The Challenge
In 2013, the Pacific Northwest’s only Major League Baseball stadium, Safeco Field, home of the Seattle Mariners, upgraded its video security system to better monitor, protect and secure the 2,000,000-plus fans that attend games each season, the facility and the physical assets within the stadium. Their first surveillance system, installed during the stadium’s inaugural season in 1999, relied heavily on coaxial cabling. Trying to scale and upgrade the analog system would have required significant rewiring at a cost-prohibitive expense. The security team chose to upgrade to an IP network surveillance system that would increase operational efficiency and be easy to monitor by the full-time security officer and other security staff
The Solution
Milestone XProtect IP video management software (VMS) has since been deployed throughout Safeco Field for its ease of integration and ability to efficiently network current and future camera installations. Milestone Mobileis deployed for its video push technology for the security manager and director of security to have access on the go. All of the stadium’s 222 cameras are now connected and controlled via the IP network for high-quality, efficient digitalvideo viewing live and recorded, in playback and used for forensic analysis.
Older analog cameras are digitized through Axis and Sony video encoders. The Mariners continue to upgrade their network of cameras to provide additional coverage through the ballpark.
Advantages
The scalability, flexibility, reliability and cost-effectiveness of the IP-based Milestone video management system have all been significant benefits for the Mariners’ security team. The ability to use additional features such as layered, interactive mapping or share access to cameras with multiple users, has helped Safeco Field deploy increased security measures.
Institutional Profile
Opening its doors on July 15, 1999, Safeco Field hosts Major League Baseball’s American League Seattle Mariners in the state of Washington. In less than 15 years, the ballpark has hosted an All-Star Game, two of the 23 perfect games ever thrown (both in 2012), American League Divisional Series, numerous record-breaking games and more than 42 million fans rooting for the home and visiting teams. In addition, Safeco Field hosts high school and college baseball games, concerts, graduations, parties, corporate meetings, weddings, a 5k fun run and banquets. The stadium has nearly 250 full-time year-round employees, with that number increasing to 5,000 day-of-game employees for a large capacity game.
With its previous security system more than a decade old,Safeco Field had 114 analog cameras connected throughout the stadium via cable –a large, expensive operation when being maintained or replaced. The Mariners upgraded their security system in 2013 and continue to add to the system each off-season. Through the upgraded system, they have the ability to provide local law enforcement with live camera feeds and recorded video that can be exported and shared to aid authorities in an investigation.
During the 2012 season, as a pilot for the Milestone deployment,numerous cameras were temporarily placed in challenging situations for select games in order to demonstrate the new system. A server was installed in a suite and integrated into the existing analog CCTV network.
Functionality, Ease of Installation Elevate Milestone Above Others
Milestone Platinum Partner Differential Networks, LLC, designed, installed and continue to manage a state-of-the-art solution that beat the analog-based solution both on price and functionality.
“Milestone was clearly the leader in terms of functionality after the on-site setup and recording of a full baseball game. The system itself convinced Safeco Field’s IT Department that the bandwidth utilization was acceptable, andthatthe power of megapixel cameras was astounding,” states Christopher Markham, Service Account Manager, Differential Networks.
Customer Story · Updated 2018 Safeco Field StadiumSafety & Security,Seattle Mariners within the city of Seattle and our potential for hosting large crowds of fans, we must maintain a 24/7 security force to protect the ballpark, personnel and the entirety of theMariners’ assets.We help keep fans safe during the 81 home game regular season and additional non-baseball events year round, monitor against shoplifting in the team store, and work to ensure the safety of our hundreds of employees on a daily basis.Milestone provides us with better access to our video information with a smarter way of using and interpreting the surveillance information. Du’e to our size,our location
Milestone and Differential Networks worked closely with the Mariners’ IT Department to develop a cost-effective and supportable network design. This enabled the Mariners to provide their own network hardware, the majority of which was already installed, and the ability to partner during the networking phase of the installation. The Milestone solution easily integrated with the existing technology. To integrate the stadium’s existing analog cameras with the new IP-based system, Differential Networks installed several Axis and Sony multi-port video encoders.
“The stadium had been getting by with a more or less obsolete DVR system that could not provide fast review of incidents as they were happening. Bringingin a new version of a DVR solution would not have provided the extensive coverage Milestone offers,” says Bob Kusche, IPVS Security Solution Advisor, Differential Networks. “With the Milestone software, the network load was perfectly acceptable to their IT department, and we now have the capability to increase the security features in the ballpark as we further expand the security coverage.”
Milestone Ensures Critical Assets Are Protected
Whether hosting a Major League Baseball game or other event, protecting the safety of the occupants of the venue and mitigating liability litigation are key requirements in the Safeco Field security team’s role. Incidents at the ballpark that are criminal in nature which are captured on the surveillance network can be exported as needed for investigation and prosecution purposes.
The Milestone solution is an open architecture so it can be integrated with additional security features in the stadium, and management is considering connecting with access control, burglar alarms and panic buttons, among others. The options are endless with the Milestone open platform technology.
Centerplate, the Mariners hospitality partner at Safeco Field, also upgraded and integrated their analog camera solution into Safeco Field’s Milestone solution. This integration saved Centerplate money by merging their video system into the stadium’s security network which gives Safeco Field security full visibility into secured areas where they had no access before. With cameras in the stock locations, outside kitchens and cash handling areas, the stadium security and concessions teams are able to work together to tie all cameras into one efficient Milestone-managed system.
A Solution with an Eye to the FutureThe ability to install flexible, scalable Milestone software on standard servers versus a less capable series of NVRs was the biggest up-front advantage for theMariners security team.
The subsequent ability to use additional features such as mapping or sharing access to cameras with multiple users has helped the Mariners deploy increased security measures.
“One major benefit of the system isthe ability to easily add more cameras in the future,” says Markham. “Additional cameras and the cost of cabling and installation that used to cost up to thousands of dollars are now not nearly as cost-prohibitive. We can now be smarter with the types of cameras we install with the open abilities of Milestone to support multiple brands and models.
”According to the security team, before Milestone, looking for one or two peoplein a crowd of 47,000 was like finding a needle in a haystack. Today, rather than searching laboriously through game footage of the crowd, officerscan find and export video in minutes and find that ‘needle’ efficiently, keeping the ballpark’sguests and assets safe.