Penalty Free Security

Houston stadium begins upgrade project at soccer, multi-use facility

• By Ralph C. Jensen
• Jun 01, 2018

BBVA Compass Stadium is a soccer-specific stadium located in Houston, and home to the Houston Dynamo, a Major League Soccer club. It also is home to the Houston Dash of the National Women’s Soccer League and to Texas Southern University Tiger football. It is also going through a major retrofit with its security systems to include a best of breed, open architecture solution.

The stadium opened in 2012, but now six years later, Cultris Security Systems of Houston is back upgrading and expanding the current security installation.

After spending five years with another security provider, the Dynamo and Dash, who maintains the facility, opted for a completely new solution. Along with their current Panasonic cameras, stadium officials opted for Axis Communications cameras. Both camera manufacturers play well with Salient Systems VMS. The result was an image resolution much more enhanced than they had been experiencing.

“With all of this equipment brought together, we found it to be easy to use, user friendly, and supported a very complimentary search function,” said Paul Fisher, regional sales associate at Salient Systems. “For those people hired as facility guards, and with a sometime frequent turnover in staff, new people were able to use the Salient software right away and were able to do their job guarding the facility more quickly. “

An installation like this is a great reference for us, and it is a very exciting security installation. Although there are fewer than 100 cameras, the placement and location of the cameras will allow security to monitor the sometimes over-zealous fans, and with BBVA Compass Stadium officials installing our synopsis video tool, stadium officials will be able to keymap the entire facility, gain analytical data and improve the customer experience.”

Salient also partners with Dell, taking its CompleteView VMS platform into the booming Internet of Things market. The CompleteView VMS’ ability to quickly render and manage video surveillance over a WAN or LAN makes it a compelling offering for solution providers looking to gain a foothold in IoT. The manner through which the video is processed is very efficient, and can render the video and perform forensics on the video rapidly.

As more businesses look to video surveillance as an IoT application, the CompleteView VMS platform—which can be integrated with other software packages—will enable partners to work with customers to solve specific problems through big data and analytics capabilities.

Stadium officials also switched out access control software, bringing in DSX software to complete the upgrade.

“We have long known that DSX is a workhorse software solution,” president of Cultris Security Systems Inc. Jason Smith said. “It is easy to use and a lower cost to use. These upgrades are exciting for us to be part of because the installation will come in several phases, with the integration supported for years to come. “We also found working with BBVA Compass Stadium staff very easy because they were receptive to open architecture security solutions. Phase Two will begin in 2019, and we’re excited to design the next layer of security at the stadium.”

Cultris technicians almost had a blank canvas to begin their security installation. The facility itself is an open architecture facility, so facility managers were very receptive when plans were drawn up for security equipment. Much of the focus was on the stadium concourses, where the bulk of the soccer fans’ traffic is found during a match.

The new master plan now included 360-degree cameras along the concourse, which offered coverage in every direction. The same 360-degree cameras were also placed near the locker rooms, loading docks and service areas. PTZ and fixed lens cameras were upgraded and placed in each corner of the facility where there is a gate for entrance and exit.

As imagined, soccer fans are very passionate about their sport and teams, so cameras on the concourse were placed in a manner for the guarding staff to be able to know if or when a fight broke out where they would be needed most, and the quickest.

BBVA Compass Stadium has a capacity of 22,039 seats, including 34 private suites, 1,100 club seats, an indoor premium club area, a dedicated supporters stand and a food court. The stadium is designed to accommodate MLS and FIFA standard international soccer, as well as football, lacrosse, rugby and concerts.

Stadium security staff also are able to view cameras placed in an adjacent parking area, as well as city security cameras (live view only) in order to ensure the safety and security of people coming to the venue and leaving after the match. These cameras have a 4K PTZ quick drive function, which helps establish a clear view of events, if additional security help is needed.

As an integrator, Cultris Security has clearly installed a solution that will work properly for BBVA Compass Stadium, and their tenants, who are always looking to strike a goal.

This article originally appeared in the June 2018 issue of Security Today.