With a capacity of 13,500 people, First Direct Arena officially opened its doors in Leeds last year. The arena will host over 140 events a year ranging from professional sports matches to music concerts to Disney on Ice. The £50 million venue has a HD video surveillance system, installed by Yorkshire-based Reflex Systems Ltd. Integrated are CCTV, access control, and perimeter and intruder detection.
First Direct Arena chose the ACC software from the Canadian manufacturer Avigilon. Other arenas and stadiums such as the Slovnaft Arena (Slovakia) and Rogers Centre (Canada) use the product. Lee Sinnott, facilities manager at First Direct Arena agreed, “I saw that Avigilon products were deployed in numerous stadiums throughout North America and Europe. It was comforting to learn that the system could be used for exactly what I needed it for.’ I would say our Avigilon system is significantly better than any kind I’ve seen previously.”
According to Mr Sinnott, First Direct Arena mainly uses HD video to monitor crowd flow. With the ACC software, security staff are able to monitor a variety of situations, such as altercations in the stands and theft, in a timely manner. “The Avigilon system enables us to mitigate out some of the problems,” Mr. Sinnott said. “We’ve encountered less problems with crime because we can pre-determine if there is going to be an issue somewhere.” The software has also been helpful in identifying possible interferences in traffic flow in and around the arena. “ACC has allowed us to manage our multiple cameras better than we have previously in other venues. Say we see on the monitors that there is congestion at the front of the bar. We can now quickly adjust our staff and make dynamic changes so that we can provide better service at our concession stands.” HD video also helps assess incidents where liability of the arena is a factor.
Dozens of IP cameras oversee the piazza, stands, parking lot, concession areas and entry points. Operators of the system use ACC Mobile to view live and recorded footage remotely from their smartphones and tablets. With Avigilon Network Video Recorders (NVRs), the team is able to store up to 30 days of continuous footage.
“To be honest, we find the overall feel of the software to be user-friendly and easy to train employees on,” said Mr Sinnott. ACC’s search features have also been a time-saving tool for staff. “With our older software suites, downloading the large amounts of data could take hours. Avigilon’s solution is so much simpler and this is a true benefit of the system. Rather than tying one of our security officers up for hours on end looking for a needle in a haystack, I can just download the segment of footage I need.”
The venue’s security staff can submit footage to police to assist with investigations. “Providing evidence to our local police force is easy and the footage has been of excellent quality. The efficiency of the Avigilon system and clear images provided cuts down significantly on resources and time spent.”
First Direct Arena uses a second control room during events to monitor its grounds. With the ACC software in use in both rooms, Mr. Sinnott says that the synchronising of communication between operators is seamless. “The ability for collaborative investigations was another key factor in our choice of Avigilon because of the flexibility and functionality the feature gave us in both control room. Typically, our older system just provided mirror images of the other screen. If an operator was watching one image in our main control room, an operator in our opposite control room would be watching the same image. With Avigilon we have complete control of functionality from both locations.” If one control room is disconnected, the security team can move to the system in the other.
