Stadium Security Explained by Experts
In our special focus, we ask three questions on stadium security to five experts: Steve Hodges, Stadium Expert and UK Operations Manager, Dallmeier UK, Dr. Volker Brink, Head of Product Management Access Management at Winkhaus, Emmanuel Berthelot, Area Sales Manager France at i-PRO, Charlie Zhou, Solution Manager at Hikvision, and Steve Green, Business Development Manager at Genetec.
1. What challenges are specific for stadium security projects and what benefits can a user derive from a good system?
2. How do you handle the conflict between privacy protection and security needs in stadiums using your technology?
3. Please describe a success case where your products and solutions are used for a stadium project.
Steve Hodges, Stadium Expert and UK Operations Manager, Dallmeier UK:
1. Staying on budget is a major challenge, especially when it comes to video security technology. Surprisingly, it’s not so much the cost of the cameras that is crucial but the number of installation points, often leading to high infrastructure expenses like cabling. In addition, video systems must effectively monitor large areas, allowing retrospective zoom-ins for incident investigations and identifying individuals involved – as recommended by the FIFA Stadium Guidelines. Multifocal sensor cameras, for example, require only minimum infrastructure and offer various user benefits, such as proactive operation and efficient crowd control – possibly reducing fines due to less fan misbehavior and providing a safer stadium experience.
2. We believe that video technology and privacy go hand in hand without conflict. For example, only authorized personnel operate video systems and features, such as automatic deletion of recordings, ensure compliance with the law. In addition, we think that transparency is critical, as stadium operators can use signage or tickets to communicate that they use video surveillance to provide a safe and secure stadium experience. What some people might not know: If video technology cannot deter illegal behavior, facilitate intervention, and investigate incidents because the resolution of the cameras is too low, then the measure is not compliant. Video technology helps clubs and operators provide a safe stadium experience – and they do not sell data of the systems to third parties or the like.
3. Well, for the 2022/2023 Premier League season, 80 % of all Premier League clubs have installed Dallmeier video security systems, including our patented Panomera multifocal sensor cameras. This includes Brentford FC’s new Community Stadium and Everton FC’s new stadium being built at Bramley Moore Dock. Both clubs were already using Dallmeier technology and specified us for the new developments – a great testament to our solutions. Other clubs, such as Liverpool FC, Aston Villa FC and West Ham United, continue to invest and expand their systems. We have heard from many clubs and stadiums that they have been able to reduce fines and improve fan behavior after installing our video systems, helping them to provide fans with an overall better and safer stadium experience.
Dr. Volker Brink, Head of Product Management Access Management at Winkhaus:
1. Stadiums are used by many people for all kinds of events – whether in the stands, in front of the stadium or behind the scenes. If a locking system is to reliably secure the constant coming and going, it must be flexible. This is easy to achieve with the right electronic access organisation. Our Winkhaus blueSmart solution is easy to use and manage. The well-designed system helps to create a secure environment, while at the same time offering a high degree of flexibility with a minimum of administrative effort. Flush-mounted door cylinders, which prevent vandalism, are also among the benefits that sports facilities in particular can benefit from.
2. BlueSmart can protect personal data in a number of ways: For example, if it is desired that an identification medium, such as a key, does not log its own locking events, this logging can be deactivated on an identification medium-specific basis. Locking event logging can also be deactivated for each door component – for example, for staff or works council rooms or break rooms. Locking event readout can be protected in the software by a four-eye or even six-eye principle. This means that locking events can only be viewed, when necessary, for example in the presence of the works or staff council.
3. One example of the benefits is the Heinz von Heiden Arena, where Hannover 96 plays. The arena regularly hosts major events. Thanks to blueSmart, it now only takes about an hour to change locking authorisations, e. g., for the cloakrooms. In the days of the mechanical locking system, locking cylinders had to be changed. This took one employee two working days per event. Now, each authorised person simply receives an electronic blueSmart key. Their access rights automatically expire at the end of the event.
Emmanuel Berthelot, i-PRO Area Sales Manager France:
1. Stadium projects are a flagship for camera vendors who aim to prove that they provide high-end systems, and here’s why: Activity is closely linked to event management, meaning that during matches, for example, the system will have to provide the highest level of performance, quality and reliability – it needs to best support the staff on-site in their job to manage huge crowds and the pressure of potential risks in real time. Nevertheless, most of the time the security system won’t be used at its full capacity. Later on, the system must make sure to keep the stadium an area with restricted access, and easily help provide all digital evidence needed for police forces in case of an investigation. In light of those challenges stadium security managers make no compromise when choosing the hard- and software used to guarantee a safe environment, and customer experience.
