PIE Best in Show
May, 2019
FLOWBIRD
It was exactly one year ago at this very show that we made our debut as “Flowbird,” joining together two of the largest forces in this field; Cale and Parkeon. The first day was tense. We put on our fronts that we unquestionably treasured who was once our competitor…but truth be told, many of us were meeting each other for the first time. Sure, we knew each other’s names, but only because we were on each other’s watch list…as the competition.
Fast forward one year later, we often forget who came from either side. We’ve learned each other’s unique strengths (and coffee orders) and have come together to create a force larger than we ever were standing alone. If you’d ask us before who’s product was better, the answer would have been simple - our own. But now, with the knowledge and research that we’ve gained, the innovation and mobile technology that has been born, we can honestly say - both. We’ve put together a product, service, and a solution that we 100% believe in and stand behind. The best of both worlds.
The Flowbird name is inspired by the flight of birds; agile and in perpetual motion. Here we are now coming full-circle, moving together as a team in uninterrupted force, strengthening each other, which in the end, strengthens you, our partners and the industry. #UrbanIntelligence
Take a look at our newest and combined innovations at www.flowbird.group.
GENETEC
How a 5% increase in LPR accuracy could yield big results for the parking industry
Parking enforcement runs more smoothly with accurate, easy-to-use, connected technology systems. Genetec understands that better than most. That’s why, for the past two decades it’s been leading the way in security and parking technologies, driving progress through sustained investment in innovation and people.
To keep commuters happy and enhance urban livability, cities and businesses are under pressure to increase parking availability and enhance services. This stress falls on parking managers who struggle to make improvements with limited resources. With the right parking management solutions, it’s possible to efficiently enforce regulations, improve customer satisfaction, and streamline operations, all while seeing a return on investment.
Whether managing on-street parking, off-street, or both, license plate recognition (LPR) technology offers the benefits of enforcing parking regulations in less time while boosting compliance and service. LPR cameras mounted on vehicles can scan thousands of license plates per shift. This means enforcement staff are alerted in real-time to parking violations or scofflaws.
An example of how LPR data simplifies parking and increases revenue
The parking services team at the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse (UWL) oversees parking across the five-level garage and 18 lots—a total of over 2,800 spaces. While they used to issue over 3,700 permits in the form of decals and printed hangtags, both options led to ongoing enforcement issues. For parking staff, printing, issuing, and checking permits on foot was costly and time-consuming.
Since deploying the AutoVu LPR system and replacing physical permits, the university has saved over $30,000 in labor and material. The parking services team has written fewer citations, issued more permits, and increased revenue by 10% year-over-year. They were also able to increase lot usage by 10-25%, allowing for more permitted and visitor parking.
What was causing all the traffic in the Genetec booth this year?
At PIE 2019, the Genetec team unveiled an exciting, and industry-changing improvement to their popular unified LPR solution, Security Center AutoVu™. Their latest innovation is a machine learning based engine that boosts license plate reading performance.
The new AutoVu MLC (Machine Learning Core) replaces traditional rule-based LPR technology with machine learning-based algorithms to reduce common misreads and false positives. Designed to power the Genetec Sharp line of cameras, the AutoVu MLC increases license plate capture rates from the low-nineties to the high-nineties.
This 5% boost plate read accuracy and 93% reduction in false-positives means parking operators can do their jobs with increased confidence, knowing they are making decisions based on highly accurate information. In addition, these performance gains improve vehicle analytics, such as plate State recognition, providing additional insights and data. This translates to an increase in performance, even in the most challenging environments.
AutoVu LPR technology, backed by a winning team
Genetec is fuelled by passionate people. Through a network of over 1,200 talented people across international offices, their teams have written 12 million lines of code, provided support to thousands of devices, and designed one of the most versatile LPR cameras, the AutoVu Sharp.
This year, the Genetec booth was awarded the 2019 Parking Industry Expo Best in Show for their 10 X 10 stand at the event in Rosemont, IL. Their busy corner booth made it clear that this Canadian company is thinking big—and blazing a trail in LPR innovation.
