Here East is an innovation and technology campus located at the heart of Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London, UK. The site offers 1.2 million square feet of flexible working space and caters to a wide range of visitors. To accommodate for the current use of the site, new security solutions are being implemented.
Originally set up as the Press and Broadcast Centre for the 2012 Olympic Games, Here East is now home to a thriving community of over 4,500 creatives, academics, and innovators. Designed as a mini-city, the campus is a mixed-use development that houses offices, retail units, university facilities, cultural exhibitions, and public spaces. Notable tenants include BT Sport, the V&A Museum, Sports Interactive, and the studios of noted choreographer Wayne McGregor.
The previous video management system was still functioning. Yet, Here East’s Head of Security, Leighton Jones, was familiar with the Genetec unified platform and was confident it could deliver more.
The advanced capabilities of the Genetec system would enable his team to gain a deeper understanding of the environment, resolve incidents in real-time and ensure a positive user experience.
Here East has begun a multi-year phased adoption of Genetec solutions, starting with the deployment of Genetec Clearance to modernise data handling and the secure sharing of digital evidence.
Clearance simplifies evidence sharing and enhances GDPR compliance. Like many organisations, the implementation of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has led Here East to revisit its processes for sharing video surveillance footage. Once Here East received a validated evidence request, operators burned footage onto physical storage media such as a CD or a USB stick.
“Here East is a truly iconic location with a diverse list of high calibre visitors and tenants,” explains Jones. “I wanted to be able to say we use the best technology available, and in my experience, that is Genetec.”
The process was time-consuming and also created chain-of-custody issues. Here East had no control over how that footage was stored and shared by others.
“It wasn’t a situation I was comfortable with,” explains Jones. “We find ourselves needing to share footage internally and externally. We need to retain controls on our data.”
All digital evidence is now collected, shared, and distributed through Genetec Clearance. The team at Here East can put appropriate safeguards in place to minimise the risk of footage being inappropriately shared or lost.
The automatic redaction features available within Genetec Clearance have also streamlined the processing of requests for video evidence. Under the terms of the EU GDPR, any citizen can submit a subject access request, with Article 15 of the legislation presenting specific challenges concerning video surveillance.
Video surveillance operators must redact the identities of multiple other third parties in relevant frames of video before footage can be shared. On a busy night, the canalside restaurants and bars on the Here East site can contain 1,000 people in a single camera’s field of view.
Before, the user had to spend significant time manually redacting the innocent parties’ identities in the footage. With Genetec Clearance, that task is instant and automated. Improved incident reporting capabilities Genetec Clearance has bolstered Here East’s incident analysis capabilities, simplifying reporting back to the senior management. The Here East team runs an automated report breaking down incidents by time, date, and location each month. It then uses this data to make recommendations surrounding security operations and the deployment of re
sources. Where it’s applicable, they run educational workshops for tenants. For example, phone snatching and bike theft are two of the most common crimes in their London borough.
The Here East team can take proactive steps to detect, deter, and discourage perpetrators from operating on the site by closely monitoring the data.
“It’s all well and good having the data, but the most important thing is being able to visualise it, spot the meaningful patterns, and take the right preventative actions,” explains Jones. “Genetec Clearance makes this seamless”. The foundations for future growth Here East is still in the early phases of a long-term rollout with Genetec but is already benefitting from a unified approach to security, digital evidence-sharing, and operations.
“We’re continuing the legacy of the 2012 Olympics and have ambitious plans for the day-to-day management of this iconic site,” concludes Jones. “Our tenants expect a gold medal standard service and we have no intentions to disappoint”.
,