EURO 2012 is being played in Poland and the Ukraine from June 8 to July 1st. The tournament will feature sixteen of the best football teams in the World in competition for the Henri Delaunay ­Trophy awarded to the winner of the Euro Cup. Three months before the ball rolls, GIT SECURITY had the opportunity to get an exclusive tour to visit two of the EURO 2012 stadiums in Lviv and Kyiv and talk to officials, security officers and integrators about the preparations and security measurements in the stadiums.

NSK Olimpiyskyi Stadium: Tradition and Modern Security
The venues for the matches will be within host countries Poland and the Ukraine. All the stadiums belong to professional football clubs from the two countries and have a capacity between 32,400 and 83,000 people. While the smallest stadium for Euro 2012 is the Municipial Stadium in Lviv, which will host approximately 33,400 passionate fans, NSK Olimpiyskyi Stadium in Kyiv is by far the largest EURO 2012 stadium. The total arena capacity of 70,050 seats includes 64,119 standard seats, 3,546 business seats, 150 seats for disabled people plus 738 VIP seats in 39 sky boxes.

Stadium NSC „Olimpiyskiy" will host the EURO 2012 final and the closing ceremony and has a long tradition going back to the 1920‘s. The date of birth of the stadium is August 12, 1923 when the Red Stadium named after L. Trotsky hosted the first events of the First Kyiv Region Olympiad. In 1935 year a competition on "rising" the level of the Red Stadium was announced and a project of one young architect Mikhaylo Grechina became the winner. The stadium was built in 1937 to 1941, but the stadium‘s opening, scheduled for June 1941, was postponed for 5 years due to World War 2.
Since then the sport complex changed its name three times. In the 1940's and 1950's it had the name of Nikita Khrushchev before it was renamed to "Republican Stadium". Since the Ukraine is an independent state, „Olimpiyskiy" was granted the status of the National Sports Complex (NSC).
The current renovation of the stadium is already the third one. In 1966 and 1967 the building was expanded and the second tier of the tribunes was completed.

From 1978 to 1980 a major reconstruction was made to host football matches for the XXII Olympic Games.

Architecture
It has taken 38 months since the beginning of the stadium reconstruction in August 2008 before its grand opening in October 2011. NSC "Olimpiyskiy" is now a modern arena on the basis of the old building. The renovation project saved the existing authentic embankment of the lower tier and the reinforced second concrete tier of the tribunes and connected the 80-year sports history of Ukraine with European experience and advanced technologies. The new arena will be used as a multifunctional sports arena for football matches and athletics competitions at international level. The modern face of the stadium will present a glass facade and a cover in the form of suspended hovel with a semitransparent synthetic membrane covering all the seats.

Modern Technology
The state enterprise NSC „Olimpiyskiy" is responsible for the stadium and it was their demand that the complete infrastructure of the stadium meets the requirements of UEFA. For the safety and security of the stadium these requirements have led to a new security system including video surveillance, an increased number of entries to the stadium, new escape routes, a new evacuation scenario, an advanced access control system, a new sound system and a modern IT infrastructure.
It took enormous efforts to build the basis of the stadium:

• 118,836 cubic meters of concrete structures were arranged.
• Ten full days were necessary for the sumultaneous lift of the 800 tons roof cabling system on the 80 axes by 160 powerful hydraulic jacks.
• 37,148 tons of metal roll were worked during the reconstruction time.
• 100 000 square meters of granite were used for the finishing of NSC and the surrounding area.
• 5825 trees were planted in the park zone.

To meet the UEFA requirements and to fit the needs of the local teams, the stadium has been equipped with state-of-the-art technology. We have taken a closer look at some of the components and solutions installed that are linked to the stadium's security and safety.

Communication and Sound System
Modern sports stadiums are multi-purpose venues, hosting concerts as well as sporting events. Security measures must therefore also include a professional sound system that is capable for high-quality music reproduction and is used for public address purposes. In case of emergency the system must be able to guide an evacuation. In Kyiv, loudspeaker systems by Electro Voice (EV) are used and the acoustic calculations of the stadium were made using software EASE from AFMG. Electro Voice's official distributor company Sound House Pro made the setup and fine tuning of the sound reinforcement complex using the hardware and software platform IRIS Net with support from the Electro-Voice's Tech Support team.
The Electro Voice equipment was chosen because of the outstanding sound characteristics of the general purpose sound system and the public address system according to the FIFA and UEFA requirements. All the system components are working under the single software IRISNet that allows simple and visualized control over all the parameters and components of the sound system.

For more information, please visit: git-security.com