A case study of Burnley Football Club’s upgraded CCTV system, taking it from analogue to a hybrid IP system, with HDTV quality.
Burnley’s stadium, Turf Moor, has a capacity of 21,500 and enjoys average gates of over 19,000, with up to 4,000 seats allocated to away supporters on match days. With the team’s promotion to the Barclays Premier League in the summer of 2014, a multi-million pound facilities and IT upgrade was specified, which included funds for the upgrade of the ageing analogue-based CCTV. After a tender process the contract for installation and management of the new video surveillance system was handed to Axis Communications partner, Thorne Access & Security in early July 2014.
Thorne specified a hybrid IP and CCTV system using Axis network cameras and Mirasys hybrid NVR system. The new in-ground system focused on tighter security in two core areas – at the entry turnstiles and inside the ‘bowl’ of the stadium itself. A mix of AXIS Q6045-E PTZ domes and AXIS Q1765-LE network cameras were deployed inside the stadium bowl, while 14 legacy analogue cameras were retained to cover concourses in the new hybrid CCTV and IP video. A total of 64 new cameras were installed covering the stadium, turnstiles, and concourses outside the bowl and behind the East Stand. The new system also covered all 40 turnstiles through which the thousands of fans pass through on match days.
Atul Rajput, regional director, northern Europe at Axis Communications said: “This installation has been a fantastic project for Axis and a wonderful opportunity for us to demonstrate what our technology is capable of in potentially risky, public environments. Axis cameras were chosen for this installation because of their ability to deliver razor-sharp images using 18x optical zoom capability. This is very important when you are siting cameras at opposite ends of a pitch over 120 metres away! Even at those distances, our cameras can provide evidential quality images to positively identify individuals and help the club’s ground safety team spot issues before they escalate.”
Use of pyrotechnics inside football club stadia has been a dangerous new trend in UK grounds over the last few seasons. The new cameras enable operators to spot unusual behaviours, such as looking down to light a firework or smoke bomb and enables the ground safety staff to identify who ignited it. The same is true if people throw objects onto the pitch, towards players or linesmen.
Doug Metcalfe, stadium and operations manager at Burnley Football Club, said: “The new Axis IP video system gives our ground safety team, working in concert with Lancashire Constabulary, the ability to remove wrongdoers from the crowd before they endanger other football fans or commit public order offences. The police have already been able to secure several convictions based on positive identification of individuals committing acts that placed others in danger. Thankfully, these occurrences are rare and the deterrent effect of the new system will make them rarer still here at Turf Moor.”
Cameras trained on each turnstile capture images of fans passing through the gates, while new electronic ticketing identifies ticket types. Those thought to be using the wrong ticket can then be tracked and identified via the new cameras. This extra layer of surveillance has reduced ticket fraud as adults trying to enter the ground with concession or child tickets are identified and stopped.
With the Axis cameras, the new system has a Mirasys hybrid network recorder, as featured in the March 2015 print issue of Professional Security, operating on three 10TB capacity servers, to record, manage and enable rapid distribution of video recordings in case of incidents. Mirasys Spotter and Media Exporter software are used to recover and export relevant recorded images to DVD if the police need to take further action to prosecute an individual. A total of 3TB of video data is collected by the system each match day.
Hadrian Thorne, managing director of Thorne Access & Security, added: “Put simply, Axis gives us the peace of mind that we will be able to meet all our stadia customers’ requirements.”
