Nedap provides frictionless vehicle access experience for tenants at HQ Business Park, Jeddah (KSA)

The Headquarters Business Park Tower

This tallest skyscraper, towering above Jeddah’s North Corniche and with a unique “Sail of a dhow” design, is an iconic structure in the commercial hub of Saudi Arabia.

The iconic business park consists of offices, clinics, restaurants, entertainment facilities  and a luxurious hotel. It has three main sections, the West tower housing 52 floors, East tower housing a luxurious hotel with 16 floors and a mid-section with 11 storey parking facility comprising of 2.000 parking spots which connects the West and East towers.

Need for hands-free vehicle access

With the exemplary design of the tower, there was a need for an all-in-one innovative vehicle and driver access control solution which can provide seamless integration with best performance which is in line with the state-of-art services to tenants in one of the most sophisticated buildings in Jeddah.

Multiple entry and exit points to the vehicle parking facility had to be provided with an automated system, for convenient, hands-free access to authorized vehicles of office employees and long-term tenants.  An efficient solution was identified, with a combination of Automatic Number Plate Recognition and Long-Range RFID (Radiofrequency Identification for Automatic Vehicle Identification).

Touchless vehicle access to employees

Nedap’s uPASS Reach, based on passive UHF technology read-range up to 5 meters in combination with UHF Windshield tags is used to provide convenient vehicle access to employees. UHF Tags, which are thin, flexible, tamper resistant and maintenance free are assigned to vehicles of employees who work in the 256 office units. When the registered vehicle with UHF tag installed approaches the long-range UHF RFID reader installed near the barrier, the vehicle is automatically identified and access is granted for authorized vehicles to the parking facility.

Parking access to tenants based on LPR

The iconic tower with sea-view includes a luxurious hotel and it is observed that tenants stay for a longer duration or prefer coming back on regular basis. To provide a seamless experience to tenants and ensure smooth flow of vehicles and drivers into the parking facility, there was a need for a solution which could grant tenant vehicles access temporarily or incidentally. Nedap’s ANPR series – License plate recognition camera with an accurate read-range at several meters – ensures tenant number plates are registered and required access rights can be easily granted in the backend application.

Securing the 11 floor parking facility

With the parking facility being the main entry point to both the West and East tower, it was very necessary to meet high-security standards and control the flow of vehicles. The proposed solution required to have seamless integration with the existing Lenel access control system OnGuard. The open architecture of Lenel and Nedap supporting variety of industry-standard communication interfaces, enabled seamless integration and successful implementation of the products by Idex services. Customized reports with the required log were easily accessible after the successful integration.