Project need
The goal was to log vehicle entry and exit at the mall's paid parking facility by plate and manage the operation centrally. The installation had to be carried out in winter, in snowy conditions — the first on-site challenge.
Solution implemented
Two LPR cameras (one at entry, one at exit) and two boom barriers were installed. The control panel houses a relay card and a PoE switch; the camera, relay card, and barrier control unit all communicate over the same TCP/IP network. The software runs on a PC about 10 meters from the gate; the MS SQL database stores only plate/time/transaction records (metadata), while plate images are kept separately on the file system (C:\PTS\plaka_resimler). Our take: keeping image storage separate from the database from day one is the right architectural choice — it keeps the database from bloating over the years and preserves performance.
Benefit delivered
Thanks to the PoE switch and relay-card-based wiring, installation took only 2 days. Mall management can now query vehicle entries and exits by plate, and database performance is unaffected by the image data load.