“Ensuring our guests have a pleasant visit without intrusion is of paramount importance to us and through Johnson Controls, we are confident that our visitors will have a safe and enjoyable experience, ” says Chris Gallagher, Design Technical Services Coordinator of Aviva Stadium.

The complete project encompassed a host of challenges which involved integrating several different technologies together. Johnson Controls was responsible for the end-to-end delivery, maintenance and support of the stadium’s life safety and security systems. This included fire detection, CCTV, access control, intruder alarms, gas extinguishers and disabled WC alarms.

Each of these systems has been seamlessly integrated with the stadium’s Local Area Network (LAN) and IT infrastructure. This enables security operators or gardaí to monitor and control each component from centralised workstations across the site, streamlining this process and helping to improve the efficiency and response time of operators to potential incidents.

The stadium, Ireland’s first UEFA Elite football ground, has a purpose-built, hi-tech communications nerve centre. Johnson Controls life safety and security systems allow for continuous monitoring of all aspects of the stadium, both inside and outside the ground. 192 CCTV cameras have been installed at ‘pinch points’ around the stadium, ensuring operators and police can quickly identify potential problems or flashpoints from within the stadium’s control room.

Using Johnson Controls consolidated single-screen overview of all systems, operators can control multiple alarm input and outputs when combined with audio and video verification of each protected zone within the stadium, this delivers an additional layer of protection. The Tyco Expert Graphics (TXG) system provides users with a graphical overview of fire detection, extinguisher and disabled call management systems and is also configured to automatically respond to events, even when the operator is away from the workstation.

“As the home of Irish international rugby and football, The Aviva Stadium prides itself in providing state-of-the-art facilities, not only for spectators but also for players, the media and events personnel,” says Chris Gallagher, the design technical services coordinator of Aviva Stadium.

“Traditionally, businesses have viewed fire, security and access control as three separate entities, due to the perceived complexity of integration and the practicalities of implementing such a project,” said Nicky Gill, Managing Director of Johnson Controls Ireland. “Forward thinking organisations, including the Aviva Stadium, are leading the way in recognising the importance of end-to-end solutions, which deliver not only the right levels of protection against fire and crime, but which also address the challenges of access control through a single consolidated platform.”