Located in downtown Houston, Texas, USA, at the George R. Brown Convention Center (GRB), the Houston Living Lab (HLL) serves as a testing ground for city departments and partners to test and validate new technology.
In 2017, the Houston First Corporation (HFC) established the lab following a successful collaboration with Milestone Systems and several other security manufacturers to rapidly deploy video technologies for nearly one million attendees at the Super Bowl Live festival. Now HLL develops smart city solutions for deployment across Houston.
Security technology solutions
With the help of the Houston First Corporation — a local government corporation created to operate the city's convention and performing arts facilities — the City of Houston hosts many high-profile events annually. One of HFC's long-term goals is establishing Houston as a pioneer in smart city initiatives to further promote the region as a tourism and convention business destination.
City of Houston and HFC needed to bring together technology partners and build on living infrastructure
To accomplish this goal, the City of Houston and HFC needed to bring together technology partners and build on existing infrastructure to further enhance public safety and security during events. In 2017, the city hosted Super Bowl LI, an event that became a literal game changer in how the city rapidly deploys integrated security technology solutions.
Legacy security systems
The 10-day Super Bowl Live festival at the 12-acre Discovery Green featured free well-known music artist concerts and other attractions. The neighbouring GRB hosted the NFL Experience event with interactive activities and player appearances.
When hosting large events spread out over several venues, the city found that the added congestion from portable event stages, booths, and attendees changed the environment. This rendered the standalone legacy security systems inadequate when hosting the events.
“In these situations, the green space is no longer open; it’s cluttered with event structures, banners, and everything that comes with a festival. We found that our existing camera system was getting either visually or audibly interfered with,” said Jack C. Hanagriff, former Program Manager for the City of Houston’s Office of Public Safety and Homeland Security.
Access to the camera system
In the six-month planning period before the festival, Verizon installed fibre-optic cable for the event
Determining a temporary system was needed to provide security at Super Bowl Live, Hanagriff and his team brought in Milestone Systems on the recommendation of HFC's long-time integrator Teksys and manufacturer Axis Communications.
Milestone helped design and test a rapidly deployable, fully integrated supplemental camera and video management software (VMS) system at Discovery Green.
In the six-month planning period before the festival, Verizon installed fibre-optic cable for the event. This allowed access to the camera system with Axis F Series modular cameras, Q Series PTZ dome cameras, and thermal imaging systems.
Milestone open platform
Using a Milestone open platform system design, the temporary festival infrastructure easily integrated with the non-Milestone VMS already used at GRB. The system was built on the Milestone design.
“We were able to tie both VMS networks into our existing homeland security network. We converged the two systems to give law enforcement, the fire department, and other agencies access to all systems seamlessly,” said Jack C. Hanagriff, adding “Again, this system did not exist just four days prior.”
Houston Living Lab inspires Smart City R&D
HLL allows city departments and partners to test and validate technology in an active environment
After successfully collaborating with Milestone Systems and other security manufacturers for the Super Bowl Live events, HFC established the Houston Living Lab. The HLL allows city departments and partners to test and validate technology in an active environment.
Technology partners include Milestone Systems, Axis Communications, Cradlepoint, Dell Technologies, Haystax, Acre Comnet (formerly Razberi), Siklu, and Verizon. Video analytics are provided by Athena Security, Citilog, EAGL Technology, Evolon Technology, Irisity (formerly Agent Vi), Sound Intelligence, and AirSight (formerly 911 Security).
Technology Partnerships Enhance Public Safety
The 1.9 million-square-foot GRB Convention Center has diverse security needs. Beyond public safety and monitoring aggressive behaviour in and around the centre, the security team proactively improves traffic at intersections and manages four large parking garage operations.
In 2021, HFC worked with Houston Public Works (HPW) on designing and installing an on-premises software solution to easily bring together the latest technologies at GRB.
The 1.9 million-square-foot GRB convention centre has diverse security needs
Milestone video management technologies provide seamless integrations with cutting-edge security applications. Nearly 600 legacy Axis Communications cameras are integrated with Milestone Smart Walls in multiple security and parking command centres spread across facilities in the theatre and convention districts, providing complete situational awareness at any given moment.
Relationships built at the HLL
HFC wanted to be able to identify dangerous situations and be proactive rather than reactive to help mitigate risks. They now have visibility into different situations, such as vehicles driving the wrong way, large crowds gathering in an area or even listening for glass breaking, car alarms, gunshots, or aggressive behaviours.
“The relationships built at the HLL were instrumental in helping us support the needs at other high-profile sites throughout the city that were identified with concerns regarding general public safety and quality of life,” added Jack C. Hanagriff.
