Case Studies

Saints CCTV upgrade

by Mark Rowe

A case study of St Mary’s Stadium in Southampton, where the Premier League club has modernised its CCTV system.

Since 2001, St Mary’s has served as the home for Southampton FC, nicknamed “The Saints”. The stadium can hold more than 32,000 spectators – this makes it the largest football stadium in the south of England outside of London.

A video surveillance system has been in place in the stadium for years, monitoring the spectator terraces, club shop, entrances and car parks – and now it was time to update the system. “Previously, we had used analogue cameras, and now we wanted to change to HD technology, to improve image quality, particularly for monitoring the terraces. The stadium is sold out regularly, and with the new video system we can offer our visitors even greater safety”, says Mark Hannibal, Venue Safety Manager.

The safety officers decided on the Panomera MFS technology from Dallmeier for their monitoring, particularly to cover the visiting fans area in the north terrace, called the Northam Stand. Mark Hannibal says says: “We had heard about this new technology at a conference held by the Football Safety Officers Association (FSOA), and we then talked to Everton FC, who were already using the new camera technology in their Goodison Park Stadium.”

With a new, patented sensor concept, MFS makes it possible to keep the entire northern stand in view at once. Even when the security operators are zoomed in on a suspicious individual, unlike with conventional PTZ cameras the system continues recording the rest of the scene, say the German CCTV manufacturers. This then ensures that no incident is unseen and can be investigated in the highest possible resolution at any time afterwards.

St Mary’s were convinced by MFS with a test installation at a home match. St Mary’s Stadium decided to fit not only the Panomera but an entire installation by Dallmeier: recording and video management products are also Dallmeier.

Steve Hodges, Sales Manager and responsible Project Manager with Dallmeier UK, says: “We have several IP appliances in operation for recording the Panomera systems, and also other DMX appliances that are capable of recording both analogue and IP cameras.” The makers add that RAID 6 ensures highest possible availability of data.

Mark Hannibal says: “The Panomera systems have already made an outstanding contribution to the quality of safety inside the stadium. Dallmeier’s professional assistance at every stage has allowed Stage 1 implementation to reach operational standard very quickly. Cooperation was good, and this was also a crucial factor in our decision to take the second step without delay. Specifically, we want to migrate our existing analogue cameras to HD cameras. Because we are using the hybrid DMX appliances, we can proceed to this step without any difficulties, we will not have to purchase any new hardware or licences.”

For the management of the system, the control room staff have several SeMSy workstations, so the police and security managers can access images.

The system including the workstations was pre-configured by Dallmeier before shipping, so when it arrived at the site, it was a case of ‘plug and play’. The installer was Caldera Fire & Security, which had worked previously on St Mary’s. After commissioning, Caldera and the stadium security operators received training from Dallmeier. And Dallmeier was represented in the control room for the first actual live operation. “Our deadlines were quite tight, because not only did we have to convert the control room, we also had to install the entire system in the off-season. Thanks to good cooperation between everyone involved, and with the support from Dallmeier, everything went without a hitch,” says Darren Lea, Managing Director of Fareham-based Caldera.

Mark Hannibal sums up: “The clarity of the images has dramatically improved the view of all supporters, we have already marked up our first successes with it. Several offenders have made admissions of guilt very quickly after being confronted with the excellent imaging material.”

About Dallmeier

Visit www.dallmeier.com

About the installer

Caldera has worked on hotels, hospices and Portsmouth Indoor Tennis Centre. Visit http://www.calderafs.co.uk/projects/.

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