We reported earlier this week about the Phoenix Police Department's use of video surveillance in the Downtown area to secure Super Bowl XLII festivities and events. Apparently video surveillance wasn't the only cutting-edge security effort in place.
The Datacard Group, a Minnesota firm offering secure ID cards and the solutions for making and printing such cards, reported that its technology was used in ID card creation for some 500 first responders at the Super Bowl. The company's CP80 card printers were used along with the IDCentre Silver identification software and the Photo Pointe badge software solution. Included on the cards was a high-resolution photo of the card bearer as well as a bar code that stored information such as vitals, certifications and skill levels. That information was to be used for mustering of first responders.
Used in conjunction was Salamander Technologies' interTRAX emergency incident software. That software allowed the bar code to be scanned and tagged when assignments for first responders were given. The interTRAX software gave the Glendale Fire Department the ability know the last location and assignment of each responder. That information was essential in the event of an emergency, given that the University of Phoenix Stadium (in Glendale, Ariz.) encompassed some 1.7 million square feet of space. The combined system of ID cards and incident software allowed the Glendale Fire Department to manage the location and assignment of first responders within the 1.7 million square foot University of Phoenix Stadium.
The fire department had first tested out the combined technologies for the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, which was held about one month before the SuperBowl at the same stadium, and which pitted West Virginia against Oklahoma. "The value of this accountability and credential solution was immediately proven when we put it to use at the 37th Tostitos Fiesta Bowl," said Assistant Fire Chief Tom Shannon, who was charged with the department's overall planning for the Super Bowl.
Systems integrator RockWest Technology Group handled the technology deployment for the Glendale Fire Department/University of Phoenix stadium.
