The multi-vendor system was put in place solely for the conference, giving police and security staff instant verification of events in and around two main venues – the Bournemouth International Centre and the Bournemouth Pavilion.
“A full year of planning culminated in two weeks of intensive preparation on the ground, before the week-long conference itself began,” said Andy Sims, CCTV projects manager for Dorset Police.
“Securing the conference is a unique challenge for any electronic surveillance system, especially when utilising a mixture of existing and temporary camera systems of differing manufacture.”
Over 100 cameras were connected to a temporary command room using Synectic’s SynergyPro software interface, which Sims said afforded “seamless management across all aspects of the system”. With a similar number of cameras to many large town centre systems at their disposal, operators were able to view all sides of the buildings, large parts of the surrounding areas, and routes to and from the venues.
Immediate access
Recorded footage was always available for instant review by operators (using the integrated Synectics Modular Digital Recording System) and live pictures could be controlled intuitively using Synergy Pro. With apparently fast and easy-to-use playback, the system gave officers instant confirmation of any monitored activity.
“Due to the security levels required to protect a conference of this nature, it is very important to have immediate access to historic camera footage,” said Sims.
“Our commanders may require ‘quick time’ confirmation of a person’s movements or actions so they can make informed decisions as rapidly and decisively as possible.”
He added, “The Synectics video review software follows recognised investigative procedures and was therefore intuitive to use”.
If Sims’ team needed to review footage from all cameras in a certain area, for example, they simply had to select them using an on-screen map.
“This ease of operation allowed our officers to concentrate on the process of investigation rather than be distracted by the mechanism of a complicated video review procedure,” he said.
“Synectics equipment formed a significant part of the security arrangements for the conference and helped us attain the high level of security required to protect both the event and its visitors.”