Wireless IP Video Secures Lots

That's a big change from SPS' old video surveillance system, which required security guards to watch monitors from booths in the lots. The parking-card access incident might have gone unnoticed under the old system because there was no one on-site at the time. And "it would have been too late to react when we did find out" because SPS wouldn't have been able to quickly send the clips to the airline, Danberry says.

Security has been a problem in the employee parking lots of the New Jersey airport. The high crime rate in the area, along with heightened security after 9/11, prompted SPS last year to ratchet up security in its employee parking lots, which span 21 acres and 2,250 spaces. "We had the problem of how to provide better security and service, but not at too high of a cost," Danberry says.

So SPS, with the help of Omni Security Services, an integrator specializing in surveillance technology, selected a wireless security system that uses IP video, voice and data to monitor the comings and goings in these isolated parking areas. It also lets airport bus drivers, as well as SPS technicians, automatically open and close gates in SPS parking lots to limit access during passenger pickups and drop-offs, for instance. Call boxes stationed in the lots run on the network as well, so airline and federal Transportation Security Administration employees can call SPS' monitoring site if they need assistance. SPS just brought a third parking lot onto the network and plans to add a fourth to the network later this year.

The surveillance system for Newark Airport's employee parking lots runs on a 10-Mbps, Motorola Canopy wireless system. Vanguard Managed Solutions' 6435 multimedia routers and RemoteVU Guardian IP video transmitters, Hewlett-Packard Co. ProCurve switches and Motorola Canopy Subscriber Units are the main network devices at each lot. Each parking lot on the network has its own wired Ethernet LAN with wireless access to SPS' central command post, about a mile away.

Although wireless at first seemed risky for the backbone given the potential radio interference at the airport and strict FAA regulations with the surrounding airwaves, it was the best fit for retrofitting the parking lot security on SPS' budget (see "The Hard Sell"). Bandwidth was just too pricey, says Ray Patalano, product line manager for IP video solutions at Vanguard, which designed the network for Omni Security and SPS. A dedicated DS-3 WAN would have cost SPS about $1 million per year, including the full-time monitoring costs, he says.Reality TV

In SPS' IP network, it's video that gets priority, not voice. For now the main voice traffic comes from the call-box intercoms, which also let SPS security technicians speak remotely to a would-be robber trying to break into a car parked in the lot. But it's the streaming IP video from its cameras that gives SPS the most information and control over its parking lots. The routers are set to give video dibs on bandwidth so there's no pixelation, and as yet, quality-of-service management hasn't been necessary because there's been very little data traffic going over the network. Video requires about 6 Mbps upstream and 8 or 9 Mbps downstream. "We're always making sure there are no pixelations in the video," says Dorothy Di Tommaso, president of Omni Security Services.

SPS can capture and e-mail video clips over the Internet of any suspicious activity to its clients, like it did for Continental, as well as to the police. Now, it mostly phones the police in emergencies. "We can immediately contact the police if necessary and automatically focus more cameras on a problem area," SPS' Danberry says.

Setting up the wireless backbone was the biggest challenge. Even after a spectrum analysis with a global positioning system (GPS) pinpointed the lines of sight for the network, the wireless connections initially were bouncing off a nearby building and blocking video transmission from the parking lots. "The GPS was about three degrees off," Vanguard's Patalano says.

Stormy Weather Then there were the late-summer thunderstorms that wreaked havoc on the outdoor installation. When lightning struck in the area, its energy would surge through the video cameras' coaxial cable and knock out the Guardian boxes and Motorola radios. "If any of the access points were knocked out by bad weather, it could affect the whole network," Patalano says.

And having coax alongside wireless also initially caused some wireless outages. So Omni and Vanguard added special surge protection to the Guardian boxes to counter bad weather, and physically separated the coax from the wireless links to prevent interference between the transmission mediums.

