From humble beginnings in 1898, Portsmouth Football Club has grown to become a major force in the English game, deservedly finishing the 2007-2008 Barclays Premier League campaign comfortably in the top half of the table.
Narrowly missing inaugural qualification for automatic European competition, a solid performance in the FA Cup Final last May saw manager Harry Redknapp’s charges defeat Cardiff City to win a place in this season’s UEFA Cup First Round against Vitoria SC.
Portsmouth’s current run of success can arguably be traced back to the Jim Smith era. The Bald Eagle’s arrival at the start of the 1991-1992 season, in tandem with the emergence of young talent, sparked a revival following financial difficulties and relegation in 1988.
The following season, the club – which has forever been in the shadow of its more illustrious neighbour, Southampton FC – lost out on promotion to the Premier League by virtue of having scored only one less goal than West Ham United FC. In the summer of 1996, Terry Venables took over as chairman having famously bought the club for GB pound 1. The 1998-1999 Centenary Season witnessed more financial chaos, this time resulting in administration. Milan Mandaric saved the club with a takeover deal in the summer of 1999, and began investing heavily.
Redknapp took the managerial reins early on in 2002 having left Upton Park, with Jim Smith returning as his assistant. Just over a year later, Portsmouth was celebrating a Division One Championship and promotion to the Premier League. The club finished 13th, 16th and 17th in its first three seasons at the top before a buy-out courtesy of Alexandre Gaydamak in January 2006. Last season’s eighth place finish was marked by a 7-4 defeat of Reading – the League’s highest-ever aggregate scoreline.
Home sweet home
Nicknamed ‘Pompey’ by the locals, Portsmouth have played at their original Fratton Park ground throughout the club’s 110-year history. During that time the stadium – the only one in the English professional leagues to be located off the British mainland – has necessarily undergone many incarnations and modernisation projects to keep pace with the demands of modern sporting arenas.
Premier League clubs need big capacities to survive financially in the transfer market. Fratton Park only holds 20,600 and, as a result, several relocation plans have been put forward (then shelved for various reasons).
Presently, the plan is to move to a site offered by the Royal Navy at Horsea Island, inbetween Stamshaw and Port Solent. The project is a Herzog & De Meuron design, complete with an adjacent 10,000-capacity indoor arena. It’s hoped the new stadium will be ready by 2011. Indeed, the Football Association has suggested using the ground as a venue for future World Cup bids, assisting with expansion of the capacity beyond 40,000.
Nonetheless, for the time being Fratton Park must pass all the necessary certifications and be ‘fit for purpose’ when it comes to entertaining the likes of Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal and all their supporters.
Pompey’s security ‘cornerstone’
A key component of stadium management focuses on security and how this assists the smooth running of match day ‘events’. Commissioned into service for the start of the 2007-2008 season, the Acctive Systems-installed CCTV system is the culmination of several years’ involvement for the company (and supplier Panasonic) at the ground, and provides the club’s organisers with the ‘cornerstone’ needed to support a concerted security effort on match days.
Not only that, during the week the new system is also designed to provide comprehensive protection for Portsmouth FC’s offices and adjacent Megastore.
Acctive Systems first teamed up with Portsmouth FC four years ago when the company was awarded the club’s maintenance contract. Inherited was an 11-camera legacy system comprising products from a wide variety of manufacturers and of varying ages.
Following the team’s recent success, further investment at the club allowed Jason Kirton – Portsmouth FC’s dedicated facilities manager – to take advantage of a security budget that would allow a wholesale restructuring of the surveillance operation. Dan Bishop (technical surveyor at Acctive Systems) takes up the story.
“Our familiarity with Fratton Park provided a solid platform for us to conduct a review of the existing system’s weaknesses, and to address those areas highlighted within a completely new system design,” comments Bishop.
“Assessing the type of system deployment Jason and his team need on match days and for general usage also gave us the opportunity to satisfy the review’s findings by introducing a quality, seamless and branded solution.”
Switched on to IP
The CCTV solution includes an IP networked camera system that makes efficient use of nine Super Dynamic III WV-CW964 fully-functional domes, three WV-CP484 static colour/mono Super Dynamic III cameras and three WV-CW474 high-resolution colour/mono vandal resistant static dome cameras.
Allowing remote viewing via Portsmouth FC’s dedicated IT network, specific computers have been equipped with WV-AS65 management software for PCs, in turn realising authorised monitoring of the Fratton Park ground and its surrounding areas. The new system provides comprehensive coverage of turnstiles, entrances and exits, key thoroughfares and the whole of the ground’s interior. The in-house security staff, contracted stewards and police officers now benefit from an integrated surveillance backbone.
