American Integration Contractors’ Port Authority Project Is an Installation of the Year Runner-Up
AIC is recognized as an Integrated Installation of the Year (small to midsize company) runner-up for a solution involving multiple security systems, including video surveillance, radar and more.
Stakeholders and integrator of the Port of Morgan City Regional Collaboration Network
This municipal project is now better known by the acronym PMCRCN, or the Port of Morgan City Regional Collaboration Network, and those latter two words could not more aptly describe the breadth of the extensive security and life-safety systems’ reach.
Louisiana-based American Integration Contractors (AIC) was contracted to provide this in-state location integration of multiple security systems including video surveillance, radar, automatic identification system (AIS), military Blue Force Tracking, computer-aided dispatch and weather alerts.
With all of that to address, it’s no wonder AIC garnered runner-up recognition as an Integrated Installation of the Year (small to midsize company).
The system streamlines everything through a common operating platform to several stakeholders:
- Morgan City Harbor and Terminal District (host)
- St. Mary Parish Sheriff’s Department
- Morgan City Police Department
- Berwick Police Department
- St. Mary Parish Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness
- St. Mary Parish Levee District
- St. Mary Parish Schools
- U.S. Coast Guard
The integrator provided individual training and ongoing support to each group. AIC’s work provides IP day/night, pan/tilt/zoom and thermal imaging surveillance of the port’s harbor area that includes waterways, docks, warehouses, parking lots, bridges, railways, commercial buildings, federal agency offices, and emergency centers.
AIC also delivered intrusion detection (20 door contacts, motion detection, UL-Listed central station monitoring) and access control (one gate, 16 doors and readers) of the emergency operations center.
The multiphase PMCRCN project began with the award of the initial phase to AIC in the last quarter of 2013. AIC worked with the client’s consultant and special projects manager throughout the deployment, which has encompassed about 1,650 labor hours.
The primary technology AIC used is a C4 (command, control, collaboration, communications) software system known as the Touch Assisted Command and Control System (TACCS) to serve as the integration point for all security systems, whose hardware components reside in the Port Complex administrative building.
As AIC CEO Craig Noel explains, the PMCRCN system is a visual, geospatially based application that aggregates data dynamically to build real-time situational awareness; operators monitor things via a large video wall in the complex’s new $12 emergency operations center.
Noel says AIC’s involvement in a similar, lauded project at Louisiana’s Port Fourchon aided its efforts at Morgan City.
“AIC has carved out expertise in deployment and management of these types of fully integrated solutions,” Noel says. “These systems are complex and require a high level of integration experience and system design. The biggest challenge though is on the business side, by working with multiple agencies to first create awareness of advanced technologies at their disposal and then to work with them through the process of actually leveraging that technology for the benefit of their respective missions.”
The project was funded entirely through the Department of Homeland Security’s Port Security Grant Program with the client providing 25% matching funds, according to Noel.
“Working for a port, we want to know what is occurring at all times and we want to be able to protect our assets,” says Michael Knobloch, Special Projects, Morgan City Harbor and Terminal District. “The Port of Morgan City has a very strong relationship with AIC that has developed over time and has trust and respect as the key traits of this relationship.”
BEST OF THE BEST: Check out the rest of the winners and runners-up here!
If you enjoyed this article and want to receive more valuable industry content like this, click here to sign up for our FREE digital newsletters!
About the Author
Arlen Schweiger
Arlen Schweiger is editor-in-chief of SSI's sister publication, CE Pro. He was SSI's managing editor from August 2018 to June 2023.
Related Content
Security Is Our Business, Too
For professionals who recommend, buy and install all types of electronic security equipment, a free subscription to Commercial Integrator + Security Sales & Integration is like having a consultant on call. You’ll find an ideal balance of technology and business coverage, with installation tips and techniques for products and updates on how to add to your bottom line.
A FREE subscription to the top resource for security and integration industry will prove to be invaluable.
