Investec Epsom Derby Festival

Working on one of the most important events in the racing calendar, attended by the most important of guests, is an opportunity for Mobile CCTV Ltd to pull out all the stops to help create a co-ordinated and highly successful security operation.

The Epsom Derby is the oldest and one of the greatest horse races in the world. It was established by the Earl of Derby in 1779, but today, with over 100,000 visitors, including the Queen and members of her family, it becomes the scene of a major security operation.

In recent years, the task of creating the Event Control Compound has fallen to the racecourse operators, who were delighted when Mobile CCTV Ltd volunteered to design and build this ‘security HQ’ for them.

And it’s no small job. A week before the event, we start setting up a series of marquees and Portacabins for Police and Security briefings, a canteen to feed 800 people through the day, toilets, a Police Station, power distribution, water provision, trackway, fencing and telephony. Once everything’s in place, the agencies set to work within the multi-agency Event Control room arrive to set up and test their own equipment.

We also install up to 25 additional CCTV cameras which are interfaced with the existing on-site CCTV provision. All images are sent to Event Control – a large marquee that’s darkened to prevent glare on the monitors. Enabling all agencies to see the CCTV images in Event Control, we supply 8 x 50” CCTV monitors, plus a bank of smaller monitors for the CCTV operators to use. We also install relayed monitors to give the key agencies the ability to communicate instantly about a situation across the site.

Our own CCTV Operators and Radio Operators work at the event, and our Mobile CCTV Unit is kept busy transmitting images back to the control room using digital wireless technology. It constantly demonstrates just how useful it is to gather images not seen on other CCTV cameras intalled around the site, and gives Event Control the images it needs to send the correct response to any situation.

control camp

control camp set up