Birmingham International Airport Orders License Plate Recognition System

Burlington, MA, May 23, 2001 – Scheidt & Bachmann and ALPHATECH, Inc., announced that the Birmingham, AL International Airport issued a notice to proceed for installation of a License Plate Recognition (LPR) system. Birmingham Airport has 20 lanes, including 8 entries, 6 credit card express exits and 6 cashiered exits.

Birmingham Leading the Way in Secure Express Exits

Under the guidance of Mr. Sam Wiggins, Director of Parking, Birmingham is the first airport to combine large numbers of credit card express exits (by Scheidt & Bachmann) with LPR. “Express exits improve customer service and reduce operating costs. LPR provides the extra financial control that unmanned express exits require. Together, LPR and express exits are the most important innovation in parking management today, and all of us at Birmingham are proud to be leading the way,” said Mr. Wiggins.

LPR Integrated with Parking Revenue Control

In 1999 Birmingham installed a new Scheidt & Bachmann Parking and Revenue Control System (PRCS). The ALPHATECH LPR and Scheidt & Bachmann PRCS systems are fully integrated, to yield maximum benefits from combining license plate and ticket information. The integrated system is most useful in transactions where both ticket and parking information is needed, or where one type of information is incomplete. For example, the integrated LPR-PRCS system is very effective at detecting swapped tickets and computing the correct fees due.

ALPHATECH and Scheidt & Bachmann installed the largest parking LPR system in the world in five parking facilities at Sky Harbor International Airport (SHIA) in Phoenix, AZ in 1999. With a rapidly growing facility, Phoenix ordered expansions to its LPR system in 2000 and in 2001 it has requested quotations on several more expansions.

LPR System Enhancements

The Birmingham LPR system will contain some more advanced software than the original Phoenix installation. The new system will be more robust, and better combines the benefits of a distributed computer system with the operator convenience of a unified system.

About Scheidt & Bachmann

Founded in 1872, Scheidt & Bachmann is the leading global manufacturer and system integrator of current technologies for the parking industry. It serves the North American parking market from its US Headquarters in Burlington Massachusetts with offices in Phoenix, Sacramento, Seattle, and Houston in July of 2001.

About ALPHATECH

ALPHATECH, a privately-held firm with offices in Burlington, MA, and Arlington, VA, is a developer of technology intensive applications software for government and industry focusing on advanced solutions incorporating sophisticated mathematical and knowledge-based algorithms.