A case study of overhauled CCTV at the Allianz Arena, Munich, the home stadium for champions of Europe FC Bayern München, and TSV 1860 München.
The ground can hold over 71,000 spectators. Richard Ponteles, Team Leader Technical FM, Department Operations at the Allianz Arena München Stadion GmbH, says: “The system for controlling individual PTZ cameras was technologically temperamental and the resolution achieved was no longer equal to current needs. It would not have been commercially viable to modernise or expand the existing system, so we set out to find a new system.”
Then, the Arena security managers saw the Dallmeier Panomera multifocal sensor product at the “Sponsors Sports Venue Summit”. A planning phase followed. Technicians from Dallmeier visited the site a number of times to design a new CCTV system. The heart of this new video installation is the patented Panomera, a so-called multifocal sensor system. Its German makers say that unlike conventional cameras, which rely on single lenses, the multifocal sensor operates with multiple lenses, each with a different focal length. This makes it possible to cover the company says a vast area with the highest possible resolution from a single installation point. Roland Meier, Head of Panomera at Dallmeier, says: “Even more distant individuals or objects are captured with the same quality resolution as those in the image foreground.”
Whereas PTZ cameras only ever record the zone that is being viewed live, which means that the success of searches depends on the control room operators, with Panomera the entire image – that is to say the entire area under surveillance – is recorded continuously and at maximum resolution. This means that no details are lost, and analysis and evaluation options are made possible.
The Allianz Arena was particularly concerned to provide security in the spectators’ areas in the North and South ends. So the Panomera were mounted at a dizzying height: three cascaded Panomeras behind the scoreboard cover the upper tier of the North stand, several more Panomeras on the lighting gantries are trained on the lower tiers of the North and South ends. Richard Ponteles says: “The resolution of detail offered by Panomera® is simply incredible.”
About 100 cameras are used to oversee the entire stadium area including the stands, the inner building, entrances and exits, and car parks. During the modernisation, depending on their condition the existing cameras were replaced with Dallmeier domes or box cameras with infra-red illumination, or were incorporated in the new system. Richard Ponteles says: “Previously, we worked with two management systems in order to be able to operate the cameras from the various manufacturers. But these have now been replaced with a single system from Dallmeier, the SeMSy Management System: the legacy cameras from multiple manufacturers, the Dallmeier HD cameras and the Panomera® cameras can all be controlled and analysed very simply with one management system.”
Four workstations, each with the SeMSy Management System and the Panomera Viewer, have been set up in the command centre for the police. Another three workstations are in the Welcome Area West, the Stewards’ Office and the Engineering Room. This enables the security staff and stewards to be deployed at the stadium during matches, and even areas such as the stairwells or lifts can be overseen. All status reports from the PGuard advance analysis software are routed to the workstation in the Engineering Room, so the staff there is informed automatically if a fan or a camera malfunctions for example. Several DMX 1600 Smatrix were installed for the recordings from the legacy cameras; the Panomera is stored on IPS 2400 Smavia. Managing Director Jürgen Muth says of the new CCTV: “The extremely high detail resolution, the capability of integrating our existing system, and particularly the intuitive operation of the system were the decisive factors for us in choosing Dallmeier. We are more than satisfied, both with the system and with the consulting support we have received from Dallmeier.”
Video on YouTube
Video “Allianz Arena relies on Panomera by Dallmeier”: http://youtu.be/s7X6shzr-ZI
