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Four operators
Situated over the top of the
grandstands there are several
control rooms and this is where
the camera operators are located.
Each of the four operators works
with six screens and uses the
Bosch Video Management Sys-
tem. Every operator is responsible
for a specific area of the stadium,
and in addition to controlling
the cameras and monitoring the
entries, they are able to open and
close the gates to the parking
lot outside of the stadium. The
PGE Arena has been in operation
for about a year and no major
security incidents have occurred,
neither at the Euro 2012 events
or at the home team, Lechia
Gdask, matches. When a specta-
tor threw a banana at a player,
it took only six minutes for the
security personnel to identify the
culprit.
Perimeter
The arena is divided into two
security zones, one internal and
one external. The external zone
stretches from the arena to the
encircling fence. It encompasses
the stadium parking with 2,171
parking spaces and space for 74
buses. A total of 178 security cam-
eras are mounted outside of the
stadium and monitors the parking
vicinity. n
stands that the cameras do not
cover is the center circle.
According to Andrzej Mier-
zejewski, camera angles were one
of the major challenges. If the
cameras were placed too high, it
would have been difficult to be
able to identify a person.
This is when the idea of plac-
ing cameras on poles was born.
The poles can be lowered to a
height of just 1.5 metres with the
cameras shooting straight towards
the grandstands, making it easy
to identify faces in the audience.
Also, as the poles are so short they
do not obscure the spectator's
view.
Andrzej Mierzejewski also
emphasizes the importance of
how the cameras were placed in
relation to the entrance barriers.
With a 15 degrees angle of view,
the cameras can identify a specta-
tor wearing a cap, however, if
the angle had been at 25 degrees,
identification would not have been
possible, and if the angle had been
at 30 degrees, the camera would
not have seen the face at all.
In addition to 20 Bosch
Autodome 1080s, both Bosch
Autodome IP Dinion and
NWC800 cameras are being used
at the stadium. The camera system
at PGE is the largest IP camera
system that Bosch has installed in
a European stadium.
and 140 at Arsenal's Emirates
Stadium. But it is not only the
number of cameras that distin-
guishes the PGE Arena from
many others. On the infield, eight
cameras have been mounted on
height-adjustable poles. The cam-
eras are directed towards the lower
grandstands. Initially, the idea
was to use 16 poles, but Andrzej
Mierzejewski from Instel MM,
who designed the camera system,
wanted to deploy as few poles as
possible.
"I managed to persuade the
client that we should wait for the
new Bosch Autodome HD1080
cameras. Without them there
would have been 16 poles, but
now everyone is happy with the
result", he says.
The angle was a challenge
Two poles are placed on each side
of the pitch. They are comple-
mented with ten cameras which
are mounted on the inside of the
roof facing into the stadium. The
only part of the pitch and the
The European football champion-
ship is the world's third largest
sporting event. This summer's
tournament was hosted by Poland
and Ukraine. As usual, several
large stadiums were built for the
tournament. One of the most
spectacular is the PGE Arena
in Gdask, Poland. Gdask is
known as the world capital of
amber and it is the gold shim-
mering stones that gave rise to
the stadium's design. Its construc-
tion began in 2008 and the home
team Lechia Gdask played their
first match at the PGE in August
2011. During the Champion-
ships, three group matches
and the quarter-final between
Germany and Greece were played
here.
440 security cameras
The arena has 440 network cam-
eras. This can be compared with
92 cameras at the Allianz Arena
in Munich, where the Champi-
ons League final was played, 95
cameras at the Amsterdam Arena
The european champions Spain started the euro
2012 football championship with a prestigious match
against Italy at the PGe Arena Gdansk on June 10.
The newly built amber inspired stadium has capacity
of 44,000 spectators and it is also the arena with the
most security cameras 440 pieces.
By Henrik Söderlund
PGE Arena
Capacity: 44 000.
The following euro 2012 matches
were played at PGe: Spain-Italy,
Spain-Ireland, Croatia-Spain and the
quarterfinal between Germany and
Greece.
Spectacular Euro 2012
stadium with 440 cameras
The PGE Arena has capacity of 44,000
spectators.
On the infield,
eight cameras have
been mounted on
height-adjustable
poles.
Each of the four operators works with
six screens and uses the Bosch Video
Management System.