Halo Solutions, the tech company behind intelligent crowd safety, incident and threat management platform, Halo (V5), is using its live streaming drone technology ‘Halo Stream’ to help combat protestor activity at major sporting events.
The Halo Drone and Stream technology has been deployed to a recent series of major sporting and cultural events to monitor protestor activity, persons of interest, ticket touts and crowd safety.
Using live streaming technology to the Halo (v5) incident and threat management system is a major enhancement to its capability and provides a vital link for building intelligence, surveillance, combatting environmental and animal rights protestor activity at major sporting events and assisting in counter terrorism surveillance and reconnaissance.
Halo Solutions’ founder Lloyd Major, a crowd safety expert and former National Counter Terrorism Unit Specialist Tactical Support Officer explained: “With the marked increase of threats from protestor and activist attacks at major sporting events, the safety and security of crowds and event stakeholders has never been more important. We have also seen increased terror threat levels domestically and overseas.
“The integration of live video streaming from sources like drones, CCTV, body-worn video and mobile phones to our existing Halo (v5) incident and threat management platform really does play a significant role in countering protestor activity, identifying persons of interest and playing a proactive role in crowd safety and counter terrorism strategies. Combined with previous and existing event intelligence, we can provide proactive surveillance and reconnaissance direct to the control room.”
David Clarke, Major Event Safety Officer to Warwickshire County Cricket Club, which staged the First Test of the 2023 Ashes Series, said: “Using the Halo Drone Stream platform to bring live footage directly into Edgbaston’s major event control at the Ashes Test brought a new dynamic to safely managing Zone X.
“The system’s real-time capabilities meant we could dynamically monitor for protestor activity, touts and persons of interest, as well as gaining oversight on crowd flows and key junctions surrounding the stadium for the biggest occasion of the year.
“This brought real-time insights and intelligence to decision-makers in our control room, and the fact that we can instantly tag footage as evidence directly onto incidents in the Halo system is a game-changer for our reporting to keep our crowds and venue safe at every event we host.”
Halo Solutions founder and CEO, Lloyd Major continued: “With Halo, we have created the only seamless incident and threat management platform that can ingest multiple live streams of footage from any source: drone, bodycam footage, CCTV and mobile.
“The technology synchronises and connects the pilot operator on the ground to control with the highest quality live stream footage that is completely targeted to the biggest threats currently presented.
“This seamless flow of information allows serious and – in some cases – life-altering decisions to be taken much quicker, with intelligence and critical decision-making governed by real time information.
“This is a vitally important aspect to assist a control room to help prevent protestor activity, a major crowd safety issue, or to help prevent the very real threat of a terrorist attack.”
The Halo (v5) platform is already being deployed to protect the public at some of the world’s largest, most prestigious, and high-profile events, including the FIFA World Cup Fan Zones in Qatar (2022), Cricket World Cup (2019), the Formula 1 Aramco British Grand Prix, Notting Hill Carnival, Glastonbury Festival and Eurovision 2023.
It is also being used year-round at several arenas and conference venues across the UK, including The NEC Group, Motorpoint Arena, M&S Bank Arena and ExCeL London.
The Halo System is used extensively at football, rugby and cricket stadiums, including Chelsea FC, West Bromwich Albion, Mansfield Town, Watford FC and Premiership Rugby clubs Harlequins and Leicester Tigers.