2. To find someone faster in the crowd or to prevent individuals from entering a specific area, stadiums are inclined of using face recognition technologies capable to process large amount of biometric data detected by an Artificial Intelligence algorithm. Despite proven effective, these technologies are bringing conflict and debate between privacy protection and security needs. i-PRO balances this by developing best-in-class edge-AI cameras capable of generating metadata based on peoples’ attributes, like their outfits or walking direction. Thanks to this approach, i-PRO’s cameras in combination with the free of charge software Active Guard can classify people and enable real time search – also post-event. The plug-in also enables proactively working watch lists, which can streamline operations through alerts based on non-biometrical data. For ease of use, Active Guard is fully integrated with market leading Video Management Systems to guarantee accessibility.
3. With the 2024 Paris Olympic games being around the corner, users started evaluating our Active Guard plug-in since 2022 to integrate it into their security systems and processes. AI technologies can rapidly improve the efficiency of stadium security officers: After each event, a user spends on average 2 hours compiling data for a potential investigation. This is mainly due to the amount of data to process manually. During the first tests that i-PRO did with a major stadium in France, this statistic has been lowered by more than 75 %, reaching an impressive result of below 30 min thanks to Active Guard’s ability to gather metadata from AI cameras and compiling them automatically. The software allows the user to search more efficiently through stored data, and get results and qualified evidence for any investigation faster. This success led i-PRO to deploy hundreds of AI cameras in several stadiums, slowly replacing traditional models, and establishing a new proactive standard for stadium security.
Charlie Zhou, Solution Manager at Hikvision:
1. Stadiums often face unique challenges due to the presence of large crowds during events. It is essential for them to ensure orderly entry, exit, and movement, and prevent overcrowding. In the meantime, there is always a chance that accidents could occur, e. g., overcrowding, fan violence, fire and medical emergencies – potentially putting visitors to the complex at risk. Therefore, to keep them safe, it is critical for the security team to identify and respond to potential threats in a timely manner. To address these challenges, a good stadium security system can provide technologies such as real-time monitoring, intelligent analysis and emergency response. Real-time security management enables the security team to act in real time to prevent accidents and respond to incidents. Intelligent analysis provides them with the ability to keep track of the flow of people, and generate automated alerts in the event of overcrowding. The emergency response system helps to ensure rapid response to incidents, and when necessary, evacuate the audience in time. In the meantime, the smart access control and ticketing systems can help to prevent fare evasion, speed up admissions, and ensure effective line flow control, which in turn, enhances the overall security of the stadium.
2. The Hikvision access control solution ensures restricted access to sensitive areas by using differentiated permissions. This means that only authorized personnel with smart membership cards can enter these areas, effectively balancing security needs with personal privacy. Aside from this, data encryption is encouraged for stadiums, as it keeps data privacy safe from unauthorized hands. Stadiums can implement an encryption strategy to classify and assess risks of their data, ensuring the right encryption tools are employed for handling sensitive, non-public, and confidential data.
3. Zayed Sport City is the largest sports complex in the UAE and faced challenges of handling security simultaneously at multiple facilities, including their stadium, ice rink, bowling center, and tennis center during sports events. Visited by more than 1.7 million sports fans each year, the stadium was in need of a high-resolution and automatic video security solution to keep track of all areas of the complex during sports events, and to respond quickly if anything goes wrong. They deployed a site-wide security system from Hikvision, including more than 600 cameras with different functions and types, which are integrated into the stadium’s Video Management System. The cameras‘ AI capabilities, and the system’s ability to search through video footage quickly and easily to investigate accidents and incidents, have helped the security team achieve major time savings. With the Hikvision solution, many routine security tasks can be handled automatically, reducing the risk of missed incidents, speeding up responses, and reducing staff workloads and costs.
Steve Green, Business Development Manager at Genetec:
1. Stadium security is often rendered inefficient by its reliance on a series of disparate systems. Each one does its ‘job’ – for example video management, access control, threat management. But operating these individual solutions often means that teams cannot respond quickly enough, as the operator must cross-reference information from multiple data sources. This delay in decision-making puts the safety of people in the venue at risk. Adopting a truly ‘unified’ approach, where these multiple elements are managed in a single, connected software interface, empowers teams to make critical decisions quickly and easily with a response guided by standard operating procedures that have pre-planned the best, safest course of action.
2. Attendees need to be informed with signage at the venue. Facial recognition, for example, needs to be backed up by explanations on how metadata is stored, encrypted and processed. The same goes for CCTV footage that must be stored in case of an investigation. In the case that a person makes a ‘subject access request’ where the venue is obligated to hand over footage of the person, Genetec Clearance, a digital evidence management system that simplifies sharing footage using the Cloud, is essential for a quick resolution. Clearance will also anonymise faces in shared footage and on public display monitors in the control room to protect bystander’s privacy.
3. Twickenham Stadium’s use of the Genetec unified platform includes Threat Level Management to enable quick and consistent operations on match days. Threat Levels are used to pre-configure the security system’s behaviour depending on whether visitors are entering or exiting the venue. For incident response, it identifies the cameras closest to the event and automatically displays the relevant streams in the control room. These behaviour changes, in conjunction with Synergis access control, can also lock or unlock certain doors at the press of a button, ensuring that match-day visitors don’t stray into areas they shouldn’t be in.