To learn more visit www.genetec.com/autovu
RED LPR
Why did Jeremy and Sagy start RED LPR?
For several years Jeremy and Sagy led the U.S. operations of an international License Plate Recognition firm. They learned that the North American LPR market is uniquely different than all other international markets. With their experience through thousands of LPR lanes installed in the U.S. Parking industry they were intimately familiar with the unique challenges involved in LPR success in the U.S. Thus, RED was born!
“The U.S. is by far the most challenging country to read license plates accurately!” says Sagy. “Florida state alone has more variations of license plates than all the EU countries combined”. RED LPR is unique because it was born in the U.S., to American “parents” with combined experience of over 20 years in reading North American License Plates.
From a timing perspective, they believe the Parking Industry is going through a renaissance of technology adoption like never before. “We spoke with PARC companies, consultants and Parking Operators and there is a strong consensus on the importance of technology with LPR, specifically in the parking Eco-system” says Jeremy. “License Plate Recognition takes the front seat of all the discussions in today’s parking industry. We don’t see the smartphone-based AVI as a threat to our growth. It is a phase that every industry goes through, trying to reinvent the wheel. Our focus is on making RED reliable and affordable”.
During their involvement in the Parking Industry they have never lost a customer and they believe the ROI in using LPR in the industry is clear and present to anyone using the technology.
Equally important, Jeremy and Sagy knew they make a great team and wanted to continue working together in an environment they can control. “It was clear to both of us we want to go into business together because we share the same fanatic Customer Service mentality” says Sagy. Jeremy Barker adds, “We have accomplished so much in our two years together, overcoming some extreme challenges, that we had no doubt we want to create continuity both for our customers and ourselves in doing what we enjoy.”
Lastly, they wanted RED to be the first U.S. based LPR provider that focuses on the Parking Industry. “We feel our
experience in the parking industry guided our choice to not only start RED, which will be a game-changer, but also the understanding that we want to focus RED R&D efforts on Parking Solutions”, Sagy adds. “We met so many amazing people in this industry, some are now friends for life, which makes what we do so much more rewarding. The PIE show is a great example – It’s like being together with family!”
The RED LPR logo reflects their focus on R&D and product development, with the camera face representing the infra-RED light used to capture license plates. With a clear mission statement on their website, RED LPR strives To be a Simple to work with, Reliable and Accurate LPR manufacturer, that offers a full spectrum of LPR solutions globally. “We are here to stay, and to help ensure LPR deployments go smoothly for all.” Concludes Jeremy.
You can reach Sagy and Jeremy at Sales@RedLPR.com or by phone (858)779-9155.
SOUTHLAND
Southland Printing is honored to have won BEST IN SHOW for creative swag at the 2019 Parking Industry Expo in Rosemont, Il. They take great pride in presentation at their booth and feel that it is a privilege to be recognized with this honor. Since Southland Printing Company has exhibited with PIE, they have tried to keep their swag up to date with the trends in the industry. Southland Printing started their relationship with Parking Today in March 1996 and was one of the first advertisers. Southland Printing’s history exhibiting at the PIE conference began in 2001. Southland Printing is excited to see how much the PIE conference has grown with this year’s record-breaking number of attendees reaching 1,200. They have always enjoyed the level of engagement that they receive with both the show’s staff and the attendees that come from all over the world to attend the show. The return on investment from exhibiting at the PIE show has benefited Southland Printing in a positive way.
Recently, Southland Printing Company underwent a rebranding of its LOGO and the culture of the company with the direction coming from the second generation of management, John Manno, Jr.
A Red Rose has been the company’s symbol almost since its founding. Red is a color that has always been associated with energy, strength and power and was the perfect symbol for Southland, signifying determination as well as passion. Red roses are given to those you have great respect for, and that is why they always display a bouquet at the booth as well as pass out the embroidered roses to people who visit the booth. The rose has been stylized and if you look closely you can see the letters SP for Southland Printing. Looking closer, you may even see a roll of paper unwinding symbolizing the many rolls of paper that are used to produce the millions of tickets ran each day.
