Engineering Expertise Built Over Decades

With more than three decades of experience spanning Europe and Australia, Ivan Wunderlin, Chief Systems Architect at Park Agility, brings a rare combination of electronic engineering depth and software innovation to the world of smart parking systems.

Originally trained in Switzerland as an electronics engineer, Ivan began his career at Siemens, developing a deep appreciation for systems reliability and precision. Over time, he transitioned into software and embedded systems—an evolution that shaped his approach to technology leadership. “I started in electronics, but gradually moved into software,” he explains. “That mix is really what led me to systems architecture.”

Before joining Park Agility, Ivan spent years with Hub Parking Technology, part of the FAAC Group, working on global parking automation systems. His work took him around the world—including to Australia, where he eventually settled on the South Coast of New South Wales.

The humble wheel stop has long been a quiet fixture in car parks and sold by the millions around the world. Simple, functional, and largely unchanged for decades, its purpose is clear; to protect pedestrians, vehicles, and infrastructure from collision with one another.  Over the last decade parking guidance and enforcement solutions have also been on the rise, resulting in sensors by the hundreds of thousands being deployed to parking bays – many of which also have wheel stops in place. Park Agility has reimagined these products into something far more impactful. By embedding sensor technology into a recycled plastic wheel stop we’ve created a dual-purpose solution that delivers both structural safety and protection plus real-time parking intelligence – all while dramatically improving the environmental footprint of both. The convergence of these functionalities is a world first and we have a patent-pending to prove it.   

Park Agility’s tag line is: “Faster, Smarter, Greener” 

The Park Agility wheel stop incorporates a dedicated technology compartment, allowing a lidar sensor, control board, and firmware to be housed within the body of the product itself. This innovation converges two products into one plus simplifies maintenance to deliver a truly ‘faster’ and ‘smarter’ solution. The ‘greener’ part of the tag line is not lacking, rather it is amplified. The wheel stop is made entirely from recycled ‘Post Prime’ plastic sourced in Australia from Transmutation – an Adelaide based company. This wheel stop is itself fully recyclable at end of life with no mixed materials or contaminants. Compared with wheel stops made with virgin plastic, rubber or concrete, our solution has a carbon footprint 70% lower. For Transmutation, it is not just about making environmentally friendly products; it is about backing them with data that speaks clearly. The PostPrime®️ plastic is carbon neutral and comes with both a life-cycle assessment (LCA) and an environmental product declaration (EPD). These certifications are valuable for clients looking to track Scope 3 emissions and has our product in a strong position as ESG and sustainability gain momentum in the market.  

Sydney’s parking system is under enormous pressure. With daily parking rates reaching over A$77 in the CBD, mounting congestion across commercial hubs, and declining household incomes, parking has shifted from a civic utility to a barrier for economic participation. As outlined in the NRMA’s March 2025 report, “Parkin’ Mad”, this is a cost-of-living issue and a structural challenge affecting Sydney’s economy, social mobility, and urban efficiency. 

But with innovative thinking, commercial investment from private carpark operators and landowners, and support from councils and regulators, it may not be necessary to build a single new car park to unlock real change. 

For over a decade, Park Agility have championed individual bay sensors/indicator lights as the superior solution for both accuracy and customer experience. Now, we are pleased to announce the arrival of our latest sensor range that combines two sensors, either Ultrasonic or LiDAR with Camera technology.

We have been operating this new solution in a live site for over six months now, and the results are excellent in terms of customer feedback, bay occupation accuracy, overall system performance and licence plate recognition accuracy.   

Wayfinding parking signage in car parks contributes to smooth navigation for drivers, reduced congestion, and enhancement of the user experience. There are various types of parking signage that help guide drivers and pedestrians, each serving a specific purpose. Understanding these different kinds of wayfinding signage can help to ensure a parking facility has what it needs to improve efficiency and safety for its customers.

Park Agility is a business focused on the improvement of parking operations. We are first and foremost a technology company that has used intelligent automation from year 1, so it should come as no great surprise to learn that we are also a committed adopter of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Some algorithms and solutions are internally developed, whilst others derive from the solutions of partners such as SONAH and Plate Recognizer.

Incorporating parking LED signage in a car park or precinct area offers enhancements for both operational efficiency and customer experience, making it a solid investment in parking infrastructure.

When talking to councils and asset owners, typically one of the reasons for installing a parking guidance system is to improve customer experience. This isn’t just lip service; customers often want the benefits a parking guidance system provides primarily because it makes finding a parking spot easy, reducing stress and frustration during peak periods.

The technology also helps users save time and fuel by directing them to available parking spaces quickly. This is particularly valuable in busy urban areas or retail car parks with high shopper traffic where finding parking can be time-consuming.

When drivers are being directed efficiently to available parking bays, congestion is reduced. This contributes to reducing the emissions that are sustained when cars crawl in circles searching for somewhere to stop, benefiting both users and the surrounding area by improving traffic flow. This assists with customer loyalty as drivers come back to retail centres that offer an efficient parking service.

