17-Time NBA Champion Security Practice Makes Perfect
Challenge
The 17-time National Basketball Association (NBA) Champion, Boston Celtics, is an organization with a lot of history and a desire to achieve well into the future. With a new, state-of-the-art practice facility under construction, the Celtics are preparing for that future.
The team’s current facilities include the corporate office in Boston and a practice facility in the suburb of Waltham. Faced with an 18-year-old access control system and a need for additional video surveillance, the Celtics wanted to upgrade security across their existing buildings while planning for new construction. Given the range of people that use and visit the facilities – players, coaches and scouts, food service providers, specialty maintenance staff and members of the press – the Celtics also needed a system that would make it easy to create and assign access levels.
“It was a great opportunity to find a better solution for our current spaces, train employees, fine tune processes and define additional needs prior to rollout in the new practice facility,” says Jay Wessland, Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Boston Celtics.
Solution
As part of the selection process, Wessland reviewed a number of manufacturers.
The Celtics brought in systems integrator, CGL Electronic Security, Inc., to handle the deployment, which includes a converged NetBox™ VR access control and video management system in the Boston office, an NetVR™ video server in Waltham, and distributed Network Node intelligent field panels at both sites. Magic Monitor® unifies LenelS2 access control and video in a single interface, simplifying monitoring and retrieval of critical information.
The video forensics built into Magic Monitor allow the Celtics to easily find the video they need from any camera in the system. When Wessland and his team receive event alerts, they can quickly review relevant video and share snapshots as needed with the landlord.
The new access control system makes onboarding and offboarding employees, contractors and visitors who use one or both facilities a smooth process for Wessland and his team. At the practice facility, some doors had never been wired due to space expansion over time. Modular Network Nodes have enabled the Celtics to easily automate doors that did not previously have access control.
Results
With a unified system for access control and video management, the Celtics have optimized security in their existing facilities, as well as developed an exciting and successful blueprint for their soon-to-be-opened new practice facility.
Moving forward, Wessland plans to deploy more LenelS2 technology and third-party integrations in the new practice facility. “We look forward to seeing what we can do with the new space,” notes Wessland. “We’re excited to use Magic Monitor for proactive security and digital signage, as well as to look into integrating with emerging technologies such as mobile device-based credentials and facial recognition.”
