IoT - Smart Venues

More than ever, people are gathering in great numbers. Music festivals are getting bigger, shopping malls and shopping streets are attracting large crowds during the holiday season, football stadiums are upping their capacity. So many people concentrated in a compact area creates challenges regarding safety of the audiences. The Internet of Things can improve safety and speed up action-taking in emergencies. Smart cameras will play a key role in making this happen. Smart Venues, using the Internet of Things (IoT), are protecting the crowds of the future.

What are the use cases for IoT in Smart Venues

• Traffic management: vehicles that are driving in the wrong direction in a one-way street or speeding towards a crowd can be intercepted before any harm is done.
• Security: packages left unattended or cars that stand idle in a street for too long, can be detected and secured by security services.
• Medical emergencies: smart cameras can detect the incident and send emergency services to the spot when someone has an accident or falls in the street.
• Crowd control: city services can quickly decide to shut off a street and not allow extra people in when shopping streets get too crowded.
• Stadium management: sports venues can become smarter by offering smart parking to visitors, systems guiding fans to their seats and sensors under seats, on stairs and gates to optimize the overall stadium management.

IoT and AI are complements for Smart Venues

Smart cameras and IoT devices can capture a wealth of information. By adding emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning into the mix, the capabilities of IoT can be further augmented. In the past, when the number of cameras was low, surveillance teams could look at their screens and make decisions to act. Part of that intelligence now moves in the systems: via smart algorithms, the systems themselves can decide when action needs to be taken and alert the appropriate emergency services and send all the relevant information to them.

Shopping malls, sports stadiums and shopping streets will all become safer and more agreeable venues, thanks to IoT.