A Brief History of our Gate and Camera Systems

By Roger Matthews

(Updated 7/21/2020)

Gates and Cameras Time Line

1996 - Water Gardens Conceived
1998 - Initial Gate and Camera Systems Installed
1998 - Water Gardens Opened
2000 - Water Gardens Officially a Condominium Community
2005 - Water Gardens Owners Association Board took control of the community. Polaris Property Management selected.
2010 - New South Gate Camera System installed (Exacqvision)
2013 - First new West Gate Camera System installed (Exacqvision)
2015 - New Gates Control System Installed, including the new AE-1000 Telephone Entry System, Requiring New Remotes and all new Control Software
2018 - Second new West Gate Camera System installed (CMS)
2020 - Third new West Gate Camera System installed (Froula & "Hik-Connect")

Gatekeeper Timeline

Gatekeeper 2005 to 12/2009 - Roger Matthews ~4 years
Gatekeeper 12/2009 to 9/2015 - R.B. Bolin ~6 years
Gatekeeper 9/2015 to 11/2019 - Ray Murrell ~4 years
Gatekeeper 11/2019 to future - Arthur Aske

Deep History - For a good start, I recommend you read the marvelous article, "Water Gardens at 10 Years" by Shirley Lindahl. It is the first article here in the "Latest News" section.

Founding - Roger White developed this community from 1998 through 2006. The WGOA Board was first convened in September, 2005, and has governed us ever since.

Evolution - The Gate and Camera Systems started out as totally unrelated systems. But over time, their functions have merged, and now are co-dependent..

Initial Installations (1998) - When Roger White installed the South Gate and the West Gate, he also installed gate cameras right at the gates, and he built two "Gate Camera Sheds", one on his own property outside of the South Gate (see image top right), and the other at the end of one of the top streets in Water Gardens, near the Play-Mor Tavern (see image lower right). These cameras were low quality "TV" like. The recorders worked, but were very difficult to figure out. We had a soaping incident in the fountains at the South Gate (the fountains have since been removed), and we could "see" the culprit, but the video quality was so low he could not be identified. This was in broad daylight.

Original Gate Control Software (1998) - The gates were controlled by a DOS program called "Elite Pro" that a resident maintained on their own personal computer. It required a land line in the house, and an old DOS modem. The gates were controlled directly from this private PC. The program was a bit unreliable, so to ensure the gates had opened or closed when they were supposed to, the gatekeeper had to run out the the gates and visually verify they were open or closed. I am not sure who ran the gates prior to my coming here (Roger Matthews). Likely Roger White or Linda Elsholz. But once I arrived, in 2004, I took over both the camera and gate systems.

New South Gate Camera System (2010) - Roger Matthews headed up a project to replace the South Gate Camera System with a high definition camera. This decision was forced upon the community because the property next door where the "camera shed" was located was not on Water Gardens property. There was an original assumption by Roger White that Water Gardens would be acquiring that property later, so he built the camera shed there. That acquisition fell through, hence it was necessary to abandon that camera shed.

That led to the need for a new system. CCTV Camera Scan of North Bend was selected, and they installed a 10 megapixel camera with a long focal length camera at the peak of the Community Center, aimed right at the South Gate. This gave us the ability to identify faces and license plate numbers. It also gave us the ability to see the South Gate camera view viat the Internet. This was a giant jump in capability, as it meant the Gatekeeper did not need to run down to the South Gate in person to verify it was open. The Gatekeeper could just look at the gate via the Internet in a moment. Beautiful!

The South Gate Camera System is located on the white wire shelving system behind the TV in the Community Center. It is locked with a Combination Lock. The combination is available upon request. (Ask Roger Matthews).

New West Gate Camera System (2013) - A few years later, Roger Matthews again headed up a project to upgrade the West Gate camera system with a high definition camera. The nice folks on that street, Sue and Len Johnson, agreed to have the camera system installed on a high shelf in their garage, and the camera itself to be mounted on the side of their house, aimed at the West Gate. Their house has since been purchased by Mary Sweeney, and she graciously has allowed the community to continue to house the camera system on her property. This new system now allowed the Gatekeeper to also view the West Gate status via the Internet, the same as the South Gate. Marvelous! The original camera shed was no longer needed, and was purchased from the community by the owner of the property on which it was located, and it is now a private shed. Very nice!

Major Upgrade to Gates System (2015) - In 2015, a major upgrade was made to the gates systems. All systems related to the gates (keypad entry and control arms) were consolidated under one company, Automated Gates. This simplified troubleshooting. It required a completely new entry system, the AE-1000 Telephone Entry System, which required all new remotes. It also required a totally new DOS gatekeeper system. It is still a DOS based system (called "AccessBase 2000") and requires a DOS modem to make it work. But we installed it on the Computer that runs the South Gate. Now we simply remotely connect to that computer from any personal computer (Windows or Mac) and run the gate control software from there. This major upgrade also required all new remotes, which were issued in a large rollout.

Upgrade to West Gate Camera System (2018) - The new West Gate Camera System was flawed from the start, and continually failed to run. We finally decided to replace it with an upgraded system, utilizing a "Magic" surveillance DVR. A new technology was installed, which is easier to access over the Internet via the "Magic Viewer", and which has been rock solid reliable since installation. At some point, when the South Gate Camera System fails (it has been going flawlessly since 2010!!), then we will replace it also with this new technology. Here is the West Gate Camera System, with wall mounted monitor, as installed in Mary Sweeney's garage. Again, thank you Mary! It runs the camera mounted on the outside of her house, pointed at the West Gate. This is a 5mp system, a downgrade from the previous 10mp system.

Upgrade to West Gate Camera System (2020) - The West Gate Camera system continued to be flawed, not staying up for over a month at a time. We finally decided to abandon the old vendor and get a new one. Froula was selected. The installed an 8mp system, which, finally, seems to be rock solid. Hopefully, it stays that way!

Old Cameras as Decoys - The original cameras have been left in place. They are inactive, but look scary :).