Reaching the nearest available parking space.
Carrefour Romania has chosen Parking Spotter, powered by Axis Communications.
Mission
With an infrastructure that includes over 12,000 stores in 30 countries, of which over 350 are in Romania, Carrefour is one of the world’s largest retailers. Serving millions of customers every day, Carrefour’s stores around the world need to provide customers with ways to find parking spaces. During peak times, car traffic in the parking lots exceeds normal levels, which leads to inefficient operation, increased amounts of time for arrivals and departures, and causes customers discomfort. This was also the case at Carrefour Brașov, located in one of the most visited towns in Romania.
Solution
Parking Spotter is an innovative solution that helps people to find the closest available parking place in real time while also allowing parking lot owners to improve operational flow. It is suitable for many different types of properties, such as airports, stadiums and shopping centers. Parking Spotter can be installed as an additional feature on a video surveillance system, providing higher security, increased comfort and more efficient operations all in one system.
Result
Now, Carrefour Braşov hypermarket’s customers can use the Parking Spotter app for Android or iOS mobile devices to quickly find a free parking space. They are directed to the chosen parking space, and they have the ability to report incidents to security directly in the app. At the same time, the operator obtains important statistical data such as occupancy or average parking time.
Parking Spotter is bringing a huge potential for large-scale deployment, even for public parking lots, because it can significantly contribute to reducing traffic jams and the time spent by drivers in traffic to find a parking place.
Located in an important transit area, the Carrefour hypermarket in Brașov is both a key stop for those passing through the area and also an important shopping center for the locals. For this reason, it was built with a large parking lot with more than 1000 spaces. However, there have been situations, especially at peak times, when customers have not been able to find the parking space, they are seeking fast enough. After a preliminary analysis, it was determined that undesirable traffic is caused to a great extent by the time it takes for drivers to find a parking place.
As a result, it was concluded that it is necessary to quickly and precisely direct customers to a free parking space. For this reason, the Carrefour hypermarket team in Brașov has opted to install Axis IP surveillance cameras, which are recognized worldwide for their outstanding quality as well as for their high level of flexibility and potential for integration in complex systems.
For large areas where more coverage is needed, AXIS M3058-PLVE Network Cameras equipped with a 12MP sensor which are capable of shooting at 360 degrees were used. Designed to be used both indoors and outdoors, they are protected against vandalism and are perfect for obtaining high quality images, regardless of the property type. In addition, they feature Forensic WDR (Wide Dynamic Range) technology for very sharp detailed images, LightFinder for enhanced light sensitivity and OptimizedIR technology for filming in the dark. Axis Zipstream technology is used for efficient data compression, which minimizes the bandwidth and storage space required without any negative impact on image quality.
As part of the Parking Spotter solution from Commercial Center Carrefour Brașov, AXIS M3058-PLVE continuously monitors over 70 parking spaces, reporting which ones are unoccupied in real time. In addition, the system also includes AXIS M2025-LE and AXIS M2026-LE Mk II cameras, selected and installed at key points based on where their large field of view will be best put to work. Capable of shooting at high resolution, both models are equipped with IR illumination, WDR and Axis Zipstream technologies.
Beyond quality and performance, Axis cameras were also chosen based on their compatibility with Milestone XProtect®. Basically, the VMS solution concentrates all Axis cameras in a single interface, transmits real-time video streams to Parking Spotter and manages the preconfigured alarms Parking Spotter generates.
A direct result of the installation has been an improvement in customer satisfaction, since people no longer have to waste time finding a free parking space. The hypermarket’s management now also has important data that allows them to rethink some operations and possibly even to reorganize certain activities in order to make better use of the available parking lot area. Moreover, enforcing the policies set for cars that exceed the maximum allowed parking duration and acting promptly against those who violate the rules is easier than ever and improves the overall safety.
The winner of the Milestone Community Kickstarter Contest 2017, Parking Spotter was chosen to make parking at Carrefour Commercial Center Brașov more efficient thanks to its innovative method of operation. Thus, unlike the usual solutions based on individual sensors installed in each parking space, the new solution developed in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, uses video surveillance cameras and advanced artificial intelligence algorithms to analyze and determine the available spaces across a parking lot in real time.
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