Entertainment Venue Safety Means Designing Adaptable Solutions

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Entertainment venues vary from sports arenas to concert halls and convention centers. Venues that cater to many different crowds present many challenges—especially for the folks in charge of managing the building. Entertainment venue safety must be responsive and adaptable.

These venues present unique challenges for facility managers, including:

  • The constant flow of people through the building, often including new people who are unfamiliar with the facility
  • Varying kinds of wear and tear— from ripped carpeting and stolen supplies to broken fixtures and mangled locks.
  • Each presents different staffing challenges, especially around crowd management, security, and concessions.
  • Each event has different security needs, whether it’s a pop concert, scholarly lecturer, college football game or quilting convention.

Modular Security Adapts to Different Events

Entertainment venue facility managers need adaptable security systems—ones that can expand and contract to deal with the variable threat levels that come with different events. And it’s not always about theft or active shooters: Fire, forced entry, and blast protection are top of mind for many entertainment venues. These threats can be managed or eliminated by many modern “bulletproof” solutions.

Total Security Solutions has manufactured everything from small ballistic ticket windows to large modular acrylic-and-fiberglass panel systems and bulletproof podiums.

As we wrote about in our post on modular security, bullet resistance is not only about the UL rating, or haphazardly nailing up fiberglass and bullet-resistant glass. Security design and installation are crucial steps in hardening a site. Attention to security design ensures that money is being spent wisely by placing bullet resistant materials in the areas that need it most. And just because a single item, like a horizontal slider transaction window, is UL-rated Level 3 doesn’t mean that it has been installed in such a way that it can provide protection. It could be lacking a UL-rated frame.  Likewise, what if the counter below the transaction window is just pressboard and formica? How many bullets will that installation stop?

Safety Measures Impact Everyone in the Venue

While installation and maintenance of security features (such as electric strike bullet resistant doors and ballistic security glass) falls under the purview of Building Operations, it is the Event Production staff who ultimately have to interact with the security systems when it counts.  Additionally, a large portion of event security staff is sometimes hired on a per event basis, or brought on site by the talent.  While it makes sense that the talent wants to a familiar resource, FMs know they are also responsible for the safety of attendees and staff.

Maintaining consistency with security is a challenge that entertainment venues managers face as they seek to attract popular acts. Jim Richards, CEO of Total Security Solutions, explains the TSS approach:

“Physical security in any facility is a set of overlapping responsibilities, with a huge impact on the building’s aesthetics, the building’s mechanicals, building operations, event staging, and everyone’s safety. The trick is to make sure that aesthetics, building function, and security are all addressed in a balanced way.”

Total Security Solutions has extensive experience with complex system design in many different types of businesses, including entertainment venues. Design experts take the guesswork out of researching and drawing up a system that adds security without clogging traffic, creating blind spots, or leaving gaps.

Buying bullet resistant security products isn’t about a trip to the hardware store. Total Security Solutions goes beyond manufacturing to provide its clients with highly responsive customer service. This level of service remains consistent from the initial design sketches until we drive in the final screws.

NEXT STEPS:

The Ultimate Guide to Bulletproof Glass
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