SPS, meanwhile, has saved money with the new system because now it needs only one security guard posted at each lot. The multimedia security system has also been good for SPS' business: The wireless gate system has helped the airport buses run on schedule, and SPS' lots now have a reputation for safety. "We have a waiting list of airport and airline employees wanting to transfer out of another parking lot at the airport to one of ours. They feel safer with our system," Danberry says.

Later this year, SPS and Omni will outsource the management of the wireless IP network to Vanguard, which will remotely manage it from its network operations center in Mansfield, Mass. Vanguard currently polls the network at various times, but relies on SPS and Omni to report problems it doesn't detect. The managed service will let Vanguard catch a network device problem, for example, before SPS loses data, says Omni's Di Tommaso.

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Ed Danberry's only requirement for Secure Parking Systems' new surveillance network at Newark Liberty International Airport was that it had to offer stronger security at a lower overhead cost than the previous system. So what sealed the deal for Danberry? The wireless IP backbone recommended by a local systems integrator offered more security than its previous one, and on SPS' $200,000 budget. "My objectives were met," says Danberry, who is president of the Newark-based parking management company that runs all but one of the five employee lots at the massive airport. Parking for the general public is run by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

It wasn't a matter of selling the project to the rest of SPS--Danberry was the person whom Omni Security Services, the surveillance systems integrator charged with building a new surveillance system, had to convince. "We went back and forth for about three months on what the system had to do and how it was going to do it," he recalls.

Since SPS' business is to run and manage parking lots and bus stops at the airport, not to build an IT infrastructure, Danberry handed that responsibility to Omni, also in Newark. "We couldn't have done this on our own," he says.

Omni's first challenge was to preserve SPS' investment in its closed-circuit video cameras, while finding an inexpensive way to digitize its feeds. "We didn't want to have to remodel the whole thing," says Dorothy Di Tommaso, president of the integration firm.Di Tommaso and her team came up with the wireless network option after ruling out the pricier dedicated T1 and T3 services.

The bottom line for Danberry: The new surveillance network is a more precise and efficient system that lets him capture and share video clips and data. The old, manned approach suffered from high turnover and gaping holes in security: "It was difficult for them to watch numerous monitors," Danberry says. The new system is more proactive and allows more pairs of eyes on duty. "We have two people at the central location directing the parking lot supervisor to what they see happening," he says.

Ed Danberry; President, Secure Parking Systems, Newark, NJ

Ed Danberry, 55, started Secure Parking Systems in 1998 to provide safe employee parking for Continental Airlines at Newark Liberty International Airport. With SPS' new wireless IP security system, Danberry serves as a security consultant as well as a frontline technician monitoring the comings and goings in the four employee parking lots SPS runs at the airport. When it was time to upgrade SPS' method for monitoring the lots, Danberry outsourced the job to Omni Security Services for its IT expertise.

If I Knew Then What I Know Now: I would have built in better security and more operational efficiency, and set the system up in my office so I could see everything.What It's Like Working in Tony Soprano's 'hood: He's working on my turf. Omni Security's office is located on Frelinghuysen Avenue in Newark a famous location in the HBO series. I don't watch the show, but a couple of months ago Tony mentioned that Omni was buying all the good properties on Frelinghuysen Ave. We were flooded with calls as to how we got mentioned on the show.

For Fun: Roulette, genealogy (my ancestors fought in the Revolutionary War), and listening to all types of music. I have 6,000 songs on my computer.

Wheels: A GMC Yukon. It provides me with a luxury vehicle that holds six people but does not give my clients the impression they are paying too much for our services.

Biggest Bet I've Ever Made: $5,000 on a single spin of the roulette wheel. I have made that bet too many times and have had it go both ways.

Most Bizarre Security Breach I've Encountered: A guy showed up at the South Street lot, jumped the barbed wire fence, went to one of the bus shelters and said he'd been shot. He then fled before police responded.Extra Coverage: The surveillance system caught on film two separate accidents directly in front of a parking lot entrance. Both accidents (neither involved any of our parking customers) resulted in fatalities and shut down our operation during the investigation.

Advice to Other Parking System Managers: Upgrade by hiring out technology and reducing manpower via a centralized monitoring system.