Taking to the stage

Constructed in time to host the World Student Games back in 1991, the £34 million Sheffield Hallam FM Arena was officially opened by Her Majesty The Queen on 31 May that year. The Arena – which is located just outside of the city centre, close to Junction 34 of the M1 and the Meadowhall Shopping Centre – stands as one of the country’s largest entertainment venues.

In little over a decade the Arena has built up an excellent reputation as the ‘venue of choice’ for a host of events, including rock concerts, ice shows, sporting tournaments, exhibitions and theatre-style shows. It now attracts over one million people through its doors every year.

The building’s massive and versatile auditorium boasts a flexible layout that’s adaptable to accommodate audiences of up to 12,500 in any number of different standing/seating configurations. A built-in ice floor facility also supports the Arena’s role as home of the Sheffield Steelers Elite League ice hockey team, which plays around 30 home games each season.

Enjoying a catchment area of some nine million people, the Arena is managed under contract by Clear Channel Entertainment.

Planning a security upgrade

With the Arena’s originally installed CCTV system coming towards the end of its useful service life, David Vickers – the Sheffield Hallam FM Arena’s general manager tasked with security provision and operation on the premises – decided to upgrade the set-up.

“Public arenas like our own are built to cope with large numbers of people,” explains Vickers. “These people are our customers, and it’s our job to provide them with total satisfaction when it comes to their visitor experience. We respect that goal and constantly strive to manage a high profile entertainment facility where visitors are assured that they can enjoy themselves in a safe and secure environment. A guarantee of that is the only way people will ever contemplate coming back again.”

With such a clearly defined modus operandi in mind, back in October 2002 Sheffield International Venues invited bids from a number of CCTV installation companies to provide an effective replacement surveillance system. Addressing the key objective, the final system design was chosen for its ability to provide security and management surveillance coverage for all of the Arena’s external and internal areas. High resolution colour monitoring was deemed an ‘essential’ for the protection of visitors, contractors, performers and Arena staff.

The winning proposal for the project was submitted by South Yorkshire-based installer Reflex. It features a turn-key equipment-style design configured in a bespoke manner to meet the Arena management’s stringent operational requirements.

The upgrade of Sheffield Hallam FM Arena’s CCTV surveillance systems, completed under the watchful eye of Arena operations manager Tim Stewart, involved a high degree of pre-installation fact-finding and in-depth consultation. That’s only part of the story, though, as Stewart explains. “The newly-completed installation is the result of an exacting review of the Arena’s immediate operational needs, devised to provide the very best integrated security and site management crowd monitoring solution available. To this end, we didn’t simply want to replace the existing system with an identical new one.”

Ensuring that they capitalised on the new system’s investment, a full audit of the visual monitoring requirements of each camera scene was carried out. Continues Stewart: “If required, either more cameras were added or existing camera positions moved to afford full coverage in each particular zone.”

Effective systems integration

In supporting the CCTV system and its effective integration, Reflex engineers decided to rebuild the existing security Control Room, taking note of the day-to-day deployment of control and monitoring equipment. The result is an ergonomically-designed space that has enabled the easy integration and human interface of the Arena’s mix of on-site security and facilities management systems – all neatly configured into a main console.

With the heart of the new CCTV system based around a camera matrix switcher and desktop controllers, operators now enjoy the simple selection of any of the site’s 100-plus colour cameras to enable effective high resolution surveillance monitoring.

The Arena’s recording system has been specified to provide fast access to high quality video recordings. It uses a 30 Terrabyte capacity hard disk-based digital recording unit. Programmed to meet the security risk assessment audit needs of each individual camera and its particular area of surveillance coverage, the video information from all the new system’s cameras is recorded and stored at the equivalent of 12-hour update mode, and for a 30-day retention period.

In addressing the main auditorium’s large open space and back-of-house facilities, including the dressing rooms and service corridors, the aim of obtaining a consistent level of clarity and detail of picture content throughout the range of low light conditions led Reflex to specify digital signal processing colour dome cameras.

Offering 480 lines (colour) and 570 lines (monochrome) of high resolution imaging, the dome cameras installed use cutting-edge technology for genuine 24-hour surveillance. The inclusion of a 360-degree horizontal rotation capability plus 180-degree vertical pan with ‘flip-a-chip’ means that no subject can easily escape the cameras’ ultra-fast 300 degrees per second panning speed.

Securing the main Arena

“Around the Arena complex, the CCTV system provides sufficient coverage to enable us to literally monitor a person from their point of entry, right through the building until such time as they take their seat in the auditorium,” adds Tim Stewart. “The system is extremely effective in monitoring the busy circular public concourses and foyers around the Arena, enabling us to track crowd movements. Here, we can also maintain a watchful eye on the various food, beverage and merchandising facilities, in particular with respect to Health and Safety issues but also in line with general security requirements.”

Stewart explains further: “We experienced an incident concerning a food vending unit prior to a show. As the vendor was preparing the catering equipment, a concourse fire alarm was triggered in the main Control Room. One of the Control Room operators reacted by selecting the nearest available dome camera to quickly identify the source of the alarm. It turned out to be a small fire. Thanks to the effectiveness of the integrated systems the incident was quickly dealt with – the fire was extinguished by an event steward guided to the scene by a CCTV operator.”

The entire site is guarded from either of the two control workstations. Ultimately, this enables Arena Control Room operators to ensure the safety and security of visiting acts and celebrities during the pre-event build-up of stage rigs when delivery vehicles and crew buses park-up in the back-of-house service yard. Using vandal-resistant external colour/monochrome specification dome cameras, the mayhem of frantic activity is watched over to keep a safe eye on the unloading of the many tons of high value, specialist kit as it’s delivered through the ‘Back of Stage’ roller shutter doors.

Using video as evidence

Reflex provided the Arena’s management team with a wealth of on-site and technical support. Talking about the benefits provided by the system’s four hard disk recorders, Reflex’s project director Steve Ward comments: “Video footage is easy and fast to find via the hard disk’s search facility, and doesn’t involve the drudgery of having to scroll through hours of analogue tape. As with all high profile public venues, good quality live and recorded picture quality is critical. All of the system’s camera images are digitally recorded and stored.”

That last point is particularly important in the event of a public liability insurance claim. “Here, we have unequivocal, digitally recorded video evidence to show exactly what has taken place during an incident,” adds Ward. “Pretty much essential if you want to deal with genuine claims quickly and efficiently or reject any fraudulent ones.”