They needed to provide a PC platform that could be mounted in a roadside box which would be subjected to outdoor temperatures and vibration from passing traffic. The embedded PC had to withstand temperatures ranging between -40°C to +50°C and incorporate a PCI image capture card that would read the vehicle number plates and match them to a database ("Hotlist"). If a vehicle was detected that appeared on the "Hotlist", an alarm would be raised both locally and remotely.

The project was Government funded and as is typical in this situation the hardware was to be maintained and supported over a ten year lifetime.

The Amplicon Impact-40E system was selected as the basis of the ANPR system. The Impact-40E is a fanless design which means the system would require the minimum of maintenance when in the field and offered a system capable of 50,000 hour Mean Time Before Failure (MTBF).

The system incorporated a solid state hard drive selected to withstand the extreme conditions and eliminate costly hard disk drive failures. This helped to reduce substantially both downtime and unplanned maintenance.

As well as the PC platform for the ANPR system Amplicon specified the MOXA IO E2210 to detect and raise the local alarms and a GPRS Modem for the remote communications.

Amplicon were seen as the supplier of choice with their extensive knowledge of Security Automation with a wide product portfolio and free engineering consultancy.