Facial recognition technology is playing a vital role in enhancing security at large entertainment venues, addressing the complex operational demands of managing vast crowds.
This technological advancement has become increasingly important for venues like the Australian Turf Club (ATC), where monitoring foot traffic is a significant challenge. As entertainment operators strive to manage real-time security concerns, solutions like Oosto's biometric systems are proving vital.
Facial recognition in action
The application of facial recognition technology at places such as sports venues and casinos is on the rise due to its capability to quickly and accurately identify individuals, whether they are potential threats or authorised personnel.
It has become an essential tool for varied uses such as watchlist alerting, access control, and forensic investigations. Globally, the market is expected to see substantial growth, projected to quadruple by 2026, according to Global Market Insights.
Challenges at the racecourse
The ATC faced hurdles in identifying and managing the removal of troublesome individuals
The ATC faced hurdles in identifying and managing the removal of troublesome individuals across their extensive premises. With the need to ensure the safety of over 500 staff and meet regulatory compliance, ATC required a technological solution that could handle real-time security monitoring and post-event analysis efficiently.
The deployment of Oosto's video analytics helped transform existing passive cameras into smart devices capable of better monitoring and tracking individuals throughout the venue.
Oosto’s user-friendly solutions
Gary Colston, Head of Security and Access at the Australian Turf Club, emphasises the user-friendly nature of Oosto's solutions, which negated the need for extensive new hardware investments. "Positioned at key entry points, our passive cameras were turned into smart cameras with Oosto’s video analytics software nearly instantly," stated Mr. Colston. The system's ease of use was a critical factor, as complicated systems tend to be underutilised, proving to be a poor investment.
Real-time monitoring and compliance
The introduction of Oosto OnWatch provided real-time alerts for potential security threats
The introduction of Oosto OnWatch provided real-time alerts for potential security threats. This system facilitated the immediate refusal of entry to banned patrons and allowed ongoing surveillance of persons of interest without disrupting operations. By using both facial and attribute recognition, the security team could receive instant alerts across various devices, enhancing efficiency and safety.
Oosto OnWatch not only improved the detection rate of potential threats but also empowered ATC to switch from a reactive to a proactive security strategy. The technology's capability to quickly review historical video footage has become pivotal for conducting in-depth forensic investigations. This has greatly augmented ATC's ability to assess security incidents accurately.
The role of advanced technology in security
Advanced facial recognition at ATC has safeguarded entry points and vetted employee access, according to Mr. Colston. In one instance, the system aided in resolving an assault incident by identifying and banning the perpetrator. Oosto’s Vision AI technology supports the ATC in maintaining strong client service standards while ensuring operational resilience as the industry evolves.
Large entertainment venues offer opportunities for memorable experiences enjoyed by many attendees. With such breadth and scope of operations comes great operational complexity in managing a massive amount of foot traffic which exponentially increases risks for the safety and security of patrons.
Increasingly, entertainment operators are looking to technology to help solve some of the most pressing challenges in managing these environments in real-time.
Facial recognition technologies
Facial recognition technologies among sports venues, casinos, and corporate buildings are increasing because of their ability to quickly and accurately recognise people — whether they are bad actors (e.g., felons, hooligans) or authorised personnel. This capability is increasingly being leveraged across a broad range of use cases from watchlist alerting, access control, and forensic investigations. It’s not surprising that the market is facing explosive growth and is expected to quadruple by 2026, according to Global Market Insights.
Challenges for the racecourse included issues with identifying and managing evictions of bad actors across multiple entries and exits throughout the massive property. Theft and fraud are rampant in such large crowds, and it is humanly impossible to monitor everyone at all times. Security personnel needed to identify bad actors who had caused trouble on one property and to be able to recognise them again at another time, and in another one of the ATC racecourses.
Maintaining data protection
Coupled with a challenging and evolving risk landscape, more than 500 staff, including up to 300 security officers (and over 2000 casual staff) needed to be accounted for and kept safe on 120 major race days.
