Page 9 - Campus Security & Life Safety, March/April 2022

Stadium Operations
Before the pandemic began, hundreds or thousands of fans used to pack into stadiums for concerts or athletic events, which presented its own challenges. Adding in new norms such as social distancing and the need for staged entry, it has become essential to equip yourself with the best tools available for crowd control.
AI-driven video analytics can assist in stadium management, offer- ing the ability to monitor and maintain optimal entry scenarios. Video cameras can monitor the line, even sending fans an alert via smart- phone when it’s their turn to enter the stadium. AI can also play a role in maintaining social distancing at the entrance. With the addition of queue-management analytics, stadiums can address bottlenecks at the entrance in real time and automatically alert staff when fans need to move to a less congested gate. Other analytics can check whether a fan is wearing a mask and trigger an audio reminder via a nearby speaker.
Campuses depend on concession sales, and long lines can harm profits and frustrate fans. AI-driven analytics can monitor concession lines and send notifications to management to open up more registers or divert customers to a shorter line.
Parking
Parking availability is a precious commodity on school campuses—be it for students, visitors or employees. AI-driven analytics can vastly improve parking management (in addition to security, of course) by monitoring parking spots and conveying availability. If a student late for class sees a sign that says there are 40 spots available, they will know it’s worth their time to enter the lot. If there are only two spots available, however, the student now knows it’s time to move on to an alternative lot. Offering actionable intelligence like this can improve
operations and user satisfaction.
Retail or Cafeteria Locations
Campuses often have retail stores like bookstores, convenience stores and cafeterias. By adding AI to a video infrastructure already present in these areas, campuses can use analytics to monitor lines and address any issues, analyze where visitors linger (what products in these areas have caught their attention?) and even monitor what needs to be restocked.
The Numbers: Can Campuses Afford Not to Have AI in Video Surveillance?
AI is growing at a rapid pace within the security industry, particu- larly as it relates to video, and with an affordable Total Cost of Owner- ship (TCO) and a positive Return on Investment (ROI), it’s a sound expenditure. Prices for AI and video analytics have come down and can even be included in the price of deep-learning video cameras that are added to a network. The ability to benefit from AI-enhanced video surveillance across departments (security, operations, retail, parking, stadiums, etc.) also dramatically helps improve ROI.
When evaluating an existing video surveillance infrastructure or building one from the ground up, it’s important for campuses to incorporate technology for both today and tomorrow. This means adding AI-driven analytics in some capacity. Be sure to consider TCO and ROI in addition to performance and benefits when evaluating potential products.
Bruce Canal, CPP, is the Segment Development Manager, Education, at Axis Communications.
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