The Pittsburgh Penguins, a National Hockey League (NHL) franchise, looked for ways to improve operational efficiencies in the hockey team's home venue, PPG Paints Arena.

The Penguins hoped to streamline wait times at busy concession stands on game days in real time and leverage enhanced retail analytics in its fan stores to increase arena retail sales. To achieve these goals, the team is testing Azena’s platform for smart cameras.

Theoperating platform for smart cameras integrates with existing video surveillance systems to apply artificial intelligence (AI)-enhanced video analytics applications directly on the camera.

Using Azena queue detection applications on VIVOTEK smart cameras, the cameras can be used to detect lines at food and beverage stands as they form and notify employees to increase staffing at busy checkouts. The Penguins can use the data gathered by the queue analytics application to help streamline their already installed touchless ordering system for mobile phones, which estimates wait time, directs fans to the kiosk where their order is ready, and integrates with point of sale (POS) systems to remove the order from the queue. The data can identify trends in overall traffic on specific days, or times of day. 

Arena retail managers hope the technology will help increase sales at the team’s retail store at PPG Paints Arena. The cameras can analyze the popularity of certain displays using heat mapping and enable staff to optimize merchandise placement within the store. This technology also helps arena retail operations make more informed decisions on staffing and inventory as the analytics identify patterns in customer store traffic and purchasing behavior.