Protecting Public Venues: How ProdataKey Keeps Public Properties Secure
- ProdataKey
- Aug 4
- 11 min read
Public venues, from art museums and theaters to parks and libraries, are hubs of creativity and connection. These spaces are open and inviting–yet that openness invites a unique set of security challenges.
Behind every successful public gathering lies a complex security framework designed to ensure that visitors, staff, and property remain safe at all times.
ProdataKey (PDK), a leading provider of access control solutions, is dedicated to protecting life and property across all industries and locations. Public venues, as catalysts for social connection and engagement, are one of the spaces that PDK is especially proud to protect.
This white paper explores how ProdataKey’s cloud-based access control technology allows venues to protect valuable property and resources while maintaining open, reliable access to the public.
What are Public Venues?
A public venue is an indoor or outdoor space open to the public, designed to host gatherings, activities, or events. Public venues come in many shapes and sizes, and can be generally categorized into three groups: event spaces, cultural institutions, and outdoor spaces. These categories allow for greater clarity in discussions around the unique needs of different public venues, although there are many instances where there is overlap between the categories. The following sections delve into each type of public venue, exploring how ProdataKey can meet the unique security demands of each space.
Event Spaces
Event spaces like stadiums, arenas, and conference centers face constant change–different events, rotating staff, and large volumes of guests. As large gatherings become increasingly common, ensuring the safety of attendees at event spaces has never been more critical.
Security Concerns and Requirements for Event Spaces
Recent data and research highlights the growing emphasis on physical security, access control, and emergency preparedness in professional event spaces. The 2023 Venue Security Director Survey from the National Center for Sports Safety and Security (NCS4) revealed that a majority of professional sports venues prioritize installing comprehensive physical security systems. Of the venues surveyed, only 37% were not certified or in the process of getting certified in accordance with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) SAFETY Act.
In addition to the 63% of the sports venues that are certified or in the process of getting certified, the NCS4 report also revealed that 94% of the surveyed venues utilize some form of access control and credentialing in their facilities. Access control enables event spaces to limit who can access backstage areas, storage spaces, ticket offices, private entrances, and other secured points.
A major area of focus for event spaces–particularly large stadiums and arenas–is the perimeter. Many event spaces utilize automatic gates and fences to monitor vehicle entry and secure the perimeters of their space. This allows these venues to prevent unauthorized entry and ensure that only staff, volunteers, performers, and other approved personnel are able to gain entry to the premises. For visitors from the general public, entry points are typically limited to specific areas, where attendees are often required to complete a security check and present a valid form of ticketing.
As event spaces typically draw in large numbers of visitors for a single event, a major security concern for this category of public venue is crowd management. “Trends in Crowd Accidents Based on an Analysis of Press Reports”, from researchers Claudio Faliciani, Alessandro Corbetta, Milad Haghani, and Katsuhiro Nishinari investigated trends in crowd accidents over a 120 year period. This research showed that the number of fatalities from crowd accidents is on the rise, with significant increases in the last three decades. In the 2010s alone, crowd accidents resulted in nearly 5,000 fatalities.
Crowd accidents and subsequent fatalities can be caused by a plethora of reasons, including fire outbreaks, crowd crushing, active shooters, and more. These tragedies can be mitigated through the incorporation of proper emergency response protocols.
According to section three of the Event Safety Guide from the Event Safety Alliance (ESA), contacting authorities and emergency responders is an essential first step in incident response. Additionally, the Event Safety Guide highlights means of egress as an important physical security measure. By providing clearly designated and accessible paths of egress, large crowds responding to an emergency can evacuate premises in a safer manner.
Securing Event Spaces with ProdataKey
ProdataKey’s access control offerings are equipped to address each of the unique security concerns presented by event spaces. With access rules that are simple to program, managers of these event spaces can easily assign credentials that provide specific levels of access to venue personnel–whether they are permanent staff, volunteers, delivery workers, or any other authorized groups. This ensures that only approved individuals can access restricted areas of a venue. Furthermore, with ProdataKey’s intuitive mobile credentials, access to event venues reaches a level of convenience never seen before. Regarded as the most convenient credential type by 68% of access control professionals, PDK’s mobile credentials allow users to turn their personal mobile device into a credential.
On top of securing areas within the event spaces, ProdataKey’s solutions allow these public venues to reliably secure their perimeters as well. PDK’s Red Gate and Red Pedestal are outdoor controllers designed to secure perimeter gate entrances. With these controllers, authorized personnel can scan a credential, enter a PIN, or open a gate remotely through their ProdataKey mobile application and easily bring their vehicle into the event space.
In addition to access control, event spaces like professional sports venues utilize a wide variety of security tools that can be easily integrated into a ProdataKey access control system. From alarm systems to emergency notification tools, PDK’s integration offerings expand all that security professionals can do in their public venue installs.
