Client: Blackburn Rovers
Type of works: supplied P3 online system.
Top flight Blackburn Rovers have enjoyed many years of playing football at the highest level and continue to impress fans, commentators and those in the football fraternity with their hard working and stylish brand of football.
Formed in 1875 following a meeting at the St Leger Hotel on King William Street in the city centre the club has grown from these humble roots to become one of the most successful North West based football teams. Celebrating many years in the premier League the club is hugely popular off the field and actively engages in numerous community projects.
Not surprisingly, with any major professional sporting venue security and controlling access is a top priority. Furthermore with the high profile of a premier league football club the safety and security of property and people is a crucial element in the successful running of the organisation.
As well as welcoming in excess of 25,000 spectators and fans to home games the club also employs over 250 personnel at the stadium headquarters at Ewood Park.
On a day to day basis the clubs employees move throughout the stadium and surrounding offices and buildings and due to the size and profile of the venue controlling and monitoring access is very important. If unathorised personnel were able to gain access theft and damage to people or property could occur which underlines the importance of security.
Dave Beresford, Deputy Safety Officer for the club was personally involved in the assessment and selection of an access control system for the club and at the time undertook a detailed assessment of current systems and their capabilities.
Many systems were considered at the time but it was Progeny's P3 online system that was selected. Commenting on the decision to choose Progeny Dave said ' The Progeny system met our requirements perfectly and it has the capacity to grow according to our needs. As well as being impressed by the system I was very pleased with the technical guidance and assistance provided by the team at Progeny'
P3 online was selected for several reasons; one of the key features is the system’s ability to grow according to the application needs. It is efficient and cost-effective and above all simple to use and provides excellent levels of accountability through the versatile reporting software which accompanies the system.
P3 online also offers many superior technical features such as 3 methods of connectivity - USB to a server computer; LAN/WAN making use of an existing data network; and GPRS for difficult to reach applications. The P3 access controller is designed with flexibility in mind. It can be programmed to function both stand- alone and from a PC and allows small systems to grow, from one door to 65,000 doors. P3 online uses Doors Enterprise software and two versions are available - Doors Enterprise Software standard or Doors Enterprise software professional. The latest release, version 7 which is utilised by the club includes many additional features including Photo ID card printing, time sheet, simplified user interface, Progeny Express links, custom database fields and new help wizards.
Currently over 70 doors are controlled by the system and span all parts of the stadium, office areas, the clubs impressive IT suite, the mega store, business centre and the BRIC (Blackburn Rovers Indoor Centre).
Making full use of the facilities offered by version 7 of the reporting software the access cards also double up as ID badges and are printed in-house at the club.
The level of accountability offered by the reporting software is an extremely useful and practical tool for the security and safety personnel. As well as the obvious feature of controlling access the reporting software acts as the ‘12th man’ as it provides the eyes around the premises. As each door is monitored it is easy to identify approximately the location of all employees and authorised personnel at any point in time which proves invaluable on a day to day basis.
Commenting on the success of the P3 online system installation at the club, Ian Bend, BSB's Technical Director said 'Blackburn Rovers were looking for an efficient and effective solution to manage access throughout the stadium and offices and surrounding premises, particularly when security is high on the agenda. P3 online was the perfect solution because as well as being highly efficient and cost effective it can grow with the clubs requirements, so over time the system can cater for extra doors as they become necessary.'
Dave Beresford went onto say that he was delighted with the way the Progeny system works and the many benefits it provides the club, in particular he said ‘ the new version of the reporting software is very user friendly and allows security and safety personnel, in conjunction with the CCTV, to identify and locate all authorised personnel at any point in time’