These efficiencies can be maximised by facility operators who can optimise available spaces for specific categories of parker (disabled, pram, electric vehicles) to ensure these spaces are available and properly allocated. By using past data to predict surges in demand, facility management is improved and whilst customers may not be aware of this functionality, they benefit from the enhanced capacity these informed decisions create.

Parking technology that incorporates security features such as surveillance cameras and emergency call buttons can make users feel safer in parking facilities, particularly if they are entering or exiting in a remote area or in the dark. Those that can offer a modern and efficient parking experience gain a competitive advantage, being an attractive option for customers who know they will be safe and able to find a parking spot quickly on arrival.

Another element of building customer loyalty is by meeting specific requirements or integration needs, such as connecting to mobile apps or payment platforms that customers use. Parking technologies can often be tailored to meet these needs, piggybacking off the loyalty and convenience those apps and services generate.

As customers seek to go about their business efficiently, parking guidance systems can help them on their way – but only when the technology works as it should. Facility owners need to ensure the parking guidance system they choose to install is one that delivers accurate information in a timely manner. There is nothing more frustrating in a car park than following a green light only to find a bay occupied! When they do, parking guidance systems provide a high level of convenience that caters to the needs of a parking asset’s customers.

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Park Agility are delighted to announce a partnership with SONAH GmbH, German provider of camera-based sensor products and solutions. This industry-leading, camera-based solution utilises both edge processing and cloud-based processing involving sophisticated Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI), and can be used for traffic monitoring, vehicle counting, parking enforcement and as a key component in a parking guidance system.

The partnership adds to Park Agility’s range of products and solution offerings, which include multiple sensors; parking guidance systems; wayfinding signage; area and loop counting technologies; and precinct signage solutions.

Bringing to Australia a camera-based technology solution that complies with stringent GDPR privacy standards adds sought after capability. Data can be supplied to Park Agility’s SenseIQ management system that provides accurate, real-time information on occupancy and usage without adding to privacy concerns.

With a firm focus on accuracy and reliability, Park Agility’s customised approach to parking solutions takes into consideration the physical environment; asset size and complexity; operating costs and budgets; plus client-specific requirements and expectations. By incorporating a camera-based solution to our service offering, we continue to provide innovative, robust, and accurate technologies to both privately and publicly owned, on and off-street parking assets.

Talk to us today about camera-based solutions to improve your car park monitoring capabilities.

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Sensors, such as Infrared, Ultrasonic, LiDAR and Magnetic Resonance are often deployed for detecting the presence of vehicles in parking spaces and on the whole, they do that very well.

They provide accurate occupancy detection with low latency and processing overheads which is important for the provision of real-time wayfinding information to the carpark user. Whilst generally more accurate and lower cost to install and maintain, these four sensor types cannot provide additional visual information. That is the key advantage that comes with the use of camera sensors, though this advantage comes at a cost and the costs should be carefully weighed against the advantages.

Camera sensors offer the advantage of covering a wider area compared to individual bay sensors with a single camera sensor able to monitor four to six parking spaces indoors and as many as ten or more spaces in an outdoor environment, when mounted at height. However, the more spaces being monitored, the wider the lens angle on the camera and the higher the camera resolution that is also required. The higher the resolution, the higher the camera cost. Also the higher the resolution, the greater the network bandwidth to move the images and the higher the head end computing power required to process the images. It is a finite balance that takes ICT expertise and experience to manage well.

Costs and added complexity aside, by their very nature, cameras can provide detailed visual information and additional useful metadata when used in car parking management. Not only do they allow for recognition and analysis of parking space occupancy status, they can also enable vehicle tracking and identification using make, model and licence plate capture.

Whilst it can be advantageous to track and identify vehicles, such activity may face privacy concerns and potential liabilities. Asset owners considering the deployment of camera sensor solutions would be well advised to consider solutions offering the option of higher privacy compliance levels such as the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) standards.

Additionally, the tendency to deploy one camera sensor per four to six bays in an indoor car parking facility can be a compromise to accuracy. One would need to compete against the individual bay sensors on price to be certain, but increasing the potential for inaccuracy, particularly in the event of environmental factors or component failure where bay occupation count can thus be out by four or six instead of one. At Park Agility, individual bay sensors will always be considered the superior solution for this reason.

The area where cameras deliver the best outcomes is when used in access control and when used in bay occupancy count for large outdoor car parking facilities, particularly where there may be minimal structure.

In practice, particularly for larger car parking facilities, a combination of camera sensors and other sensor technologies is a good idea to leverage the advantages of both technologies. At any rate, seldom is vehicle tracking and identification required in all areas of a car park. More likely it is a requirement at entries, exits and more popular areas only – or at least areas where abuse is known to occur. A hybrid multi sensor approach can deliver accuracy, coverage, and help optimise cost-benefit.

Talk to us today for trusted advice on the best parking guidance sensors and solutions for your parking asset.

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