Outdoor Security Events

Outdoor events, such as concerts, sports events, company picnics, and car shows, have their own unique blend of security needs. Managing such diverse requirements as perimeter security, parking lot oversight, cash management, crowd control, and risk management can stretch the capabilities of the most comprehensive security company. As well, the cost for these wide-ranging outdoor event security features can be startling. Estimates of $30,000 to $50,000 are not uncommon from companies bidding to provide security for large events, such as a major car show or concert, where crowd attendance can number 10,000 per day.

Many such events carry an extra headache with the need to protect equipment that must be left outside overnight for the duration of the event. For a major car show, this could include a hundred or more vintage or specialty vehicles parked across a wide area. Not only can such an arrangement inflate and complicate insurance premiums for the show, it also creates an additional layer of security needs for event organizers.

Theft and Vandalism

In this example, these expensive and custom vehicles must be protected not only against theft, but also against vandalism such as spray painting or tire damage, which is far more difficult. While forcing a vehicle’s door open and hot-wiring requires little enough time, aiming a can of paint at a car body and pressing the nozzle takes mere seconds and can be accomplished while the security guard patrolling the area is on the far side of the ground. Such acts of vandalism can be even more frustrating for both the victims and event organizers than an actual theft, due to the irrationality of the crime and the bad name such acts can cast over an otherwise enjoyable show.

The backbone of outdoor event security remains stationary and patrolling security guards, sometimes equipped with golf carts to cover large areas such as parking lots or show grounds. Security guards are often coupled with CCTV systems, most often dedicated to covering such “hot spots” as the lineup of vehicles mentioned earlier.

However, security guards cannot be everywhere at once, leaving holes in many outdoor event security arrangements. At the same time, remote CCTV cameras are vulnerable to attack and can be disabled unless they have a security system in place to protect them, as well. This double vulnerability leaves many outdoor events without adequate protection for either the event’s own valuable equipment or participants’ cherished belongings.

A Better Option

Mobile Video Security Trailers from Affordable Video Surveillance Systems of Redding, California offer a more comprehensive and high tech solution to the problems of outdoor event security. By bundling motion detectors, CCTV cameras, a wireless Internet connection, floodlights, and an audio system onto a mobile trailer, which can be parked in vulnerable locations to monitor hot spots, AVSS offers a reliable product which event organizers can utilize to provide better protection for their participants at an affordable price tag.

When the Video Security Trailer is operational, two layers of sensitive outdoor-quality motion detectors monitor the area in a 360° circle to a range of 180 feet, as well as straight down, protecting both the site and the trailer itself. If an alert situation triggers these motion detectors, they activate three 150-watt halogen floodlights, illuminating the area and encouraging trespassers to leave. At the same time, dual 110 decibel loudspeakers play a pre-recorded warning, alerting intruders that they have entered a secured area and are being recorded. This warning can be customized to fit the needs of individual outdoor event security arrangements.

The Video Security Trailer also incorporates four digital video recording (DVR) cameras, three black and white cameras that encircle the array, and a color pan-tilt-zoom camera with 27x zoom capability mounted atop the array and capable of focusing in on potential trouble areas. These cameras provide complete site coverage and can be monitored and controlled remotely via the wireless microwave Internet connection, enabling outdoor event security staff members to more comprehensively protect event participants’ equipment from a secure location.

Additional Security

For additional security for both the trailer and the event site, the trailer tongue and tires can be removed once it’s parked in the desired location, preventing particularly bold thieves from simply towing it away. The Video Security Trailer deploys simply and quickly—just drop the jacks and raise the array. It has been proven to work well in securing sites of all descriptions, and can protect the enjoyment and equipment of event participants while preserving the good name of the event organizers.