Chase Field (home of the Arizona Diamondbacks baseball team) in Downtown Phoenix was surrounded by the nexus of hoopla surrounding pre-Super Bowl festivities. Surveillance units on tripods with mesh backbones aided in securing the area.
Photo courtesy IPVision
The IP video system connected back to command centers, where 42-inch screens connected monitoring and response staff with activities in the field.
Photo courtesy IPVision
Some systems were mounted on existing light and street-sign poles, integrating the cameras and the networking devices onto one location. Dotworkz "CoolDome" enclosures were employed to keep equipment running in the heat.
Photo courtesy IPVision
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Networking video at Super Bowl XLII
Phoenix's PD throws a Hail Mary surveillance pass for a security touchdown
SecurityInfoWatch.com
Last month, on Feb. 3, 2008, football fans from around the world descended upon Phoenix, Ariz., for Super Bowl XLII. It was a massive draw in terms of football events, pitting the then-undefeated New England Patriots against the New York Giants. When it came down to the wire, the Giants edged out the "Pats" 17-14 in a tough victory. The Super Bowl has become much more than a few-hour game. Football fever grips much of the nation, as fans pack stadiums around the country for months to watch their favorite teams go head to head and helmet to helmet. Nowhere is it more apparent that football is more than a game than at the Super Bowl, which is part party, part vacation, part sports industry "who's who" event. Even two weeks before the main event, thousands of people pack into the town (in this case, the Phoenix metro area), and with the high volume of people, the Super Bowl becomes a security concern. Of concern could be anything from rowdy party-goers to even an unthinkable terrorist act. At the center of that for the 2008 game was the Phoenix Police Department, which had to ensure that the town enjoyed all of the festivities and little of the trouble. As part of its preparation for this unique event, the city undertook a significant project of adding video surveillance, especially around the downtown areas where the NFL had set up shop to host the numerous accompanying events. According to Chris Jensen, a detective in the Phoenix Police Department's surveillance unit, the police set up a 40-plus camera surveillance system themselves. The members of the surveillance unit even operated as specifying engineers, integrators, and even product designers to some extent. Looking back on it, says Jensen, he can see that it was pretty unique. "At the time, we didn't think what we were doing was particularly unique," admitted Jensen. "But talking to other police departments, it's apparently really rare to have tech staff and bucket trucks and be able to do complex integrations yourself." What was unique about the Phoenix P.D. surveillance unit's approach is that they have adopted a mobile mindset. After all, said Jensen, crime doesn't come to the police, so the police have to go to the crimes. They created unique camera enclosure units that included Sony's SNC-RZ50N cameras - network PTZ cameras in Sony's IPELA line that Sony's Marketing Manager Miguel Lazatin says work well in low-lux environments and also have the zoom capabilities to read a license plate up to 300 yards away. Phoenix outsourced the units' construction to IPVision, an interesting Arizona firm that is part manufacturer/part systems integrator. The company started as an information systems VAR before getting into network video back in 2003 with a single shopping center surveillance project. |
