (AXIS P3363VE, AXIS Q6032-E, AXIS P5534 and AXIS P3354) were selected for video surveillance coverage.

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