With security concerns topping nearly all other priorities today — particularly during large spectator events — the ability for event and venue staff to effectively communicate both internally with other event resources, as well as with external emergency and law enforcement officials is crucial. With 75,000 spectators or more at a single event, there is little room for error in ensuring the safety of both onlookers and participants. Fortunately, today’s advances communications technologies increase the capability to provide effective communication facilities on a permanent or temporary basis.

 

For this weekend’s NASCAR USG Sheetrock 400 at the Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Illinois, Sentinel Technologies has been able to leverage prior investments in technology to enhance communications and ensure the safety and security of all involved with the event. Recently, Sentinel completed the installation of a city-wide high-speed wireless network for Joliet, into which it is now tapping to provide enhanced communications capabilities to the Speedway.

 

Brian Osborne, Sentinel’s executive vice president of sales & marketing, sees this as the natural progression of a strong ongoing relationship with the city.  “We’ve worked with the city on past technology initiatives in various areas, so this made perfect sense,” he said. “Security and safety at public events is critical these days, and as a technology solutions provider, Sentinel is happy to apply our skills to make this event even safer. Our expertise lies in assessing the needs and determining the best technology to make this happen.”

 

Using equipment loaned from Cisco Systems (News - Alert), Sentinel has designed and deployed a wireless mesh network that connects the track with the city’s metro network m— and therefore, with local law enforcement and emergency personnel as well. The mesh solution — a cost effective, and easy to deploy alternative to traditional networking options — includes a series of Cisco 1500 series wireless mesh access points that have been deployed around the track. 

 

The 1500 series access points have been designed for security, reliability, as well as performance, as the work in tandem with Cisco’s wireless LAN controllers and software to provide seamless WiFi connectivity. The Cisco wireless mesh network has been explicitly designed for simplified deployment and requires minimal configuration in order to create an efficient wireless network without sacrificing security — it is WPA2-compliant and uses AES encryption between nodes.

 

In addition to connecting on-site staff with local officials, the city is providing an on-site 911 facility that will also benefit from the connection to the city’s systems. Also, the wireless network will connect the city to the FBI, which is also providing added security for race weekend managed from an on-site command vehicle, which will also have connectivity to the metro network.

 

“Our network lets the FBI tap directly into the city’s security cameras via the wireless network,” said Robert Keblusek, senior vice president of Business Development for Sentinel.  “It’s a multi-channel security framework that gives the city instant flexibility to share surveillance and communication with other departments on an as-needed basis.”

Essentially, the Sentinel/Cisco solution incorporates the raceway into the Joliet network, like any other municipal facility. While this weekend’s network connectivity is made possible through temporary hardware, the city expects to permanently extend its network to Chicagoland in the future as it continues to enhance the entire system, including the integration of a Cisco Unified Communications (News - Alert) system — the UC platform is being targeted for completion by later this year. Once that happens, race staff and public safety personnel will be able to easily connect with each other using WiFi (News - Alert) phones or other devices that will offer voice and data access anywhere around the track.