MOBOTIX Security Solution Deployed At Park To Fly Private Parking Network, Italy

13 parking lots throughout Italy; 1,500 entries and 10,000 parked vehicles per day, for a yearly total of 550,000 cars. These are the Park to Fly numbers, the famous private parking network organized at the major Italian airport hubs: including Milano Malpensa and Linate, Orio al Serio, Bologna, Verona, Rome, Turin, Pisa, and Catania.

The quality of the services offered to the client is decidedly high. The proof is the large number of partnerships with names known at the national and international level, for the most part tour operators, travel agencies, and large companies.

5 Stars For 3.1 Megapixels

Beyond the quality of the offered service, one thing is clear: today, the clients of Park to Fly can travel with peace of mind. In fact, they do not merely make use of a simple parking lot for their vehicle, but of a veritable ‘security parking’ service.

“I am convinced that Park to Fly must not only provide a service for the vehicles, but also, and most of all, for the people that have the right to travel with the knowledge that the goods that were left for safekeeping will be safeguarded with the maximum level of attention. This is why in July we decided to start the implementation of a video security system at all our locations”, says Roberto Ostini, Deputy Manager of Park to Fly.

Similarly to everything else, the product tasked with the security of the vehicles and the parking spaces had to fulfill the highest quality standards and come to represent that extra something that can transform a simple parking lot into a veritable hotel for cars.

Monitoring Minute Details In Remote Areas

Thanks to the consulting provided by Trium, a company in Gallarate (VA) that is active in the implementation of security systems, the clear choice from among the various competitor alternatives considered was MOBOTIX; German engineering, guaranteeing peerless image quality, both day and night.

An essential and must-have characteristic, most of all in a context that is very often visited by badly intentioned people, and which, as a result of being located in remote areas far removed from population centers, may also become an easy target for acts of vandalism. “Unfortunately, we are exposed at times to certain dishonest clients; upon their return from travel they claim that their vehicles were damaged, but the damage already existed at the time of admission to the parking areas. This is a phenomenon that is difficult to monitor and the cost of which is consequently also difficult to manage”, continues Ostini. From this point of view the video security system should also serve as a cost saving tool, and this was indeed the case.

“Thanks to the reliability and quality of the MOBOTIX images, which allow us to view even the most minute details, today we are capable of exposing most of the occurrences of bad faith. Paradoxically, it is enough to mention the ability to review the recordings in order to cause most of those badly intentioned to desist”.

Recording Vehicles From All Sides

The objective was achieved following a careful analysis phase undertaken by the technicians of Trium, who studied the geographic and logistic characteristics of each parking lot after having heard the requirements of the client. They identified the video camera models most suitable for the requirements of Park to Fly, as well as their placement inside the affected areas: a must-have at the entrance to the parking lot, in addition to the parking spaces.

“The video cameras placed at the entrance to the parking lot - respectively the M24 or M12 model, depending on whether it is a well-illuminated covered parking lot, such as at Orio al Serio, or an open parking lot - operate as a sort of scanner: the vehicles are recorded from all sides, and, thanks to the megapixel technology of MOBOTIX, we are able to analyze even the most minute details, including for example small scratches and slight bumps in the car body”, emphasizes Paolo Bonato, Trium’s administrator.

These details are recorded and stored “on board” the video cameras, unlike any other video security system presently available in the market. In fact, while the video cameras are usually used only for providing the images, which are then recorded and processed on an external PC by means of video management software, with MOBOTIX the strategy is different: each video camera is already provided with an integrated high performance computer and potentially also with a solid-state memory card, while the external PC only serves for real time visualization and controlling the video cameras, rather than recording and processing the images.

Bergamo And Milan In Operation

Today the project already has 12 video cameras installed in the parking lot assigned to the Bergamo Orio al Serio airport, 14 at Milano Malpensa, and 12 at Linate. However, already in the development phase, the objective was to place another dozen MOBOTIX cameras in each of the other Park to Fly parking lots before the end of the year. The images of the video cameras, which are operated 24 hours per day, are viewed by authorized personnel on a dedicated PC inside the admission gate of each parking lot.

In areas not continuously manned by service personnel, such as for example the car storage areas, the motion detection function was deployed, so that when the video cameras detect movement where there is not supposed to be any, they immediately send an alarm message to the admission centre. Moreover, thanks to the quality of the audio provided by the MOBOTIX video cameras, those deployed in remote locations with respect to the admission station are also used as a communication system for the personnel between the various areas of the parking lot.

The future is already here

Having been installed only a few months ago, the video cameras are in fact a strong deterrent, and the results can be observed and measured: on one hand, the attempts at fraud have been reduced, while on the other the cost of the insurance for each parking space has been drastically reduced. But given the possibilities of the MOBOTIX technology, several ideas are being considered in feasibility studies for the immediate future.

For example, monitoring the images and managing the video cameras at all the parking lots is going to be delegated to an actual security company, which represents an additional guarantee for the clients and their assets. Also worthy of consideration is the possibility to implement an online payment system that will allow accessing the parking lot automatically with video cameras recognizing the license plate numbers.