out with the old, in with the new

Out With the Old, In With the New

Securing Long Beach Airport

out with the old, in with the new - securing long beach airport
Located just 18 miles southeast of Los Angeles International Airport lies a hidden gem for Southern California air travelers. Long Beach Airport (LGB), which serves more than 3.2 million passengers annually, has one of the strictest noise-abatement ordinances in the nation for its neighboring residential communities.

Forty-one daily commercial flights and 25 commuter flights provide a steady pace without the overwhelming crowds of the dominant airports to LGB’s north and south. JetBlue Airways has established the airport as its West Coast hub, while US Airways, Alaska Airlines and Delta Air Lines also provide carrier service. Air cargo carriers such as UPS and FedEx transport 57,000 tons of goods through LGB annually. The airport also is home to the production of the Boeing C-17 military transport jet, and maintenance facilities for Boeing and Gulfstream Aerospace.

Touted as one of the busiest general aviation airports in the world, LGB offers a large number of flights that include charter and private aviation, flight schools, law enforcement helicopters, advertising blimps and tow planes with advertising banners.

Landmark Gets Updates

Owned by the city of Long Beach since 1923, Long Beach Airport has also been known as Daugherty Field, named after the famous barnstormer, Earl S. Daugherty. LGB has one main terminal, notable for its circa 1941 streamline modern architecture. Today, it is a historical landmark with the original tower and two, small, outdoor baggage claims still in use. A newer, modern control tower overlooks the west side of the field. Due to the airport’s age and limited size, its passenger concourse area has recently been renovated.

A new $45 million terminal modernization project began at LGB in late 2010. A modern, inviting and comfortable passenger concourse of new eating and shopping destinations, including an outdoor garden, has been built. The 36,000-squarefoot eco-friendly facility, with rows of palm trees and native plants, is in an open courtyard between the north and south concourse. It is a welcome change to the cramped, temporary trailers that travelers once had to deal with.

In addition to TSA security procedures for passenger traffic, LGB’s infrastructure and administrative facilities require complete access control. Commercial Controls of Valencia, Calif., was tasked with being the airport’s electrical contractor, specifically for access control and security. For the access control product manufacturer, Commercial Controls selected PCSC.

“It was an easy decision to choose PCSC,” said Doug Scripture of Commercial Controls. “We’re replacing an outdated system that existed prior to the renovation.”

PCSC’s line of IQ Series access control panels are used throughout the facility to manage doors, passenger gates, elevators and more. HID Global keypads, along with small dome cameras, are some of the visible hardware seen by the public throughout the terminal’s concourse.

The system is securely integrated by PCSC’s enterprise-level access control software, LiNC-PLUS.

“We’re proud to have our products installed in our own backyard,” said Dan Smith, PCSC’s western regional sales manager. “PCSC’s corporate offices in Torrance, Calif., are just several minutes north of the airport. We’re able to stay in close contact with the integrator and the end-user to ensure the system’s products meet and exceed everyone’s expectations. Security and access control of an airport’s facility is a multifaceted situation. It is complex and should always be adapting to the needs and requirements.”

The end-user of PCSC’s access control software is managed by Long Beach Airport’s safety and security operations.

“I don’t take securing the airport lightly,” said John Blood, chief of security and airport safety. “Security is a high priority here at LGB, and passenger security and safety is taken very seriously.”

This article originally appeared in the April 2013 issue of Security Today.

About the Author

Greg Hetrick is the marketing manager at PCSC.

Featured

  • Integration Imagination: The Future of Connected Operations

    Security teams that collaborate cross-functionally and apply imagination and creativity to envision and design their ideal integrated ecosystem will have the biggest upside to corporate security and operational benefits. Read Now

  • Smarter Access Starts with Flexibility

    Today’s workplaces are undergoing a rapid evolution, driven by hybrid work models, emerging smart technologies, and flexible work schedules. To keep pace with growing workplace demands, buildings are becoming more dynamic – capable of adapting to how people move, work, and interact in real-time. Read Now

  • Trends Keeping an Eye on Business Decisions

    Today, AI continues to transform the way data is used to make important business decisions. AI and the cloud together are redefining how video surveillance systems are being used to simulate human intelligence by combining data analysis, prediction, and process automation with minimal human intervention. Many organizations are upgrading their surveillance systems to reap the benefits of technologies like AI and cloud applications. Read Now

  • The Future is Happening Outside the Cloud

    For years, the cloud has captivated the physical security industry. And for good reason. Remote access, elastic scalability and simplified maintenance reshaped how we think about deploying and managing systems. But as the number of cameras grows and resolutions push from HD to 4K and beyond, the cloud’s limits are becoming unavoidable. Bandwidth bottlenecks. Latency lags. Rising storage costs. These are not abstract concerns. Read Now

  • Right-Wing Activist Charlie Kirk Dies After Utah Valley University Shooting

    Charlie Kirk, a popular conservative activist and founder of Turning Point USA, died Wednesday after being shot during an on-campus event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah Read Now

New Products

  • 4K Video Decoder

    3xLOGIC’s VH-DECODER-4K is perfect for use in organizations of all sizes in diverse vertical sectors such as retail, leisure and hospitality, education and commercial premises.

  • Luma x20

    Luma x20

    Snap One has announced its popular Luma x20 family of surveillance products now offers even greater security and privacy for home and business owners across the globe by giving them full control over integrators’ system access to view live and recorded video. According to Snap One Product Manager Derek Webb, the new “customer handoff” feature provides enhanced user control after initial installation, allowing the owners to have total privacy while also making it easy to reinstate integrator access when maintenance or assistance is required. This new feature is now available to all Luma x20 users globally. “The Luma x20 family of surveillance solutions provides excellent image and audio capture, and with the new customer handoff feature, it now offers absolute privacy for camera feeds and recordings,” Webb said. “With notifications and integrator access controlled through the powerful OvrC remote system management platform, it’s easy for integrators to give their clients full control of their footage and then to get temporary access from the client for any troubleshooting needs.”

  • QCS7230 System-on-Chip (SoC)

    QCS7230 System-on-Chip (SoC)

    The latest Qualcomm® Vision Intelligence Platform offers next-generation smart camera IoT solutions to improve safety and security across enterprises, cities and spaces. The Vision Intelligence Platform was expanded in March 2022 with the introduction of the QCS7230 System-on-Chip (SoC), which delivers superior artificial intelligence (AI) inferencing at the edge.