Eden Park boosts stadium-wide visibility and incident response with Genetec Security Center.
Eden Park is widely considered New Zealand’s national stadium. Since its opening in 1903, the stadium has been the home of Auckland Cricket and Auckland Rugby. It has a seating capacity of nearly 50,000 and an unmatched atmosphere for live events.
As New Zealand’s largest stadium, Eden Park has a proven track record of delivering successful events for over a century. From the 1987 and 2011 Rugby World Cup finals to the 2022 ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup and beyond.
Today, the stadium hosts matches across all sporting codes, along with major recreational, musical, and cultural events.
Increasing security capabilities stadium-wide
Each year, one million local and international fans pass through Eden Park’s doors. With such high-volume patronage, the stadium needed a security platform that could help the team proactively safeguard against threats.
This became particularly important following the release of the New Zealand Government’s Crowded Places Strategy in 2020 and Eden Park becoming the hosts of the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023.
The chosen security system needed to be reliable, deliver operational efficiencies, and meet the robust requirements of Eden Park’s events. This would allow the stadium to improve collaboration with relevant police and government departments, and meet the growing expectations of event organizers.
Following a recommendation from their channel partner, Nextro, Eden Park chose Genetec™ Security Center. The unified security platform would help enhance stadium-wide visibility, all while providing redundancy and failover systems to ensure optimal performance and up-time.
“Nextro is proud to partner with Eden Park to design, implement and support its upgraded security platform. The Genetec solution is now being used to enhance operations and ensure stadium-wide safety and security for New Zealand’s biggest sporting and cultural events.” - Martyn Levy, Managing Director at Nextro.
Unifying stadium security and gaining operational efficiencies
With the Genetec platform at hand, stadium operators can now monitor crowds, address safety concerns, and coordinate incident responses from centralized spaces.
Across all corners of the stadium, Eden Park now has over 150 cameras. The team uses Genetec Omnicast™, the video surveillance system within Security Center, to get a clear picture of events and crowd levels. The intuitive security platform makes it simple for security personnel to see what’s happening venue-wide, from the stands to the car park and even around the facility perimeter.
With privacy-first visual tracking and quick search functionality, identifying and responding to security alerts can happen in seconds. In-depth analytics and motion detection means that the right information is at the team’s fingertips, consolidated into one unified solution for maximum efficiency.
Eden Park has also deployed the AutoVu automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) system, installing AutoVu SharpV cameras around stadium grounds. This enables operators to automatically check vehicle licence plates against the live law enforcement database of stolen vehicles or vehicles of interest.
Plus, with four Streamvault security infrastructure appliances, Eden Park now has a fully redundant physical security system. The Streamvault appliances operate in high-availability mode, while cameras record in two separate locations.
Dual directory servers also mean that if an entire server room goes offline, Eden Park will still have access to video archives and live streaming. This provides Eden Park with certainty of continuous operation for game day alongside accurate, complete archives stored within a solution that is security-hardened by design.
Eden Park now has a unified view of security, backed by infrastructure appliances that have been tested to their limits and tailored to the stadium’s unique requirements. This added level of reliability eliminates guesswork and offers invaluable peace of mind.
Enhancing city-wide collaboration and incident response
A key consideration for Eden Park was ensuring the stadium could easily work with local law enforcement agencies when security incidents occurred.
Using the Genetec Federation feature, Eden Park was able to grant system access to local law enforcement in case of emergencies. This enables staff and police officers to work together to respond rapidly to incidents that occur inside and around the stadium. The same goes for other government departments and transport bodies. On game day, officials can get remote, real-time visibility to specific outdoors cameras as needed.
With a centralized system and the ability to easily export multicamera events, operators at Eden Park distribute evidence faster. They can now rapidly share video surveillance archives and events with Police or other first responders in case there’s a request.
Using the Quick Search tool in Security Center, operators quickly pinpoint video footage using keywords or other data related to security incidents in seconds. This helps enhance incident response, keeping spectators and guests safer. The team can also use the Visual Tracking feature to easily jump from one camera to the next to follow suspects moving through the stadium, speeding up investigations.
What’s next?
Eden Park’s decision to implement Genetec Security Center has already delivered a range of positive outcomes. They’ve seen a marked increase in system uptime and reliability, and better threat detection and response on big event days.
Looking ahead, Eden Park will continue to use and extract more value from the Genetec platform. In particular, they’re looking at using behavioral analytics to better monitor crowds, protect sensitive areas, and enhance the guest experience.
“With Genetec Security Center in place, we’ve seen a great improvement in functionality and usability on game day. It just works. Our partnership with Nextro has made this possible. We see the team as far more than just a security system integrator but a trusted security partner for Eden Park,” said Paul Thompson, IT Manager at Eden Park.
“Eden Park is committed to delivering world-class live experiences and attracting premium events for Auckland and New Zealand. With centralized security operations underpinned by Genetec, we’re able to continue setting the benchmark for stadium experiences in the wider APAC region,” explained Nick Sautner, Eden Park Chief Executive Officer.