How Technology has evolved in improving safety in sports ?

Using technology in sport stadiums to improve safety

As exciting as attending a huge sporting event is, it does come with certain health and safety risks.

Sport has been plagued by large scale incidents in the past. Some have resulted in life changing injuries and loss of life for some fans. The Hillsborough disaster springs to mind, as does the Heysel Stadium riot.

Likewise, given recent incidents like the Manchester Arena attack, safety is currently a much debated issue in the sport world.

This is an issue that technology company Honeywell is particularly focused on. According to the company’s Director of Mega Events Dina Tamimi, fans shouldn’t be too concerned about their safety, with technology improving day by day.

“Facial recognition technology is improving ten times every three to six months, so the quality of facial recognition today versus what it will be like in a year is a tremendous difference,” she explained.

“On top of that we use this intelligence behind the devices in order to really assess what’s happening in front of the camera. For example, if there’s a bag that’s left unattended somewhere, that could cause an alert to be sent directly to the command and control centre.”

Technology is making it increasingly easier to detect anomalies and identify potential issues before they arise. However, there is still work to be done before sports fans can attend a game entirely risk free.

Thankfully, this is something that the industry as a whole is continuing to work towards, according to Kopp:

“That’s one of those areas where I think we need to continue to innovate, to do everything in our power to protect against those types of events that are sometimes unforeseen.”