Reopening football Stadia and Sportsgrounds with T4S - Thridium Stadium and Safety Security System

Lead Participant: THRIDIUM LIMITED

Abstract

Current safety procedures at large event venues are plagued by paper-based methods, outdated evacuation planning, and a lack of sufficient situational awareness to respond effectively to threats. Recent incidents have highlighted that this continues to be problematic, such as the Manchester Arena bombing 2017 ([http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-40008389][0] ), the Las Vegas Mandalay bay shooting attack, 2017, Hope & Glory festival, Liverpool ([https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2017/aug/09/music-festivals-gone-wrong-fyre-hope-and-glory-y-not][1] ), and the Sunfall Festival ([http://www.factmag.com/2017/08/12/sunfall-festival-2017-queue-chaos/][2] ). These, and many more examples, highlight the need for a solution that will support decision-making and strengthen venue preparedness.

In the post-COVID world of sports there is an opportunity in the market for enabling digital technology in this environments, as large event venues attempt to reopen under social distancing and reduced capacities, bolster their preparedness, primarily for safety reasons, but also to maintain revenue as patrons are becoming increasingly aware of the need for secure events, and must trust a venue's security before deciding to attend.

Existing solutions do not address the business need highlighted above. The current state of the art is either partial or ineffective solutions and are not able to provide a comprehensive solution for mitigating the risks of COVID. Commercial crowd simulations (LEGION, MassMotion) are not responding in real-time to incidents. Real-time solutions based on CCTV to count visitors into the event, will fail to deliver any results especially in conditions where accurate distancing between spectators is expected to be respected.

T4S is superior as it harnesses real-time data analytics and forecasting which we achieve by exploiting advances in IoT devices and big data practices and real-time simulators.

The T4S project will further develop the components of the system and the system as a whole, adapt and validate it against the newly emerged needs of the entertainment and sport venues, offer interoperability with legacy systems (Bosch's Building Management System to begin with) to build increased situation awareness, thus leading to a market-ready prototype. UWB Bracelets worn by spectators and Floor LED guidance systems, will be among the key features provided in the updated T4S version, that will guarantee:

a. enhanced monitoring and adherence to the social distancing rules as applied in football stadia

b. total protection approach as after this project, T4S will provide a complete solution against different types of threats and challenges faced by football stadia and other large scale infrastructure that are classified under urban soft targets.

T4S will ensure sports venues reopen, with public health on top of the agenda and business/ecosystem sustainability as key deliverable.

[0]: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-40008389
[1]: https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2017/aug/09/music-festivals-gone-wrong-fyre-hope-and-glory-y-not
[2]: http://www.factmag.com/2017/08/12/sunfall-festival-2017-queue-chaos/

Lead Participant

Project Cost

Grant Offer

THRIDIUM LIMITED £212,034 £ 169,627
 

Participant

CROWD DYNAMICS INTERNATIONAL LIMITED £149,879 £ 119,903

Publications

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