In order to guarantee the safety of its citizens, EQUANS is equipping the new Brussels crisis centre with an ultramodern control system.
European summits, gatherings, and sometimes even medium or large-scale emergencies… Numerous events take place all over Brussels every year. In order to guarantee the safety of the capital’s inhabitants and visitors, a regional crisis centre was recently set up at the initiative of Brussels Prevention & Safety (BPV). EQUANS has experience in the integration of audiovisual and multimedia solutions and was responsible for the design and installation of the equipment, as part of a global approach that combines reliability and innovation.
Strategic control centre
The Brussels Regional Crisis Centre, located in a secret location in the capital, is a kind of bunker of 1000 m², consisting of 12 meeting rooms and a ‘crisis control room’. It is equipped with state-of-the-art technology and allows emergency and security services to manage crises or major public events of any kind in a coordinated manner. For this project, EQUANS designed the video solution from A to Z in collaboration with BPV and GESAB.
The eye of Brussels
Imagine a screen from which you can observe everything that happens on Brussels territory in real time. Welcome to the main control room of the new crisis centre. Thanks to the new system designed by EQUANS, operators can view images from more than 4,500 video surveillance cameras spread throughout the territory (ANPR cameras of the Low Emission Zone, police, and BITC zones). With the help of a simple keyboard and a mouse, they are able to analyse several hours of video material and find a suspect in just a few clicks.
Collaboration
In order to promote exchanges between the various security actors in the Brussels-Capital Region (such as the federal and local police, the SIAMU, the Brussels Public Prosecutor’s Office, State Security, OCAD, or BITC’s security services), our teams have placed a large ‘strategic table’ in the middle of the main control room. This table – which seats 32 people – has 32 microphones and 16 retractable screens on which video surveillance images and information from PC or TV sources can be transmitted. A collaboration tool also facilitates the sharing of ideas or working documents, including with people outside the crisis centre.
Centralised management
LCD touch screens, image analysis programs, work consoles (desks), and above all a data room for encoding the resources necessary for the proper functioning of the platform… With this new crisis centre, the Brussels-Capital Region wanted to equip itself with modern tools to facilitate the transfer of information to the emergency services in the field. Mission accomplished. Thanks to the centralised, reliable, and ergonomic system that we have set up, the crisis centre is now equipped with a true headquarters for safety and prevention in and around Brussels.