Moreover, with an ever-changing set of regulatory requirements, ATC needs to comply with a strict set of regulations in order to maintain the integrity of operations while maintaining data protection. Finally, ATC needed security technology that would enable real-time monitoring as well as the ability to analyse video footage retrospectively for post-event investigations to track behaviors - especially during high-traffic times.
Essential security tool
And the final requirement? A solution that needed to be user-friendly as the head of security knew all too well that if a system were too complicated, it wouldn’t get used and would be money not well spent.
The human eye alone is imperfect, and most facial recognition solutions underperform in real-world conditions (i.e. when there are crowds, facemasks, and POIs looking directly at the camera). This is even more challenging when the cameras are positioned on ceilings or high on walls, which makes facial recognition even more challenging (especially if the lighting is less than ideal). That’s why facial recognition technology is an essential security tool for entertainment venues and gaming operations.
Video analytics software
The Australian Turf Club and its systems integrator, Quorum Systems, turned to Oosto to take their venue’s enterprise security systems to a new level and solve their existing challenges.
“Positioned at key entry points, our passive cameras were turned into smart cameras with Oosto’s video analytics software nearly instantly,” said Gary Colston, Head of Security and Access at Australian Turf Club. “We didn’t have to invest in a bunch of brand new cameras or a massive amount of servers and things like that. It was easy for us to implement it on our system.” Moreover, said Mr. Colston, “We needed something that was user-friendly. If it’s too complicated, [security teams] won’t use it and it becomes a waste of money.”
Biometrics-based technology
Once The Australian Turf Club implemented Oosto OnWatch real-time watchlist alerting to recognise potential security threats, the solution delivered vast efficiencies in operations by ensuring that evicted and banned patrons were immediately refused entry, while security teams were able to better track persons of interest throughout the venue without disruption.
Since OnWatch can identify a person of interest through both face and attribute recognition in real-time or in historical footage, security personnel can receive alerts instantly on any device, without having to rely solely on memory or manual comparison of images between systems. With the world’s pioneer-edge biometrics-based technology in use, ATC was empowered to identify individuals a lot quicker than traditional methods allowed and manage their operations more efficiently and safely.
Addressing compliance risks
Oosto OnWatch quickly and accurately recognised persons of interest for security teams – from VIPs to banned players – to help improve the player experience, address compliance risks, and make ATC ultimately a safer, more enjoyable destination for patrons and a safer place to work for employees.
"Positioned at key entry points, our passive cameras were turned into smart cameras with Oosto’s video analytics software nearly instantly. We didn’t have to invest in a bunch of brand new cameras or a massive amount of servers and things like that. It was easy for us to implement it on our system. We needed something that was user-friendly. If it’s too complicated, [security teams] won’t use it and it becomes a waste of money," said Gary Colston, Head of Security and Access at Australian Turf Club.
Context of a security incident
Since working closely with the ATC and Quorum to implement Oosto’s OnWatch solution, ATC has significantly improved in the rate of detection, finding individuals, and being more proactive than reactive with potential threats.
The ability to search backward in video footage at a rapid speed to find POIs’ locations historically has been a welcome tool and a key point of differentiation for ATC; Oosto’s technology has dramatically improved ATC’s ability to perform forensic investigations and understand the full context of a security incident or crime scene.
Forward-thinking venues
Oosto’s cutting-edge technology is also in use at the Club to help protect guarded points of entry for authorised employees. According to Mr. Colston, this proved especially beneficial recently: “One of our staff members was assaulted and we were able to obtain a photo of the person we thought had done it and run them through the facial rec system here and we were able to locate him at the event at the time and have that person banned.”
Oosto’s Vision AI technology is helping entertainment destinations like the Australian Turf Club stay focused on the fundamentals of strong client service while remaining resilient as the marketplace continues to shift. As forward-thinking venues look to stay competitive, grow revenues, solve business challenges, gain greater operational efficiencies and ensure safer, more secure spaces, they look to Oosto - and then never look back.
