Historic London Football Club Protects Patrons With Genetec Video System

Genetec, a pioneer in the physical security industry and a leading provider of world-class unified IP security solutions, is proud to announce that Fulham Football Club, London's oldest first class football club, has installed Genetec's video surveillance system in its 22,000-seat stadium.

When Fulham recently sought a new video surveillance platform, Nicholas Pendlebury, Head of IT Projects at Fulham, brought on EMC, a global provider of information technology services, to assist in the design of a new system. Genetec's system was chosen for its open architecture and its ability to improve both security and operational processes at once; not only enhancing safety but also crowd control and monitoring procedures.

Fulham required undisrupted video coverage, as well as image quality that would enable operators to zoom in on individual faces in a crowd. Sixty-three Axis Communications cameras, 25 of which are PTZ, utilizing joysticks for simple camera angle manipulation were installed. Using Axis's network cameras, Fulham is able to use built-in features like motion control for alarm triggers out of hours and privacy masks to limit PTZ field of vision from encroaching on neighbouring private property. Thirty days of archived video are stored on 100 terabytes of EMC Celerra storage that are shared with Fulham's file storage. The Genetec's system has full failover capabilities and the infrastructure is monitored 24/7 via a site-to-site VPN. Fulham's system is used largely for live monitoring on match days, at which time police, Fulham stewards, and medical staff convene in the Control Centre to monitor the tens of thousands of stadium patrons.

Future plans include an upgrade to Genetec's unified video surveillance and access control platform, the Security Center, and the inclusion of Plan Manager, a feature that enables interactive, spatial mapping of cameras to further facilitate system navigation. Additional plans for a nearby training facility include the installation of 25 high-definition cameras, thermal imaging and deployment of Genetec's license plate recognition system, AutoVu, which can also be unified within the Security Center.