“The surveillance system has become invaluable to the smooth and safe running of events, and assisted us in meeting the safety standards of the Football Association Safety Advisory Group as documented in its Green Guide,” asserts Kirton.
“Right from the beginning of match days, even before the fans arrive, our safety officer and the police service’s match day commander will go to the Control Room, which overlooks the playing area and stands, and use the system to oversee all parts of the ground and its surrounding areas. Taking control of the cameras with a WV-CU650 system controller and four 17″ WV-LC1710 LCD monitors, they can visually verify that all fan ‘footfall routes’ are free from obstacles such as parked cars.”
Progression monitoring
Kirton continues: “When the fans start to enter the ground, their progression is constantly monitored. If there are too many fans inside who aren’t yet seated, that information is relayed by way of a dedicated radio network and flow into the ground can be restricted by the gate stewards. Safe and normal crowd flow will then be resumed. Conversely, we can also increase ‘people traffic’ flow into the ground if crowds are building up outside.”
The ticket office is housed within the Portsmouth FC Megastore complex located just 200 metres from the stadium. Recently built to form the basis of daily operations at Portsmouth FC, this location can also become another ‘hotspot’ on match days. Again, this location is viewable from ether the match day Control Room or any of the WV-AS65 software-equipped networked PCs to spot any public order incidents that occur.
“These may be customer disputes over tickets, or large numbers of visiting away fans collecting tickets who will need to be carefully monitored while en route to the ground itself,” adds Kirton.
Multiple applications
Inside the ground, the CCTV system’s role is primarily that of crowd monitoring and it’s deployed for both security and safety applications. “We constantly monitor the crowd and inform stewards of any potentially problematic incidents, allowing them to deal with situations before they can escalate into a bigger problem,” explains Kirton.
Using programmable camera ‘preset’ and ‘home’ positions input via the special controller, members of Kirton’s ‘law enforcement’ brigade can focus cameras on specific fans’ seats (and, in particular, those known to be potentially ‘problematic’ Season Ticket holders). An instant check can be made on a number of specific individuals.
A WJ-HD316A DVR and associated WJ-HDE300 external hard drive extension unit are employed on match days to ensure maximum clarity and detail of all captured images. This advanced facility also allows swift downloads of selected video footage to third party media should an incident need to be investigated off site, or for prosecution purposes.
Kirton can now archive all footage from a given season’s home matches by transferring the data to portable drives, thus building a complete picture that can be referred to at any time by the club’s management or the police.
Looking after the retailing
In addition to the surveillance system’s use on match days, its intuitive specification by the Acctive team in combination with its innate technical flexibility allows Portsmouth FC to benefit throughout the rest of the week.
Here, it addresses a variety of different issues, with the system providing constant security for the ground, the club’s administration and retail facilities, its purpose-built offices and the Megastore.
Barely a two-minute walk from the ground, the Megastore is a busy retail outlet to which diehard fans are drawn throughout the week for first team shirts, posters and leisurewear.
Employing Super Dynamic III WV-CP484 static colour/mono cameras (along with infrared lighting) on the exterior of the building, backed by 22x zoom WV-CZ352 static cameras and a Super Dynamic fully-functional WV-CW964 dome camera, the interior and retail floor is monitored via WV-CF284 static mini domes. On a daily basis, then, full-time security staff enjoy comprehensive surveillance monitoring accessed via the multiple management software-equipped workstations and linked via Portsmouth FC’s own network.
Kirton explains: “Our exterior cameras are each linked to Redwall perimeter detectors which, if tripped during the hours of darkness, trigger preset camera positioning to provide an instant alarm and visual verification of any unauthorised on-site activity.”
With recording at a reduced frame rate on non-match days to maximise recording capacity, all footage is archived via a 16-channel WJ-HD316A DVR located in the administration building’s first floor server room. This allows Kirton and his staff to access not only live camera footage via PC but also recorded images for fast retrospective investigations of any incident. That’s the ideal solution for the Security Team.
Corporate hospitality areas
As well as surveillance of the retail and office buildings, Kirton now enjoys extensive surveillance access to the Sports Bar and corporate hospitality facilities. “These areas are used on match days for guests attending on pre-paid hospitality packages, and throughout the week for conferences and functions,” states Kirton. “We also use the networked CCTV system to cover our two town centre-based shops – one in Portsmouth’s Cascades Shopping Centre and the other in the nearby town of Fareham. There’s also a large warehouse which we use to store stock for both our Megastore and Internet shopping. Here, the surveillance system is protecting high value goods around the clock.”
By effectively auditing customer needs, and addressing them with flexible technology, Acctive Systems has devised a security solution that protects fans on busy match days while at the same time assisting the smooth running of the club’s day-to-day business. The latter will be sweet music to Mr Gaydamak’s ears.
