While Burnley Football Club’s players spent the summer training hard for their return to the Premier League, staff behind the scenes at Turf Moor were also working tirelessly to ensure the ground met the Premier League’s safety criteria and that everything was set up to deal with increased numbers of fans attending home games.

With supporters averaging 20,000 at each Burnley game this season; up some 50% from last year, ensuring that fans are kept safe and out of trouble was a key priority for the ground staff over the summer.

The Challenge

Burnley Football Club’s Stadium Manager, Doug Metcalfe and his team saw the Club’s promotion to the Premier League as the ideal opportunity to upgrade the security equipment used at the ground.

They asked a number of companies to install new digital equipment and upgrade the control room. An added challenge to the project was the timeframe. What would normally take around three months to pitch for, supply and install would have to take place over a three week period to be up and running for the start of the new season.

Thorne Access & security, who were already working with the stadium management team at Turf Moor, were successful with their proposals for a bespoke Premier League quality security system.

The Solution

“From working with Burnley Football Club for a number of years, we understood exactly what they needed for their security system and the tight timescale they needed to work to”. Said Hadrian Thorne, Managing Director at Thorne Access & Security.

“The club’s old system was antiquated, relying on analogue footage which meant that images were grainy and low resolution. There also weren’t enough cameras to cover all areas of the ground. The system was coping fine with crowds of around 13,000 each week, but it was definitely not up to Premier League Standard.

“We supplied and installed an entirely new digital IP system which we were able to network thanks to a new infrastructure installed by Lanway at the same time.”

Tamar Waite, Head of Technical Services at Lanway, added: “it was important that the CCTV systems that Thorne were installing could be plugged into the new network infrastructure that we were working on at Turf Moor.

“We have worked in partnership with Thorne on a number of other large scale projects previously and it is a match that works well. They trust us to install a network which will enable their CCTV systems to work as they should, and we are happy that their equipment is compatible with what we are doing. It ensures our clients receive the full service that they need on a project of this scale and importance.”

The Result

“The system that we have installed at Turf Moor has a real wow factor”, said Hadrian.

“The high definition CCTV cameras cover every single area of the ground and they have an immediate playback facility which enables the security team to verify and identify anyone casing trouble immediately, rather than having to wait until after the game. This footage can be then sent to the police instantly so that they can begin arresting or interviewing anyone they believe to be engaging in anti-social behaviour.”

“The digital zoom capability of the cameras we have installed produce a phenomenal quality of image so it makes the identification process of offenders much more efficient. The equipment we installed is also covered by a maintenance contract which ensures it never needs to be out of use. We have made it easy to access the cameras on the roof of the ground so that they can be looked at if there are ever any problems.”