How Auckland War Memorial Museum improved incident response times tenfold with IndigoVision

When it comes to impressive sights, a 13-metre long prehistoric sea monster is up there with the best. The Elasmosaur is just one of over 4 million incredible objects under the care of Auckland War Memorial Museum which tells the story of New Zealand, its place in the Pacific and its people. With 1 million visitors a year and priceless collections to safeguard, keeping people safe looks an equally colossal task, but it is one where the passionate museum team members excel and lead the way.

And with so many delicate, irreplaceable objects on display, speed is everything when it comes to security.

 10x improvement in security team response times

Working with disparate security systems was preventing Auckland War Memorial Museum’s security team from being able to respond effectively to incidents in and around the building. With over 400 cameras connected to 4 different security systems, operators had to switch between platforms to track incidents, as the action moved from one camera to the next, slowing down staff trying to do their jobs.

 In the past we’ve had a priceless item taken from the museum, but with the new security surveillance solution that item and suspect would never have left the building. 

- Sir Kenneth McKenzie, Head of Security, Auckland War Memorial Museum

Integrating the old systems into one end-to-end IndigoVision security solution means that all the information required for operators to respond to an incident is contained in a single user interface, which saves valuable seconds in response times.

This has resulted in 10x faster security response times for the team and vastly reduced the risk of artefacts being stolen, while improving the safety of the one million people who visit the Museum each year.

Faster investigations by locating persons of interest with Artificial Intelligence

Using the old security systems, operators at the Auckland War Memorial Museum had to manually search through hours of recorded footage to find a person of interest. This was highly inefficient.

 IndigoVision’s solution has provided us incredible capability to identify people of interest quickly”  

- Sir Kenneth McKenzie, Head of Security, Auckland War Memorial Museum

The introduction of Artificial Intelligence software, powered by Briefcam, to the Auckland War Memorial Museum’s security system has revolutionized the way that the team investigates reported incidents. Using filters, such as the colour of a person’s clothing or an accessory they are carrying, Briefcam can isolate images of a suspect immediately from the camera network, condensing hours of footage into the few relevant seconds that operators need to conduct their investigations at speed.

This speed is vital when dealing with critical incidents: for example, the technology is extremely useful in situations where children become separated from their parents, by helping families to be reunited in just a couple of minutes, reducing the danger that a lost child might find themselves in.

Enhanced visitor experience using insights from heatmaps and dwell times

Modern security solutions are reaching beyond the fundamental responsibility of ensuring safety, towards additional benefits including enhanced Business Intelligence to improve processes. This is particularly beneficial to Auckland War Memorial Museum, who have succeeded in achieving the highest security rating of any museum or gallery in Australia and New Zealand, and are now able to demonstrate security best practices to other organizations.

 We are now an example of security excellence. Attracting other organizations to see security best practices in action 

- Sir Kenneth McKenzie, Head of Security, Auckland War Memorial Museum

Live video quality improved without replacing their legacy analog cameras

By installing IndigoVision analog to IP encoders, the Auckland War Memorial Museum was able to continue to use legacy analog cameras with dramatically enhanced performance, helping them to save costs. ARA Security and IndigoVision worked closely with Auckland Museum during the system design process to ensure that the installed solution would remain within budget and eliminate any last-minute issues that would require additional spending. This has resulted in a bespoke solution which will continue to serve the museum over the long term.

 With IndigoVision we knew the support was always there. They had a great appreciation for what we needed and that helped ensure a smooth project implementation.” 

- Willie Chong, ARA Security (system integrator for the project)