Thanksgiving Point hosts a large number of events, bringing in many people from Utah County and beyond, and the nonprofit had been having problems with vandalism and break-ins in its parking lot. Add in some furry friends and there was some serious damage being done to the property.

Insert Orem’s LiveView Technologies. The business started in 2005 and was largely working with various departments of transportation on the West Coast to provide cameras and streams of roadways.

Over time, the technology has been expanded to include the security aspect of live streams, including full archiving, heat thermography, license plate recognition, and more.

Now the company works with the likes of the United States Border Patrol, Walmart and Home Depot.

LiveView founder, Chief of Sales, and Marketing Officer David Studdert tells a story of when the Utah Department of Transportation would send snowplows to drive 80 miles just to see if it was snowing.

“That’s an expenditure that they were spending over, and over, and over again, guessing on weather patterns and road conditions,” Studdert said. “We can deploy this technology at a fraction of the cost and instead of loading up the trucks, paying overtime hours, having wear and tear on the trucks, now they can just log onto their phones, check the road, and check the weather.”

This is just one instance where the technology came in handy for UDOT, but some of that technology has now been implemented at Thanksgiving Point.

One of the problems that the nonprofit has had is with the deer population in the area. The animals have found ways to enter the property and eat the plants, of which Thanksgiving Point has over 1 million.

The surveillance cameras can detect heat signatures, the difference between animals and humans, and then deploy a sound to get the animals off of the property.

“It’s been huge, two or three deer can do tens of thousands of dollars in damage overnight and when you’ve got a tulip festival going on, it’s a pretty big deal,” said Jeff Dunn, director of protective services at Thanksgiving Point.

When those flowers are eaten, they will not regrow for another year and that’s a lost opportunity. This year, according to Dunn, the tulips lasted longer and the festival was able to be extended by a week. He believed LiveView had an impact on that extension.

Along with securing the gardens at Thanksgiving Point, LiveView also has helped in the parking lot where there have been no reports of vandalism or break-ins through both the Luminaria event around Christmas and then the Tulip Festival.

“It means the world to us. We have a national footprint, over 5,000 units coast-to-coast and we service some big names but for us to be good neighbors and good stewards of the community, that speaks to the core of what we hope to accomplish,” Studdert said of being able to help in the Utah County community. “Culture is a big thing here at LiveView, and we’re always looking for new opportunities right here in our backyard to not only provide technology but to be good neighbors.”

Dunn added that LiveView handled an acute need for Thanksgiving Point, securing the area and having a big impact during the large events that are hosted on the property.

Whenever someone is detected on the property, Dunn said his team receives a notification and can talk to those intruders over the speaker attached to the cameras. It allows the security to make fewer trips to the property over the weekend when some people may try to trespass.

“LiveView Technology has just been a technology and a partner that we really couldn’t do without,” Dunn said. “They have been so generous with us, it’s something we can’t afford. To know that we have neighbors like this in the valley is just a complete game-changer for us.”

Dunn continued, saying that he can maximize the staff he does have while also giving them an extra set of eyes on the property.

“Our goal is to make the world a little bit safer and when we’re able to work with folks like Thanksgiving Point and be part of a community where our families will be in that parking lot,” Studdert said. “Our goal is to make them a little bit safer and provide security applications at a broad level that make a difference.”

To learn more about LiveView Technologies, visit www.lvt.com.