Case Studies
Fleadh Cheoil Na hEireann
In 2024, we were chosen as the official CCTV Partner for Fleadh Cheoil Na hEireann to provide specialist CCTV services – a huge project with CCTV spanning the length & breath of Wexford Town, with live streams back to a special Event Control room manned by Gardai, CCTV Operators, and other Emergency Service staff – 24hrs a day for the 7-day duration of the festival.
Client:
Wexford Co. Council (in conjunction with An Garda Siochana)
Requirement:
- Stream existing town CCTV cameras from Wexford Garda Station to a purpose-built state of the Art Control Room at Council Headquarters, for monitoring 24-7 by Emergency Services.
- Supply & install additional CCTV cameras on a temporary basis to identified blind spots around the town and to locations where crowds were expected to gather.
- Monitor all cameras live, and highlight any potential incidents immediately to the Gardai in the room for dispatch of resources, so incidents could be resolved before they escalated.
Stakeholders Involved:
An Garda Siochana (Policing/Crowd control), Wexford Co. Council (IT, Safety, Signage, Roads, Cleaning etc), Cuttle Consulting (Health & Safety), 360-Events (Event Management), Integrity Security (Security, Stewards, Barriers), Wexford Fire Service (Event compliance, Safety, Emergency access), NAS/HSE (Ambulance Services, First Aid), and Wexford Civil Defence, Order of Malta & Red Cross (First Aid, Safety, & Ambulance services).
Solution:
Working alongside our partners Educom Ltd., we opted to use AirFibre Uplinks from the existing CCTV Server location across to the new Control Room. This streamed in the existing camera network into a temporary high-powered client PC. These cameras were then presented on two 72” CCTV Monitors on a temporary video-wall.
Where existing infrastructure was already in place throughout the Main street area, we hardwired some additional cameras to new locations nearby which were identified as possible ‘hotspots’. These were pulled across to the Control room via the existing network.
At four other remote locations, we opted for FOUR X 45x PTZ Dome cameras on poles, which could be controlled by our operator back in the control room.
At each pole, we again used Radio links to send the camera pictures back to three designated mast sites nearby, each interlinked again by another secure Radio link. These cameras were kept on a separate network to the existing system for redundancy purposes and ran back to another two screens in the Control room. Any additional or temporary cameras added were approved by An Garda Siochana, set not to record – they were purely used for live monitoring/crowd control purposes, and removed after the event.
24hrs behind the scenes….
While some people may have only attended the Fleadh for a couple of hours, Control Room operations were 24hrs a day for the whole 7 days. This room was full at all times with Emergency Service workers working a shift rota – including the Gardai, the Ambulance Service and our CCTV operators.
Once the Main Stage finished up and crowds dispersed, focus was then drawn to the Pubs & Clubs until closing time. As the last few stragglers made their way home each night about 3am under the watchful eye of our operators, an Army of Council cleaning staff blitzed the Town’s streets and had every footpath shining by 4am.
Road closures were lifted from 4am to 10am, so deliveries and Lorries etc could make their way about town to replenish supplies to Pubs, Shops, Supermarkets & Restaurants. These deliveries were monitored again by our CCTV operators, ensuring no congestion occurred and everything flowed smoothly.
By 10am, a strict ‘No-Parking’ policy was re-activated and enforced – unfortunately for some, resulting in vehicles being towed as a last resort (this Policy was widely advertised months in advance, and also with plenty of signage).
Twice daily, an Emergency Service Planning meeting was held (pictured above) with all stakeholders. This gave each Emergency Service the opportunity to raise any issues or difficulties they encountered in the previous 12hrs and a chance to come up with a plan to deal with any re-occurrences. It also allowed Stakeholders to discuss the Traffic Management Plan and any tweaks that needed to be made.
By 11am crowds began to fill the streets once again, the Fiddles began playing and the atmosphere came alive once more until the wee early hours – all watched closely by our operators and Gardai to ensure everyone’s safety.
Outcome:
The Event was a massive success, far beyond the expectations of everyone involved.
Given the influx of 650,000+ visitors, Public order incidents were minimal with a very low number of arrests. Likewise, there were minimal injuries or people requiring medical attention given the volume of visitors. There was a fantastic family atmosphere throughout the Town and the large Garda presence along with highly visible CCTV, gave huge confidence to people – thus allaying any safety concerns. In addition to this, it put Wexford on the international map for many future visitors.
Potential incidents were identified immediately before they unfolded by our eagle-eyed CCTV operators, monitored live, and passed to the Gardai (sitting next to us) to dispatch foot Patrols which were already assigned to each area.
In the majority of cases, incidents were resolved before they developed into anything significant due to the swift CCTV & Garda response.
Our operators also monitored the ‘Green sterile emergency route’ across Wexford Bridge, which meant we were able to get Garda, Fire Brigades & Ambulances out to the north side of the Bridge on numerous occasions throughout the week when needed, without any delays or endangerment of pedestrians.
