video surveillance of 50,000 seats using traditional systems? We tested a few and they were very good, but they were de- pendent on the operator capturing the in- cident, which is problematic because they have to be looking at just the right time. “This was just my desire to have an- other tool at our disposal from an opera- tional perspective,” he adds. “I like to think that I think outside the box and trying to capture every seat in the arena is something that I’ve always been eager to pursue. We thought this was going to be something outside of our price range but it was very affordable and is something we are going to continue to build on over the years.”
The decision to deploy Avigilon’s solu- tions was made after several months of testing the technology. The company pro- vided a camera that the Rogers Centre in- stalled to test its capabilities. Avigilon is no stranger to helping secure large venues for it has a history of outfitting such high crowd-volume locations as the City of Vancouver in anticipation of the 2010 Winter Olympics, M.M. Roberts Stadium in Hattiesburg, Miss., and King Abdulaziz In- ternational Airport in Saudi Arabia. “It was a unique stadium environ- ment,” says Dan Ireland, Avigilon’s di- rector of sales for eastern Canada. “It had several challenges resulting from incon- sistent lighting conditions when the roof is either open or closed. It’s also a multi-pur- pose venue in hosting concerts and trade shows, as well as sporting events.” Key to the system is that it gives in- creased “situational awareness,” he says. Cameras on either side of the seating area of the stadium allows for the continuous wide-field monitoring of almost the entire stadium at once. However, when a situa- tion arises, the technology allows for a rapid review and high-resolution focus on the particular location where the situation has occurred. “You can zoom in and really see
people’s faces,” says Ireland. “That’s the kind of detail we can get. We are able to capture incidents and be able to turn over high-quality video information to authori- ties to conduct investigations.” This is an improvement from the tradi- tional pan/tilt/zoom (PTZ) cameras previ- ously used by the Rogers Centre that relied on the camera being pointed in just
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the right location and then zooming into that location. The problem arises, how- ever, when key moments in that incident are lost because the camera was pointing in another direction. Alternatively, while those same cameras are pointed toward one incident, it might be missing another happening elsewhere.
Although it has only been in use for a short few months, the new technology has already shown its usefulness to Coutinho.
day basis that help you to become a better facility manager.
“Between having best practices, training and this,” he adds, “it helps us to become better operators so when we’re bidding and hosting events, the promoters can come in a little more comfortable knowing we have the infrastructure to handle their events.”
Keith Marett, director of marketing and communications for Avigilon, says three
“We had an incident where someone was able to go into a woman’s purse, take out what he was looking for and then put back her wallet,” he says. “When we got the call, we were able to instantaneously identify the individual in question and provide po- lice with a copy of the video and they were able to make an arrest. Now police know it’s something that is available to them.” This kind of technology provides an ad- ditional advantage when it comes to consid- ering venues for future events, such as the 2015 Pan Am Games, which the Toronto area will be hosting, he says. Then there are other efficiencies that can be realized. “It helps from a risk management [per- spective) and when reviewing incidents,” he explains. “It helps us know how staff is dis- tributed, where they might be better distrib- uted to and if there are concerns of service that we can go back and review. I think it comes down to whether or not there’s a busi- ness need. Nowadays, things like terrorism are always in the back of the mind. You in- vest in the technology and hope it doesn’t happen. But there are enough individual in- cidents that require that footage on a day-to-
criteria are often at the forefront of a venue’s decision to go with either high-de- finition surveillance or more traditional PTZ technology. The increasing ability of the security surveillance industry to meet those concerns has brought the tech- nology to a tipping point of becoming the preferred technology.
“A lot of it has to do with cost factor,” he says. “People assume it is going to be a higher cost which is not the case nowa- days. Also, along with the assumption that it’s not only going to cost more, but there will be a cost of bandwidth and storage. Then there is integration with existing legacy equipment. Once you’ve overcome those three criteria, the adoption is going to increase that much more rapidly.” As for future needs, Coutinho says he would like to install additional cameras, particularly around the gates and to fill any holes in the seating areas.
“I’m happy with what we have, but we always want to improve,” he says.
Andrew Wareing is a freelance writer in Aurora, Ont.
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Photo courtesy Rogers Communications
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