Quercus Technologies comprehensive parking solution installed at the Los Portales Shopping Center

Quercus Technologies, leader in the world market of smart parking solutions, is proud to announce that the list of Latin American shopping centers equipped with their parking solutions continues to grow. Now, the Los Portales Shopping Center in Guatemala has joined the parking revolution, installing state-of-the-art technology to maximize its parking garage's potential.

Los Portales is one of the biggest and most popular malls of the city, offering a broad selection of shops, restaurants, and entertainment options for the whole family. As a place of reference in the city, visited each day by so many users, Los Portales needed a parking facility that met all its essential needs and requirements. That's why, together with our partner Global Genius, we drew up a comprehensive plan to integrate everything necessary to remodel the shopping center's parking garage.

To add additional layers of security, convenience, and automation to the premises, 12 Smart LPR Access license plate recognition units were installed, distributed among the various parking facility access points. This is a key tool in the management of the parking garage of a shopping center of these characteristics, for several reasons. License plate recognition cameras enable the automatic identification and recording of the license plates of the vehicles that enter and exit the parking facility. This facilitates access control and security, as it is possible to verify that only authorized vehicles are entering and exiting the parking garage. On another note, the information gathered by the license plate recognition cameras can also be used to manage the number of spaces available in the parking facility. Having real-time data on the number of vehicles that have entered and left the premises enables operators to know how many spaces are free, and if it's necessary to detour drivers to other parking areas.

In the design of this parking project, it was decided to install 1,400 RGB parking place availability indicator lights. This solution empowers drivers to see the parking availability status for every space. RGB lights provide a unique visual experience to parking garage users. With a view to improving user experience, the lights change color depending on the parking space occupancy status: green if the space is free, red if occupied, and blue if reserved for a specific type of user.

The next phase involves the 285 SC Indoor sensors also installed throughout the parking garage. These sensors recognize the license plate of the parked vehicle, giving it the capability to know whether the space is free or occupied. Once this information is collected, the occupancy data are sent to the indicator lights to change color according to the activity taking place in each space.

Parking space detection is one of the backbones of the system; everything begins with the reading of the license plate by the sensor to determine and signal the status of every space. When the sensor picks up a change in parking space status, it shows it by changing the color of its light, and sending this information to the parking management program, in this case our proprietary software, BirdWatch. That way, the parking operator is aware at all times of the status of the entire parking facility, enabling its optimized management.

The 40 LED matrix displays installed at different strategic points of the parking garage are very useful to expedite even further the process of finding an available space in the least possible time. LED matrix displays are an effective tool for traffic management and communication in parking garages. These panels are used to display information to drivers in real time, such as the number of available spaces, traffic directions and security messaging.

Last, mention should be made of the installation of 8 vehicle locator kiosks distributed at the access points to the shopping center from the parking garage. With the kiosks, users find their vehicles quickly and easily. All they have to do is enter their license plate number and the kiosk will show them the exact location of their car, and directions to get there.

The installation of the comprehensive parking solution provided by Quercus has brought about significant improvement in the management of the parking garage at Los Portales Shopping Center, guaranteeing a unique, optimized experience to all parking garage users. We are certain that the implementation of this advanced technology will be greatly appreciated by all customers, and improve the overall efficiency of the parking garage.