“With some of the largest museums in the world among our lenders, as well as live performances, international conferences and exhibitions, we aim to create a flawless and safe experience in a beautiful environment. Our reputation and that of the Principality depend on it,” Sylvie Biancheri, Executive Director of the Grimaldi Forum, told securitymagazine.com.

“Since its creation in 2000, The Grimaldi Forum has made every effort to ensure the safety of visitors and an optimal level of responsiveness,” says Philippe Martin, Director of Safety, Fire and Risk Prevention at the Grimaldi Forum Monaco. “GFM is in permanent contact with the Monegasque Authorities, and it is also a signatory of two charters of the Monaco Safe City plan. Among the staff of the Grimaldi Forum – 140 people – the Safety, Fire and Risk Prevention Department (SSI) has 28 people on permanent contracts,” Mr Martin said.

In addition to security staff efforts, the Grimaldi Forum decided to revamp its security infrastructure, looking for technology that could be used as more than just a tool to respond to crime and keep assets and people safe. They needed to put in place a robust security system that would not compromise the important aesthetics of the venue and also play a key role in supporting its organisational processes to ensure a smooth and safe visitor experience.

“We resumed our search for a new security infrastructure when the Forum re-opened its doors to the public after a shutdown period due to COVID-19,” says Martin. “We were looking for a solution that would help us manage the number and flow of visitors while ensuring the security of the premises. At the time, we were also planning for the much-anticipated Monet exhibition, so we wanted to find the best possible technology to protect these unique masterpieces without interfering with the visitor experience or compromising with the venue’s aesthetic values,” he told securitymagazine.com.

With a surge in visitors during the Monet exhibit in 2023, GFM security needed visibility into as much of their facility as possible. Because fisheye cameras offered a wide field of view, they were strategically placed at each of the building’s entrances and at major axes to maximize their field of view. The i-PRO network cameras use an AI engine to detect congestion, providing data that can be used to direct visitor traffic flow in advance or help staff work more efficiently.
“In the re-opening days after the pandemic, we had to limit the number of people who could be in the facility at any given time,” Martin says. “The i-PRO cameras allowed us to set up zones and limits and count the number of people moving in a specified direction or crossed a specified threshold.”

Using the area counting feature, GFM security is able to monitor the number of people in a set area via the cameras and help manage the flow of visitors and ensure that queues are not forming. Additionally, the heat map tool provides statistical information about traffic flow and keeps counts for people passing through and loitering in the area.
The Grimaldi Forum also implemented i-PRO’s Scene Change Detection, an AI-based analytic application that automatically sends an alert to security and operations teams in the Video Management System (VMS) when anomalies occur within the camera’s field of view.

At the Grimaldi Forum, the Scene Change Detection app is operated simultaneously with other apps such as AI Video Motion Detection (VMD) of objects, allowing the security team to conduct multiple detections with one camera. The AI VMD can send security guards an alarm when an intruder enters a specified area or if that person loiters in an area where they are not supposed to be. It can also trigger an alarm if a specific threshold is crossed. AI-based object detection minimizes false alarms due to changes of light or passing shadows.

The Monet exhibit is now over, but the infrastructure that the GFM security team has put in place is well poised to handle a wide variety of upcoming events and ready to support the Forum’s ambitious expansion plans in the years to come.

ORIGINAL SOURCE & PHOTO: https://www.securitymagazine.com/articles/100301-securing-monet-at-the-grimaldi-forum