IDS CCTV solution increases security for fans and local residents
The Windsor Park stadium in South Belfast has witnessed some momentous days in Linfield and Northern Ireland’s footballing history. Home to Linfield F.C. and the Northern Ireland national football team, it first opened in 1905, with a legendary derby match between Linfield and Glentoran. More recently it has hosted thousands of fans for the Irish Cup final for several years.
18,000 seater redevelopment plans
In May 2014, work began to redevelop the 1930’s stadium structure, with the aim of transforming it into a 18,000-capacity all-seater stadium. The £30 million project is due to be completed by November 2015.
The Challenge
Unfortunately over the years Windsor Park have experienced high levels of violence leading up to and on match days. The primary issues have been:
- Violence acts being carried out in the vicinity of the stadium pre and post-match days.
- Gang related crimes and hostility between opposing fans, resulting in incidents occurring in the grounds on match day.
It would be extremely challenging to police this activity on foot alone, so the obvious answer was a dependable security solution. It was important that the stadium’s security management were able to pinpoint ring leaders and troublemakers, so high quality CCTV was essential. Capturing faces was an integral part of the specification, hence it was imperative that the latest technology was installed around the stadium to ensure the safety of the property, fans and the general public.
The Solution
“Our design team ensured that we specified the perfect solution for the client. There were two key areas that we needed to focus on, first – to provide a high quality camera offering a 1080p resolution or higher, secondly to guarantee facial recognition.” Says Tas Kyriacou IDS Business Development Director.
IP CCTV Solution
IDS Technical & Design Manager explains “We specified 16 of our bullet cameras in locations inside and outside the stadium. This camera gives the client a wide scope with electronic controls to pin point a specific area they would like to focus on.”
The NVR System
A 3U rack mount with an i7 and Windows Embedded 64 bit operating system with 30TB storage was also specified to the client to support the cameras software and store up to 30 days recording. This allows the client to refer back to any incidents that may have happened during the past month.
The Analytics Software
The face detection and masking analytic was also a suggested implementation so that when a controller focuses on a specific area to identify faces the software can take automatic snapshots of individuals. When an individual covers their face this masking analytic will detect this and raise an alarm and take a snapshot.
This works well in dense areas with a number of faces coming across the CCTV screen. These images and videos are stored on the NVR, IDS Technical & Design Manager adds.
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