Viscount Systems' flagship MESH access control and security system is being installed at a downtown Los Angeles heritage building called Pacific Electric Lofts, a legendary high-rise being refurbished and slated for initial occupancy May 1, 2005.

Completed in 1905 by Henry Huntington, the Pacific Electric Building was L.A.'s first skyscraper. It was the largest building west of the Mississippi River until the 1950's, and the center of downtown Los Angeles. In World War Two, the building housed an interurban terminal serving 100,000 passengers a day. The Pacific Electric Lofts has been used as the set for 450 movies and television productions, and remains home to Cole's, L.A.'s oldest operating restaurant and bar.

Viscount dealer Certified Phone Solutions Sales Company will install access control for 300 apartments units. A MESH Main outside wall-mounted unit with vandal-resistant touch color screen will be installed as well as a built-in color camera to record photo ID of all inbound guests with a time and date DVR. A cable TV private channel interface to the main MESH panel will provide a live view of the guest calling an apartment, and key fob readers will allow for 13 common doors for pool, garden, business offices, and a gym. A guard display unit will be monitored for security control, and a MESH Mini Server will be installed for integration to color CCTV cameras. MESH software will be used for on site administration programming and view access.

"We are negotiating many different types of projects and this retrofit represents how MESH provides the absolute leading edge in security that can be used as a marketing tool," commented Stephen Pineau, Viscount's president and CEO. "Certified Phone Solutions knew this bid wasn't a very fair fight since they have the data contract and MESH readers and devices share the same cable. Bidders of old Wiegand systems required masses of separate proprietary wire and apparently would have had to incur large additional costs to core drill the building, run new conduit, X-ray and have this inspected."

"When comparing MESH to older systems, the developer could see MESH is a product that is ahead of its time and [that there was] no point in investing in Wiegand-type technology that is looking obsolete," said David C. Williamson of Certified Phone Solutions Sales Company. "MESH has an open architecture, meaning it will easily provide fulfill our customers security needs in the future; even those they have not yet defined as a need. Because MESH outperforms the competition on every level we have already begun to specify it for other projects. The Pacific Electric Building will be a true flagship project for MESH in L.A. and will generate a great deal of interest."