Several years ago, Southland Printing began having a caricature artist at their booth and allowed the attendees to come by and get their caricature drawn. This has been such a hit at the PIE that they have expanded the idea to other shows. Southland Printing reaches out to local artists around the shows to try and find the perfect fit.
Southland Printing Company has been part of the parking industry since 1960 and ships to all 50 states and over 49 foreign countries. Printing tickets for over 40 different manufacturers both domestic and foreign assures you that Southland can provide the ticket you need. Only the highest quality raw materials are used, and each component undergoes rigorous testing in their R&D Lab before they are released to the market. Their shipping time is one of the best in the industry with a turnaround time of 20 business days after receipt of order or proof approval.
Although Southland has made some changes, they still hold their Core Values of Relationships, Integrity, Quality, Versatility and Communication in high regard! These will never change.
Contact information:
Southland Printing
info@southlandprinting.com.
P: 800-241-8662
Uncanny Vision
AI-based Vision for Cameras
Uncanny Vision is an award-winning Artificial Intelligence based Vision company that provides unprecedented accuracy with License Plate Recognition (LPR) and vehicle monitoring that is bringing the “Smart” to Smart Parking.
Uncanny Vision is transforming parking spaces into unmanned camera based parking management sites by digitizing the whole parking system leveraging Artificial Intelligence and Cameras. Uncanny Smart Parking Solutions address the core problems faced today by parking industry – whether it is outdoor open parking lots or indoor multi-level parking lots.
At the PIE 2019, Chicago, Uncanny Vision has announced the following two new products that are rapidly gaining adoption from system integrators.
Products
1- Uncanny ANPR – AI-based high-accuracy LPR for Entry/Exit Gates
With vehicle detection accuracy above 99% and LPR accuracy above 95%, Uncanny Vision is setting the benchmark for License Plate Recognition worldwide and ensuring that no vehicles will be left uncounted. End-to-end AI-based vision is a crucial technology that enables this level of accuracy. But until recently, AI-based vision required high-end servers, making it too expensive for parking applications. Working closely with Silicon Valley chip makers, Uncanny ANPR has been optimized to run on sub-$500 hardware. With an low-cost licensing, it is now a no-brainer for parking system integrators to adopt high accuracy LPR in their parking lot entry/exits.
2- Uncanny Vehicam – Low-cost parking spot occupancy/vacancy detection
Monitoring vacancy/occupancy of parking spots has required expensive ground sensors or wired cameras. By leveraging low-cost wireless battery-based cameras, Uncanny Vehicam enables system integrators parking operators to monitor individual parking spots for less than $5 a month. Moreover, these wireless cameras can be mounted or moved easily without requiring any civil work like digging the parking spaces or wiring/networking. With this solution, parking operators can have real-time view of occupancy/vacancy of every spot they own with a simple web-based dashboard that gives them a live view into their property anywhere – indoor or outdoor.
Applications/Usecases
Following are the key AI & Camera based usecases offered under the Uncanny Vision Smart Parking Solution Suite:
• Total parking occupancy/vacancy
• Floor-wise occupancy
• Overstaying alerts
• Unauthorized/ misuse of VIP/ reserved parking
• Access control at Entry/Exit boom barriers using LPR
• Blacklisted or Whitelisted vehicles tracking
• Parking assistance and guidance to spot the vehicle – “Where is my car”
• Express checkout for Monthly parking customers
Uncanny Vision was started in 2012 by Computer Vision industry veterans with a mission to transition every blind surveillance camera into intelligent surveillance camera. Uncanny Vision is an AI (Artificial Intelligence) based Video Analytics solution provider focusing on Security Surveillance. The company has worked with multiple Fortune 500 companies on different vision verticals including Automotive, Security & Surveillance, and Machine vision. Currently, the company provides solution for the following verticals: Traffic Surveillance, Factory Surveillance, Retail Surveillance, Banking Surveillance and Video Analytics. The company has offices in Japan, India & North America.
www.uncannyvision.com. Contact: sales@uncannyvision.com. +14083758731
