By Mike Moran, Vice President Security Sales, North America, Johnson Controls

Baseball season may be over, but stadium security teams are always looking for solutions that provide the best fan experience while protecting the stadium and its occupants. With a new senior vice president of operations tasked with implementing operational efficiencies, this major league team decided to make transformative security upgrades to its stadium to ensure occupant safety and improve the employee experience.

Specifically, its existing camera system was at end of life, creating potential liability issues for the team. The existing surveillance systems had several challenges including blind spots and needed a higher video image quality to better show occupants and understand behaviors in times of potential threats. The stadium was seeking technology that would provide better visual acuity and insight into any incidents throughout the stadium, to allow the stadium to protect its occupants and investigate complaints with proper knowledge.

A birds-eye view

To start, Johnson Controls experts installed more than 200 new video surveillance cameras throughout the facility, reducing the potential for blind spots and enhancing overall protection for the stadium and its occupants.

The team installed best-in-class Johnson Controls security products, including Tyco American Dynamics victor and VideoEdge Security Management Solutions for best-in-class protection, including:

• Interactive maps that pinpoint locations and collaboration tools that allow security leaders to immediately share critical video assets across the enterprise

• Streamlined critical event management that notifies security personnel of incidents in real-time, reducing incident response times

• The ability to create reports to identify trends and easily analyze large amounts of data

To take full advantage of the latest and greatest solutions, the Johnson Controls team then rebuilt the stadium control room to equip it with a video wall and touch screen monitors, so security personnel had surveillance over every corner of the facility from one centralized location. This reduced the need for security personnel to be placed around the stadium and manually monitor the facility, allowing facility leaders to maximize staffing resources. This installation also included all new interfaces and custom stadium graphics, giving security operations leaders the ability to see high traffic sections of the stadium with the touch of a button from one central hub.

Reducing response time to protect employees and fans

Now, security operations personnel are better connected to other employees and more equipped to provide real-time insights. Ushers throughout the stadiums carry radios that allow them to communicate any incidents to the command center within seconds of an event. Security is then able to respond quickly, thus reducing the number of incidents. Improved communications and security insights allow operations staff to tend to guests who are in need of assistance and can ensure injury reports are accurate. The installation of new security cameras has eliminated false slip-and-fall incident reports and drastically minimized stadium liabilities, allowing the venue to focus its efforts on the fan and player experience. In the end, this security overhaul enhanced protection for both employees and visitors.