Victoria Racing Club Limited (VRC) held its first race meeting on the rough river flats beside the Maribyrnong River in March 1840 when the town of Melbourne was barely five years old. In 1864, it took over the Melbourne Cup horserace and has run it at Flemington every year since then. Flemington is treasured as a world leader in racing and event entertainment and VRC is committed to ensuring the racecourse is a safe, welcoming and inclusive place of entertainment and employment.
With over 200 employees and over 400,000 total attendances annually at its race days, VRC needed a complete security solution that could effectively manage the heavy live traffic flow of people and vehicles throughout its grounds and parking areas without crashing or lagging. This was desired not only for general crowd management but as a measure of preparedness in case of emergencies.
Additionally, VRC sought a system with advanced search capabilities to help locate specific individuals throughout their site quickly and easily while maintaining ease of use for its operators.
To safeguard its customers, employees and resources, VRC deployed a security solution including
Avigilon video surveillance cameras with patented self-learning video analytics and Avigilon Control Center (ACC) video management software with Avigilon Appearance Search technology.
The system has helped VRC more efficiently manage the video collected by their cameras, as Avigilon’s advanced video analytics are able to accurately recognize the movements of people and vehicles, differentiating it from motion that is not relevant to a scene. When an event occurs that may need further investigation, VRC’s security team is instantly notified and, with the exceptional image detail of the video, can quickly verify the event and determine whether action needs to be taken. If a specific person needs to be located on site, an Appearance Search can be quickly conducted to find the individual and track their route throughout the venue — all within the ACC software interface.
Since the installation of the Avigilon solution, VRC no longer experiences frequent lags in its video or system crashes, which has greatly increased the efficiency of its day-to-day operations. Now, the security team can easily oversee human and vehicle traffic as well as access to and from the venue.
This has allowed VRC to take a more proactive approach to its security operations; its security team can monitor areas to help control movement and ensure they do not become overcrowded, which could be problematic in the event of an emergency if first responders needed fast access to the venue. This improved situational awareness has helped enhance VRC’s emergency preparedness while offering greater peace of mind for its guests.
VRC’s Avigilon system has allowed it to improve crowd management and event response, creating a safer, more secure environment for both its employees and guests. The success of the system has prompted VRC to continue expanding its Avigilon solution, adding more cameras to its ACC system while maintaining ease of use for its security team.