One of the most rewarding aspects of my role with Evolv is partnering with sports teams and venues to understand their priorities and offer specific solutions that not only exceed expectations, but also transform their guest experience. As a sports fan myself, helping to make sports games and the venues where they are played an even better experience for fans is, quite simply, a dream job.   

Just this past weekend, the MLS’ Columbus Crew kicked off their 2022 season with a 4-0 shutout victory in front of nearly 20,000 fans cheering them on. All of these fans benefitted from an easy ingress experience thanks to Evolv Express and an innovative frictionless ticketing technology.  We appreciate the work we did with them to ensure the safety component – our systems – of their new facility met the goals of the state-of-the-art stadium before the Crew’s 2021 season.  

The result was an unparalleled fan ingress experience that Brandon Covert, the vice president of IT at the Haslam Sports Group, which manages various operational and administrative functions for Lower.com Field, called “The best ingress experience in professional sports.” 

Integration with future technologies 

Because of its open API system, Evolv can integrate with other technology, whether that is something that can be applied immediately, or a technology that has yet to be implemented. 

At Lower.com Field, this means facial recognition technology. To go from having to stop and be wanded by a security personnel’s handheld device and then wait to have a ticket barcode read, to an entirely frictionless experience, is a huge leap forward for fans attending a game. Fans don’t have to slow down for security, they can just walk right through, and they don’t even need to take out their phone to show a ticket because of the facial recognition. 

Breakthrough technology 

That integration is, of course, in addition to the cutting-edge technology that Evolv offers by itself. 

Setting up Evolv’s systems was as seamless a process as the entry of fans into the facility: 

• Four dual-lane systems, along with one single-lane system at the ADA entrance ramp, were set up at the southeast gate where most fans enter the stadium. 

• Evolv allowed as many as 16,000 fans, or 80% of capacity, to enter through that gate in a 20-minute window before the game started.  

• A total of six dual-lane and two single-lane systems are used at the stadium. 

Evolv’s innovative security screening is not just faster, but safer. It uses advanced sensors and artificial intelligence to recognize even the weapons that are hardest to detect, like ‘ghost’ weapons made with 3D printers. 

The accuracy of the Express systems allowed the staff at Crew games to reverse ticketing and security, so that security checks came after attendees had already entered, further improving the fan experience. 

Using data to make improvements 

That’s the kind of information organizations like the Crew can take advantage of with Evolv Insights analytics. Once they inverted security and ticketing, security staff looked at Evolv data to figure out how to spread out the systems to make sure fans were using all of the Evolv lanes at that particular gate. 

An Evolv Solutions Engineer also worked with the security team to decide where to locate a secondary check-in table, so that fans flagged for double security screenings didn’t create a bottleneck going through Evolv’s systems. 

And Evolv’s Cortex AI capabilities access data insights from all of Evolv’s customers to learn and get better at detecting all kinds of weapons – and what’s not a weapon. At Lower.com Field, that means more accurate recognition of what could possibly be a threatening weapon versus a suspicious but permitted item, like an umbrella. The fewer nuisance alerts, the more seamless the ingress experience.  

As much as the data is able to help maximize the Crew’s Evolv deployment, there’s really only one metric that matters to fans, and that’s how much they enjoy their experience at a game. Crew fans can’t believe how easy the entry process is at Lower.com Field, and that’s going to keep them coming back. 

It starts with an organization’s specific solution, in this case, the Crew ownership’s desire for an unparalleled fan experience. Working with Evolv will deliver those results every time. 

In many ways, the story of Evolv’s success at the Orpheum Theater in Memphis, Tennessee is no different than at any other venue.

Because of Evolv, theatergoers get into the venue more quickly. There are no lines out the door while people wait to have their belongings checked by security – they just walk on through, maybe they buy a beverage or some memento of the show, and have a pleasant experience. And, of course, all of this comes without compromising safety, thanks to Evolv’s cutting-edge technology.

But this story is different because of the way that Evolv came to the Orpheum Theater.

Evolv & Johnson Controls

One of the things that sets this Orpheum Theater experience apart is that Evolv’s customer on the project was actually Johnson Controls, not the theater itself.

Johnson Controls works to transform the environments where people live, work, learn, and play. “It’s all about the design,” says Josh Boswell, a commercial account executive at Johnson Controls who worked closely with the Orpheum on deployment. “For our customers, we seek to optimize building performance, enhance comfort, and improve safety. For Orpheum’s patrons, comfort and safety are both incredibly important; we could not sacrifice one for the other. When we saw Evolv Express® in action, and learned how it is strategically placed in a venue to do exactly those things, we knew it was the right solution.”

Because Evolv can be integrated with other technologies, such as video surveillance and access control, it helps Johnson Controls offer a more complete building-wide solution across a variety of industries and venues.

At the Orpheum Theater, Johnson Controls was able to figure out ahead of time where the Evolv system would best work alongside the venue’s other security measures. Because the type of physical security screening Evolv offers is different from traditional electronic security like access control, cameras, and intrusion systems, Johnson Controls took care of those aspects first. From that point, the Evolv deployment was turnkey.

Orpheum’s unique safety and patron experience needs

Representatives from the Orpheum Theater were with the team from Johnson Controls to see Evolv in action at another venue. They immediately saw the answer to a consistent problem.

The Orpheum has always placed a priority on safety. They had security inside the venue covered. The problem came when people were waiting to get inside, as security checks forced the line to spill outside into the street.

Achieving internal buy-in was easy because the benefit of the Evolv system was twofold. Not only did it get people inside the venue more quickly – and more safely – it did so in a completely contactless manner. To be able to get patrons to their seats with as little contact as possible at a time when the Orpheum was navigating COVID enabled the Orpheum’s vice president and chief operating officer to quickly get fellow decision-makers on board with Evolv.

