All over the world, football stadiums are places of sports, emotions and large crowds. Fans of rivaling football clubs come together in confined spaces to cheer for their teams. Unfortunately violence and riots also go along with football matches quite often. That's why in preparation of the European Football Championship 2012 the Polish government passed new laws regarding safety and security in large venues.

Visitors and viewers should experience a peaceful event and therefore also the requirements for the video surveillance systems were aligned to the current technological standard. The GOSiR stadium in Gdynia is the home of football club Arka Gdynia. It is run by the town's administration. To meet the increasing requirements, the whole site was completely refurbished in 2010. As a result, 15,200 seats are now available - that means 3,000 more than before. But more people also stand for a higher security risk. Vandalism, the firing of Bengal lights, assault and brawls among the fans are just some of the risks that have to be faced. Therefore the decision was made to update the security system, which also meant to fulfill the recently passed laws. Accordingly one of the main challenges was to implement a video system with a high frame rate and resolution to be able to identify hooligans and misbehaving fans.

The Solution
In 2010, AMB 24 was engaged to modernize the video surveillance system. Being the first Polish company having installed a security system according to the new laws, AMB 24 had important experience with the required technology. In the past an analog solution had been in use at GOSiR stadium, being no longer state of the art. The main problems were the low resolution of the image recordings and the huge capacity of storage that was needed. After a period of testing different software products, AMB 24 followed the advice of the distribution partner SPS Electronics and decided in favor of the SeeTec software.

The Result
In cooperation with AMB 24, SeeTec developed a solution concept that could be implemented promptly. Due to the new laws the decision was made to replace the complete system instead of integrating the analogue equipment into the new network based environment.

That's why new IP cameras had to be chosen. The installer selected 160 megapixel cameras from Arecont Vision and further manufacturers, delivering video streams with a resolution of up to 10 megapixels. To guarantee perfect image quality the whole system works in Full HD resolution or better, delivering the brilliant video streams with a rate of up to 25 frames per second. This allows the identification of persons even from a great distance.

SeeTec 5 Enterprise acts as the central management platform. One of the main benefits of the SeeTec software is the deep integration of each camera type, using all features the device can provide. This is why the cameras deliver fluent high-resolution video streams for viewing and recording while the required disk storage is minimized. The observation and analysis of live streams and recorded footage takes place in the control center on five workstations running SeeTec clients and on one big monitor wall. This large screen is perfectly suitable for displaying the images streams provided by the 10 megapixel cameras, even allowing the identification of single disruptors within a fan section. Using the DisplayAgent feature, the monitor wall is directly controlled from a SeeTec WindowsClient running in Dispatcher mode.

Integrated maps and floor plans ensure a fast and visually supported access to the particular cameras all over the stadium. As soon as the cursor slides over a camera symbol on the map, a thumbnail showing a live stream appears - especially in large installations like GOSiR this feature helps to reduce the response time considerably. Furthermore virtual patrols are used by the security staff to keep track of the situation on site. Showing predefined camera positions in certain intervals, this feature is used especially outside the playing time to support the security crew to avoid long patrol distances.
Within only four days both hardware and software have been installed and the system has been put into operation.

The Customer
AMB 24 is a Polish company based in Gdynia being specialized in planning, installation and maintenance of security systems. The facilities AMB 24 is in charge of range from private residences and yachts to industrial plants and public sites.

"A test series among 20 competitors showed that SeeTec fulfilled every criterion being crucial: functionality, stability, the decompression speed and the scalability of the system, so that adaptation to future demands is possible without any difficulties," said Michał Krzeszewski, executive engineer in the project.

A year has passed since the new system has been put into operation and it has already fulfilled its intended purpose. Since the implementation confrontations between rivaling fans have decreased, making police operations almost needless. For future demands, the SeeTec Multi Solution Platform can provide numerous extensions. Currently the application of SeeTec Analytics is being discussed. The innovative security system is groundbreaking and a role model to a large number of sports centers in the country.