In Turkey, stadiums are usually owned by the Ministry of Sport, which then grants the rights of use to an operator. At the Alsancak Mustafa DenizIi Stadium in Izmir, re-opened in 2021 after a re-building, the operator is Altay Izmir, a club that plays in the country’s top professional league. The club, like many others in the country, has had its share of incidents such as the throwing of objects onto the pitch. Sanctions may be fines or closure of a spectator block, meaning a loss of home game income. Hence the authorities sought a solution to detect and track potential offenders. A tender specified a minimum resolution density of 144 pixels per metre (px/m), as required by law. This means that there must be at least 144 pixels in the camera image to represent every metre of ‘reality’ in the stands. This value is between the ‘recognition’ (125 px/m) and ‘identification’ (250 px/m) qualities as specified in the IEC EN 62676-4 European standard for video surveillance systems.
The Ministry invited manufacturers to a comparative test. After receiving the proofs of concept (PoCs) of several companies, the owner chose the German manufacturer Dallmeier. In addition to around 140 single-sensor cameras for corridors, outdoor areas and entrances, a mere ten Panomera multi-focal sensor products are required to cover the grandstand. Panomera cameras combine the images from up to seven sensors and one overview sensor in a single enclosure. This provides the user with a high-resolution overview of a monitored area, which acts as a single image of a large space, whether a car park, airport or stadium. Within this overall picture, system operators can now open any number of detail views at the same time, while the overall scene is always available in high resolution – even during recording. It means that all events can be followed in real time, in high resolution and in detail. A minimum of 200 px/m is now available around the Alsancak stadium instead of the required 144 px/m; or 39 per cent more than originally required.
Due to the covid-19 pandemic, the stadium’s technicians were unable to travel to Dallmeier’s headquarters in Regensburg, to commission the system and attend classroom training. Hence the Dallmeier Factory Acceptance Test (FAT) took place online. The system was set up, configured and remotely accepted in Regensburg. The training of the technicians and operators was carried out by Dallmeier’s Turkish arm on site. Serkan Atalar, pictured, CEO of RESA Construction Electromechanical Inc. CO, was the installer. He said: “Dallmeier’s sincere and collaborative approach, as well as the high-tech products and after sale support they offered were very impressive. We thank Dallmeier Türkiye for the great cooperation.
“The customer is very satisfied with the Panomera systems. The benefits are equivalent to combining a powerful megapixel camera with any number of high-resolution ‘virtual’ PTZ cameras. At the same time, the systems reduce the total cost of ownership for infrastructure, cables, masts, screens, workstations, etc. Alsancak Stadium only needs three system operators with one monitor each. They also have two workstations for the police and management. The solution always gives them 100 per cent control of the security situation in the stadium, allowing them to react immediately and reliably track down perpetrators. And all this at a low total cost of ownership and with minimal manpower thanks to the unique multifocal sensor technology.”