PDK’s integrated surveillance cameras are an integral part of crowd monitoring and management, as they allow security professionals to watch crowd behavior and detect signs of potential emergencies. In the instance that an emergency does occur, ProdataKey also integrates with a variety of incident response tools that empower an event space to respond effectively to any threat. These emergency response tools work hand-in-hand with system lockdowns enabled in PDK.io, ensuring that authorities are quickly notified and points of egress remain open and accessible.
Cultural Institutions
Cultural institutions are designed to invite curiosity and foster public engagement. This category of public venues involves spaces like museums, libraries, theaters, tourist attractions, zoos, aquariums, and more. A majority of cultural institutions are required to maintain an open, accessible atmosphere while simultaneously safeguarding high-value assets and sensitive collections–presenting a unique challenge for security professionals.
Security Concerns and Requirements for Cultural Institutions
Cultural institutions face strict security requirements presented by unique accreditation boards, geared towards protecting both life and property in public venues. As with all types of public venues, cultural institutions need to facilitate easy entry for all members of the public.
For example, the American Alliance of Museums lists the following requirement in their Facilities and Risk Management Standards for accreditation:
“The museum demonstrates a commitment to providing the public with physical and intellectual access to the museum and its resources.”
According to the 2023 Global Attractions Attendance Report from Themed Entertainment Association (TEA) and AECOM Economics & Advisory, the top twenty most-visited museums in the world received a cumulative 99.8 million visitors in 2023. This marks a significant increase from the 57.1 million visitors to these twenty museums in 2022.
As visitor attendance to cultural institutions such as museums increases, so too does the demand to facilitate easy, secure access to visitors in these venues. Furthermore, public access to cultural institutions typically occurs during specified hours of operation on a consistent schedule. This requires public venues to have the proper infrastructure to limit entry to the public outside of operational times. Alongside visitors, cultural institutions also manage an influx of permanent staff, volunteers, researchers, and third-party contractors–each requiring unique access. Security systems need to be able to account for the varying personas present in a public venue, and facilitate access accordingly.
As mentioned previously, many cultural institutions are trusted to house resources high in cultural and monetary value. As such, these public venues must have security systems in place to limit access to restricted areas where valuable property is kept. In the Guidelines Regarding the Security of Special Collections Materials from the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL)–a division of the American Library Association (ALA)–the ACRL outlines the following standard:
“Visitors should have regular access only to designated areas, not to work areas or stack space. Any visits to such areas should be recorded, whether in a log or otherwise.”
These guidelines suggest that libraries make use of video and electronic security system logs, as well as controlled check-in and check-out.
The final security concern for cultural institutions is the need for emergency response mechanisms. In the instance of an emergency, these public venues need to be able to effectively protect visitors and valuable resources. The Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) requires any accredited zoo or aquarium to have separate response drills in place for four types of emergency: fire, weather/environmental emergency, injury to guest or staff, and animal escape. These emergency drills empower venues to quickly contact emergency responders and redirect staff and visitors to safe, secured areas.
Cloud-Based Access Control for Cultural Institutions
ProdataKey’s cloud-based access control is an ideal solution for cultural institutions looking to tackle challenges surrounding visitor entry, staff permissions, resource protection, and emergency response. Beginning with visitor entry, PDK’s reliable door control technology empowers system managers to have complete control over who can enter and exit at specific points and times.
In PDK.io, ProdataKey’s award-winning management software, managers can program automated access schedules, ensuring that doors to a public venue will open and lock back up at set times. This guarantees that members of the public can have easy access to facilities during operational hours, but outside of those hours the cultural institution will be secured–and all of this happens without any manual work from venue staff.
Additionally, ProdataKey’s cloud-based access control platform enables administrators to assign granular access permissions, making it simple to account for unique personas, schedules, and spaces. By programming unique permissions for staff, cultural institutions can effectively limit who has access to areas containing important resources and collections. Credentials can also be easily revoked or modified as needed through PDK.io, which can be accessed by system managers anytime, anywhere, from any device.
Lastly, ProdataKey makes it easy to integrate access control with a variety of other cloud-based tools, including incident response systems. Integrations with tools like Centegix and InformaCast by Singlewire provide cultural institutions with access to enhanced crisis communication, missing person reporting, emergency meeting coordination, real-time safety updates, building navigation, medical requests, and more. Utilizing these integrated solutions, cultural institutions can respond to emergencies of all varieties in an effective and timely manner, keeping life and property safe along the way.
