Multiple Houston Area Agencies Leveraged PSIM Software to Protect Fans and Athletes During NCAA Tournament Finals
VIENNA, Va. ─ June 14, 2011 ─ VidSys, the leading provider of Physical Security Information Management (PSIM) software that allows organizations to resolve business and security situations in real time, today announced that its PSIM software system was leveraged by the City of Houston, in conjunction with multiple public agencies and private organizations, to manage and respond to potential security threats related to this year’s NCAA® Men’s Basketball Final Four™. The VidSys PSIM software enabled security personnel throughout the city, including the Houston Police Department (HPD), Houston Fire Department (HFD), the Office of Emergency Management and 911 Dispatch, Houston Metro Police, Harris County Sheriff’s Office, the NCAA®, and Reliant Park Security, to work together in real time. This collaboration allowed security officials to protect athletes, as well as the 145,797 record number of fans in attendance both inside and outside of Reliant Park (a Harris County-owned complex), throughout the Discovery Green Park, and at the George R. Brown Convention Center, the downtown area hosting events and activities supporting the games.
Over the past four years, the City of Houston has been working on a public safety initiative to provide city partners with visibility across key areas in the region to enhance overall safety of residents, visitors, and first responders. The PSIM software and strategic counsel from VidSys have been integral to this City initiative. When Houston learned that it would host the 2011 Men’s Basketball Final Four™ event, extending the VidSys PSIM platform to Reliant Park was a natural progression of the City’s existing security infrastructure. Less than two weeks before the events, the City installed additional outdoor cameras and integrated those cameras, existing security devices at Reliant Park, and cameras at the center’s Metro Rail stop with the VidSys PSIM software. By doing this, the City gained a complete view of activity in and around the event area, which enabled multiple organizations to share information to jointly manage security and safety situations during the games and other planned activities. To manage designated event areas, multiple command centers were established for each security team (NCAA®, HPD and Reliant Park Security), and the stadium’s general manager had a laptop running the software courtside. Officials at each command center and near the basketball court shared access to the 300 cameras located throughout areas affected by the event’s activities in case of an emergency response requiring full interagency collaboration.
As security concerns were reported, the VidSys PSIM software enabled HPD officers to pull up cameras at the concourse level and inside the arena to monitor and search for suspects who matched the descriptions of reported situations. With the VidSys technology, operators were able to track and deliver real-time information on the whereabouts of suspects to officers being dispatched. Following any incidents, they could continue to monitor individuals outside of the stadium and downtown for continued safety. Additional key Public Safety and Homeland Security stakeholders in the region were able to view the same video sources from command centers located in the city.
“At a large-scale public event like the Final Four, it’s important for security personnel to be able to take a proactive approach to managing and monitoring the safety of fans and athletes. By integrating information from the security devices throughout the City of Houston, command center operators and security officials were empowered with real-time situational details that enabled them to spend time responding to incidents, rather than sifting through data from security devices,” said Chuck Teubner, CEO, VidSys. “We were pleased to expand our relationship with the City of Houston by extending the PSIM platform to Reliant Park and look forward to working with them on future projects.”
