Halo Solutions is to deploy its live streaming drone technology Halo Stream to help combat protestor activity at major sporting events over the coming months. It comes as British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Home Secretary Suella Braverman and the Sports Minister Lucy Frazer are to hold talks with senior sporting leaders, event organisers and the Police in an attempt to head off disruptive protests by groups such as Just Stop Oil and Animal Rising and to stop them from “ruining” events at other sporting events over the summer.
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 an enhancement to its capability and provides a link for building intelligence, surveillance, combatting environmental and animal rights protestor activity at major sporting events and assisting in counter terrorism surveillance and reconnaissance.
Some of the biggest sporting events in the UK have been targeted recently in a spate of attacks by a number of well organised and resourced protest groups. Major events including the Ashes 2nd Test Match at Lord’s Cricket Ground, the Grand National, the Gallagher Premiership Rugby Final, the Scottish Grand National and Epsom Races have all been targeted, causing mass disruption and putting the safety of crowds and those participating at risk.
The Halo Drone and Stream system will also give vital frontline “eye-in-the-sky” support to counter terrorism, security and safety strategies at major sporting events, according to Halo Solutions founder Lloyd Major, a crowd safety expert and former National Counter Terrorism Unit Specialist Tactical Support Officer.
“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 with a number of terrorist organisations and training camps active in Afghanistan. It is well known that Afghanistan has now become a safe space and haven for terrorist groups to train, operate and mount attacks against the West alongside other global geopolitical unrest.
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.”
The Halo (v5) live stream drone technology was recently deployed to three successive major events: the Reading Half Marathon, the Ashes series at Edgbaston Cricket Ground, and Flavours of Fingal, one of Ireland’s largest county shows.