Outdoor Spaces
Public outdoor venues–parks, trails, amphitheaters, campgrounds, plazas, and more–present some of the most difficult access control challenges. As catalysts for community engagement, public venues need to foster a sense of openness and freedom. But at the same time, it’s important for people to feel safe in these spaces. Luckily, well-planned access control systems can help outdoor spaces protect visitors without creating barriers to connection.
Security Concerns and Requirements for Outdoor Spaces
In the article “Taking a Proactive Approach to Park Security” from TAL Global, author Johnathan Tal claims that administrators of parks and similar outdoor venues tend to take a reactive approach to security, rather than proactive. This reactive approach involves bringing police and other officials to a venue after a security incident has occurred, where they can uncover clues and attempt to find the cause of the incident. A proactive approach to park security, however, empowers administrators to deter security incidents before they happen. Alongside access control, a technology that can greatly assist administrators of outdoor spaces to adopt a proactive approach is the surveillance camera.
Surveillance cameras not only allow security administrators to get a better view of security incidents after they have occurred, but the very presence of these cameras also helps to deter security threats in the first place. The article “CCTV Surveillance for Crime Prevention: A 40-Year Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis” revealed that the presence of surveillance cameras leads to an estimated 13% decrease in crime. By installing surveillance cameras, outdoor public venues take a step towards preventing security threats to visitors.
Like cultural institutions and event spaces, outdoor public venues need to facilitate easy access to the public while maintaining security over important resources and restricted areas, like utilities storage. To achieve this, one of the most critical components of outdoor venue security is the gated entry system. Whether it’s an entry point to a parking lot, park perimeter, or utility enclosure, gates are high-value access points that need to balance durability, security, and convenience.
While most public parks, plazas, trails, and other outdoor spaces maintain 24/7 access to the public, some of these venues do require access to be offered on a restricted schedule. Privately Owned Public Spaces (POPS), for example, are a unique category of outdoor venues that have emerged primarily in metropolitan areas as a result of demands for more publicly accessible green spaces. Some POPS are authorized to limit access to their premises at night–but requirements for these public spaces are strict.
According to the “Current Standards for Privately-Owned Public Spaces” from the New York City Department of City Planning, minimum hours of public access are generally 7AM to 8PM or 10PM, depending on the time of year. For these POPS providing access on the basis of a required schedule, the proper infrastructure must be in place to provide or limit access at the designated times.
Protecting Public Outdoor Spaces with ProdataKey
ProdataKey’s access control offerings are prepared to meet the security needs of outdoor spaces looking to adopt a proactive approach to security. PDK’s cloud-based system enables granular control over who can enter storage sheds, maintenance enclosures, or utility rooms. By assigning mobile credentials or keycards to specific users–such as contractors, seasonal staff, or event vendors–outdoor venues can tightly manage who has access to sensitive infrastructure or restricted zones.
In order to secure gate entry points or perimeter areas, ProdataKey’s Red Gate controller is ready to secure any outdoor point of entry. In addition to outdoor controllers, it’s also useful to utilize access readers that can stand up against the elements. Luckily, ProdataKey’s Rugged Readers are perfect for outdoor applications–secured with an IP68 dust and waterproof rating and an IK10 impact protection rating. By using technology that is equipped for outdoor use, these public venues can trust that their resources and restricted areas can be reliably protected. And with automatic access schedules, ProdataKey allows system managers to eliminate the manual task of opening and closing entry points. Instead, the gates will unlock and lock in accordance with operational hours–making it easy for POPS or any other public venue to provide their minimum hours of required access.
In addition to ProdataKey’s access control offerings, users can also integrate a variety of third-party tools, including high-tech surveillance cameras.
Using these cameras, venue administrators can deter security threats and keep a watchful eye on access events in their venue. Alongside integrated video management, ProdataKey also works hand-in-hand with reservation tools that simplify management for campgrounds or RV parks. With integrations through Zapier or a platform like Staylist, public venue administrators can easily provide visitors with guaranteed, secure access to reservable areas of their outdoor space.
Conclusion
Each type of public venue presents its own set of challenges, but all share a common goal: to welcome the public while safeguarding people and property. ProdataKey’s cloud-based access control solutions are designed with this mission in mind–flexible enough to adapt to the unique needs of public venues, yet powerful enough to deliver consistent, centralized security. Through intuitive software, rugged hardware, and seamless integrations, PDK empowers venue administrators to protect what matters most without compromising on convenience, accessibility, or experience.
ProdataKey (PDK) is a team of security integrators with decades of hands-on, in-the-field experience. PDK believes that the best technology is created by professionals who know what it takes to secure a facility properly and provide the end-user with a solution that instills confidence and safety.
PDK is passionate about creating technology to enhance the security, safety, and overall experience of both the professionals installing electronic access control and those that live with and use the system. PDK continues to create technology every day to enhance its products and the products of its technology partners.