Back on stage

Today, when the Orpheum opens its doors to the kinds of performances it prides itself on bringing to the mid-South, like a Broadway show, patrons walk right in without having to stop for security.

The response has been positive all around – both from the customers’ point of view as well as the board members who needed to provide that all-important approval.

The Orpheum Theater experience shows Evolv isn’t only the perfect solution for a venue…but it could also be what an organization like Johnson Controls needs when tasked with trying to improve security for one of its customers.

For Evolv, partnering with organizations like Johnson Controls allows us to reach even more markets and to keep even more people safe, whether that’s employees at their workplaces or visitors to venues like the Orpheum.

Johnson Controls has been offering solutions for more than 130 years. Their selection of Evolv for such a prestigious project is an important and valued testimonial to our work.

Go to any security trade show lately, and you’ll see them in the exhibit hall: rows upon rows of security technologies available for venues, stadiums, health care facilities, schools, and workplaces. These range from access control gates, to video management systems, to surveillance camera analytics, to gunshot detectors, to mass notification and communication technologies and more: the list goes on and on.  

The last tradeshow I went to had a robotic dog. And yes, that is just as compelling (and cute) as it sounds, but the range of available technologies for venue security and operations always makes me wonder: how does amassing a vast network of seemingly disparate tools help a security team work in lockstep across them to ensure the safety of their guests and employees?  

To be fair, two or more such technologies (robotic dogs notwithstanding) are often integrated together into a single solution. These integrations are vital to ensure that, when a threat actor is apprehended somewhere across your venue or facility, the rest of your team knows about it. In response, the system of people, processes and technologies all kick into gear—automating the safekeeping of your guests and employees.  

Integrating Weapons Detection at Ingress 

The most notable technology missing these vital integrations? Traditional metal detectors. Despite their location at the all-important front entryway to many venues, these purely analog devices (walk through metal detectors and hand wands included) can detect metal items including guns, knives, and IEDs—but who else can learn about what they’ve found, besides the operator and the bad actor?  

By combining cameras, sensors, artificial intelligence, and advanced video analytics with cloud connectivity, Evolv Express not only distinguishes weapons from other metal items we carry, it can communicate what it’s found to other venue security technologies. This integration can automatically initiate security protocols and support the all-important communication and coordination of a security response across a venue when a weapons threat is identified.  

In the latest release of Evolv Express®, Version 4.0, built-in integrations to Milestone VMS and Titan HST Mass Notification System mean that vital information about any threat verified at the system, or any request for assistance by an operator, is automatically sent to security technologies already in use across your venue. In other words, the same information that your operators have access to at any Express system across a venue can also be accessed by operators using these technologies for VMS (video management system) or mass notification at your venue: including all the associated downstream processes and protocols that these technologies already automate.  

Here’s how it works:

Better Threat Detection Plus Automated Communication 

In addition to providing both an audible and a visual alarm, Evolv Express uses tablets connected to the system to provide operators with targeted views—both static and animated—of the bad actor(s) as they walk through the system. With the images communicated by Express, it’s easy for operators to quickly see both who alarmed the system, even as multiple people in the same party walk through together, and where on their person or bag to search, even if the threat is concealed or hard for other technologies to find, like high on their body or down at their feet.  

When an operator does verify the presence of a weapon, one-touch tagging on the Express tablets instantly communicates information about the identified threat to integrated systems across a venue. Plus, an additional built-in communications function on the operator tablets, Request Assistance, also leverages these integrations to signal help—both with the speed and ease of a single touch and with the ability for an operator to quickly type in a message.  

What Can Integrated Systems Do with This Information?  

A fast and effective response to a potential weapons threat is essential to protecting a venue. The right information in a timely fashion accelerates this response, allowing the extended security team to execute protocols and procedures already built into these integrated technologies.  

In the latest release of Evolv Express, Version 4.0, built-in and easy-to-configure integrations to Milestone VMS and Titan HST Mass Notification System communicate this vital information about threat items verified at the system, or requests for assistance made by an operator, to the security technologies already in use across your venue. A similar integration with the Avigilon Control Center (ACC) is also available.  

These technologies can trigger venue protocols and procedures across your extended security teams and with other technologies: kicking off a venue-wide response like a lock-down, ensuring backup support is quickly sent to the scanner that detected the threat, communicating to the right personnel across security teams, employees, or even guests, and/or contacting local law enforcement authorities.  

This information is not only useful for coordinating responses in-the-moment. It can also support future forensic analysis. In Milestone VMS, for example, playback of any past alerts is supported by associating a camera (either the front and rear cameras onboard Express or other cameras connected to Milestone VMS) with incoming alerts from Express—meaning that you can review footage captured just before and just after the time of the alert.  

Conclusion: Integrations Should Alleviate the IT Burden on Security Teams—Not Add to It.  

Whether it’s robotic dogs or integrated weapons detection, adding security technologies to a venue should not further burden security teams. Rather, these systems should become a seamless, valuable part supporting security personnel in their mission to keep a venue and its guests safe.  

We’ve taken great care to build these integrations in as simple steps for system administrators to follow into the MyEvolv Portal—a web-based and mobile-enabled platform making it easy to remotely manage Evolv Express systems and their performance metrics across a venue or a set of venues. Then, operators at Express follow the same procedures as always—tag a threat they’ve identified with the right threat type (gun, knife, or other) or simply tap Request Assistance—and the integrated venue security technologies take it from there.  

Addressing a weapons threat at ingress is vital to protecting your guests, employees, and visitors, and Evolv is working hard to integrate the security technologies that help teams realize that mission.