Q-Park
"Overall, Surveillance Station is an excellent platform for making the CCTV aspect of the business a far more effective and useful tool, from security to general use, and gives our customers the peace of mind that their vehicles are safe with us."
Darren Maskrey, Head of Operations (Great Britain), Q-Park
The Company
Q-Park is one of the largest parking service providers in Europe. Since being founded in the Netherlands in 1998, they now operate over 200 parking facilities across 70 cities in 7 countries, with over 70 sites in the UK. What differentiates Q-Park from other parking providers is focusing on making a positive contribution to urban life, utilizing modern technology at their strategic locations to deliver a pleasant parking experience.
Other than parking, they also provide services including EV charging stations, online reservations, and umbrella and buggy hire within their facilities, making them a popular and trustworthy choice among drivers as evident from their high customer satisfaction rate.
The Challenge
Q-Park noticed their older security devices had reached its end of life, and often resulted in downtime when installing firmware updates due to its custom hardware. Support for their previous system ended with Windows 7, meaning it was susceptible to security vulnerabilities and could no longer reach Q-park's security standards.
Furthermore, it lacked disk and power redundancy, which could respectively result in data loss or power outages in the case of an emergency.
Looking for a new, future-proof and easy to manage security solution, they found Synology.
The Solution
After assessing Synology's Surveillance Station, Q-Park found it would fit their surveillance needs and alleviate the problems caused by their prior setup. Using a central RackStation unit as their host server at their UK headquarters in Leeds, they initially deployed further RackStation servers equipped with Surveillance Station to some of their parking facilities, as well as a total of 2000 cameras across the various sites.
Power and disk redundancy
One of the most immediate advantages the Synology system had over Q-Park's previous solution was the use of dual power supplies. This feature guaranteed uninterrupted operation, safeguarding against disruptions caused by power supply unit (PSU) failures or accidental unplugging.
The RAID configuration used in their Synology device offers disk redundancy, meaning data is stored over multiple disks so a backup is always available on-site. This way, if a disk malfunctions and the data stored on it is lost, the same data can still be retrieved from another disk.
The addition of HAT3000 Plus Series HDDs further fortifies the infrastructure. These drives not only make data storage more reliable, but also streamline the support process. In the event of any disk failure, Synology's tech support can rapidly troubleshoot and authorize immediate replacements, significantly reducing downtime and minimizing the risk of data loss.
Streamlined administration
The Centralized Management System (CMS) enables surveillance teams to monitor different individual servers from the host server. This allows Q-Park to not only view live feeds and recorded footage from each of their sites in Monitor Center, but also to remotely install firmware updates to improve the security of their security solution. The mobile apps on iOS and Android devices are helpful for granting remote workers access to view live feeds with custom layouts when they are away from their PCs, in addition to email notifications.
Camera compatibility
Moreover, the integration of Synology BC500 model cameras into Q-Park's existing system was seamless, adding advanced AI-powered features without any additional license fees. These cameras complemented the third-party compatibility of the Synology platform, offering People and Vehicle Detection, Instant Search, and other smart capabilities for efficient surveillance and quick recording access.
Existing domain integration
Q-Park employees are able to log in to Surveillance Station with their current corporate Microsoft AD accounts. Additionally, access permissions can be adjusted for each individual employee based on their roles, meaning site managers can have more detailed views than general security staff.
High Availability cluster enhancement
Q-Park also integrated a High Availability (HA) cluster for its CMS host servers, ensuring maximum system availability and continuous surveillance. If the active server fails, the passive server immediately takes over its duties, guaranteeing uninterrupted recording and data integrity across all parking facilities. This highlights Q-Park's dedication to unyielding security.
The Benefits
Synology's Surveillance Station empowered Q-Park to seamlessly upgrade their surveillance systems. Their positive experience with Synology has inspired them to add more RackStation servers to all of their 70+ sites across the UK, as well as Synology cameras at a facility in York. Other benefits of Synology include:
- Reduced downtime during server maintenance or unplanned disruptions with power redundancy
- Backups of video footage stored safely on-site using RAID
- Seamless integration of Synology Cameras, including their intelligent AI features
- Simple incorporation of prior domain accounts, allowing for custom permission designation
- Continuous surveillance assured by the high availability cluster
"The new Synology surveillance system is a great improvement on the old system in many ways. The IP-based remote access allows real-time availability to all sites across the country, making it easy to monitor or review any site and camera within minutes," said Darren Maskrey, Head of Operations (Great Britain) at Q-Park.
Hear from Q-Park
Recommended Models
- RS822+
- RS422+
- RS820RP+
- RS1619xs+
- RS815+
- HAT3300-12T
Recommended Features
- Centralized management of Surveillance Station and remote installation of firmware updates for security devices with CMS
- Synology High Availability cluster maintains uninterrupted service and minimizes downtime
- AI detection capabilities on Synology Cameras for instant event detection and playback
- DS cam app for on-the-go surveillance