At the ASC’s latest Business Club Seminar, chief superintendent Peter Goulding of the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) offered a thought-provoking and extremely entertaining presentation concerning the largest change agenda ever put into practice by the force – namely the C3i (Command, Control, Communication and Information) Programme, designed to deliver a Command and Control structure suited to the 21st Century.
Goulding (who was assisted by Richard Thorburn, a consultant to the MPS) stressed that it was all about “helping ordinary people do extraordinary things” and “paving the way for a more efficient and cost-effective use of police resources”.
John Gurney, the managing director of Frequentis (UK), gave a presentation focusing on the perspective of the prime contractors’ delivery, with the emphasis clearly aligned to effective project management through partnership. Gurney covered the C3i project in terms of the Integrated Command and Communications System (ICCS) and the CCTV platform. He also mentioned that his company has received the first-ever commendation awarded by the MPS to a private sector concern (a commendation acclaiming Frequentis’ successful project delivery in just two years).
Meyertech’s Andrew Denton, meanwhile, reviewed the video matrix design employed on the project. Meyertech’s responsibility as part of the C3i Programme involved the building, delivery and commissioning of the “largest video routing system the UK has ever seen”. According to Andrew, it may even be “the largest in the world.” Denton also spoke about the entire C3i Programme, and how it involves several different projects (including the ICCS and the integration of 32 London Borough Control Rooms into a Central Communications and Command Unit).
The other projects referred to included the introduction of new services (such as a 999 interpreting service, an Internet-based ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ strand entitled ‘Ask the Met’ and the implementation of Airwave, the new national radio service mandated by Government to all police forces in England, Wales and Scotland).
Denton explored in great detail the challenges Meyertech faced in delivering such a large and complex video matrix system. He explained that those challenges were “many and varied”, and by no means limited to technical obstacles that had to be surmounted in order to meet the MPS’ requirements. Denton indicated that, since the project was originally awarded and commissioned, a number of expansion phases have seen the system grow to well beyond its initial specified size.
Andrew finished his presentation with an extremely interesting insight reviewing how clients can migrate from an analogue to a digital IP-based surveillance system without any risks. You see, it can be done, Ladies and Gentlemen!
Up next was Tim Stanish with details of Electrosonic’s involvement in C3i. Stanish talked about image distribution and the display of a large number of real-time video sources, so too the overriding benefits of a multi-system integrated user interface. Tim indicated that the next step could be distributing high resolution images over the network using low bandwidth and real-time.
ASC deputy chairman Roy Sutherland concluded the Seminar proceedings by thanking all of the Business Club presenters for their “excellent” deliveries. In particular, Sutherland singled out Peter Goulding for what he believed to be “candid input”.
The next ASC Business Club Seminar will be held on Thursday 10 April. For more details e-mail: info@securityconsultants.org.uk or take a look at www.securityconsultants.org.uk