Pay on Foot parking systems manufacturer, DESIGNA, has worked with the Woolshops shopping centre in Halifax, West Yorkshire, to update its car parking system to the company’s advanced ABACUS software and equipment. The installation, comprising three new state-of-the-art entrance and four exit barriers, seven automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras and three Pay on Foot pay stations, helps to improve the efficiency and security of the car park, which is popular with shoppers due to its central location.
As the first part of the shopping experience, the convenience and availability of a car park is crucial to the overall service and satisfaction of a customer. DESIGNA recognised this and developed ABACUS, an advanced car park access system that intelligently integrates various elements to create the ultimate system that is highly reliable and low-maintenance. It is also able to cope with large volumes of traffic while providing the highest level of monitoring to ensure a secure parking environment.High printing and reading speed ensures effective ticket handling
ABACUS system
The ABACUS system also includes the new Multicon MC Barcode. Compact and reliable, the Multicon MC Barcode from DESIGNA ensures the efficient processing of barcode tickets and cards and is an extremely low maintenance unit. The Multicon MC Barcode enables access to two ticket magazines which store up to 10,000 tickets. Barcode tickets can be read easily in all four directions and the high printing and reading speed ensures effective ticket handling.
With more than 40 stores and cafes, Woolshops shopping centre in Halifax has a fantastic fashion, café culture and local independent business offering. Woolshops is a short walk from Halifax railway station and bus station, and has direct access car parking for more than 300 vehicles.
System upgrade
Jason Gregg, Shopping Centre Manager at Woolshops commented, “We’ve been looking to upgrade our system for a while and we have known Tony at DESIGNA for a number of years. It has been a competitive tender process, we wanted ANPR and didn’t want to go ticketless and found that DESIGNA met all our requirements. One of our team also visited the DESIGNA stand at Parkex and was very impressed with the demonstration and how it worked.”
He continued, “The system is working very well and we received great support from the team before and after its installation. During the project DESIGNA was also able to run the new system alongside our old one so the transition was easy and meant no loss of revenue, which was very important to us. We are very happy with the end result and would definitely recommend DESIGNA to others.”The advanced terminals operate on the lowest energy consumption of their class
Advanced ANPR
The 300-space car park, consisting of two decks, is now easier to monitor, and with its advanced ANPR allows shopping centre management to track the amount of time each car has spent on site. The car park’s entrance and exit are both installed with two DESIGNA In+ and Out+ ticket terminals so that using the site is fast and easy.
The advanced terminals operate on the lowest energy consumption of their class with the ability to hold more tickets than before, with the bin adapting itself to the fill quantity. Customers are greeted with excellent user-friendliness due to the simplicity of the equipment and illuminated display with clear instructions.
Robust barriers
Both the entrance and exit lanes are supported by DESIGNA’s robust barriers for added security and open on exit via the ANPR system so customers can leave the car park easily without having to insert their tickets. The four-way barcode readers also ensure visitors can insert their ticket any way round into any of the pay stations around the site.
For payment, three of DESIGNA’s new Pay on Foot machines are placed over two levels of the car park. This allows customers to pay for their visit before returning to their car and exit the car park more quickly. The pay station is deliberately designed to allow disabled customers to pay freely without assistance. Each of the pay stations is installed with an interactive monitor that makes it easy to pay and offers several different languages.DESIGNA’s parking systems are used in a number of impressive shopping centres around the world
Manual pay station
Shopping centre management has full control of the ABACUS system through the server, with a manual pay station (MPS) to allow them to create or override payments. The control room also links with the ticket and payment terminals via a DESIGNA VoIP Intercom to assist customers if required.
DESIGNA’s parking systems are used in a number of impressive shopping centres around the world. These include the Dundrum shopping centre in Dublin, the Mid Valley Megamall in Malaysia, the Mall of Emirates in Dubai and the Belfry shopping centre in Redhill.
Intelligent systems
Recognised worldwide for its high quality and intelligent systems, DESIGNA has more than 15,000 systems installed globally across a wide range of car park situations, including shopping centres, airports and hospitals. ABACUS is one of the company’s innovations and demonstrates the endless possibilities available to car park operators.
The future-proof technology allows for expansions of premises or new property acquisitions by allowing additional systems to be added to the network. In its many global applications, ABACUS has proved to be an effortless system for both operators and users and is a great investment for companies looking to the future.
