Crowd pleaser

In December, the Home Office confirmed that the first draft of Protect Duty – now to be known as Martyn’s Law – is expected this spring. The new legislation is designed to better protect against the threat of terrorism and will require the events industry to take steps to improve public safety.

What that legislation looks like and how it will be implemented are at the back of every organiser, venue manager, and safety officer’s mind. The concern is that the industry will be flooded by industry experts and “Protect Duty officers” proclaiming to know everything about a law with no details set in stone.

Some organisers have already turned to Lloyd Major, CEO and founder of Halo Solutions, asking if his incident and threat management platform has all the answers. If you ask Major that question, he will tell you: “No. It’s a tool.”

It’s an incredibly honest response from someone who could easily lie to make a sale but that’s not what Major – nor Halo Solutions – is about. As an ex-police officer with National Counter Terrorism Unit experience, he is genuinely looking to help organisers and venues make their events safer by drawing on his learnings from fast-paced, high-drama, and highoctane environments.

“As the industry recovers from COVID, they are turning an eye to Martyn’s Law,” Major explains, as we tour Motorpoint Arena, Nottingham. “People want to know how they can be prepared, and I think businesses –post-COVID – want to be on the front foot.

“I’ve had some people approach me already, asking about Halo,” he continues. “Before we do a demo, we always listen to that person and ask them what you need the system to do and what problem you want it to solve.

“Some have mentioned Protect Duty, but I tell them we don’t yet know what’s in the legislation. We know there will be some risk assessments, but there could be documents to download and tick off. No one knows.”

Major believes that Protect Duty will place more pressure on events professionals to prove they have complied with all legislation. That’s where, he says, a system like Halo will help organisers, and venues, prove they have done the right thing at the right time.

World Of Difference

Halo Solutions has just launched Halo v5, the latest version of its incident and threat management platform. It has 75 new features, including a document library for storing risk assessments and a Bulletin Board for ejections and “risky” people, as well as four new modules on crowd management, accreditation, sustainability, and drone feeds. For example, the accreditation module gives clients the ability to create digital access passes (available to print) that prove their identity. It is linked to the UK Government Passport and Driving Licence databases and allows for customisable onboarding journeys with document upload for compliance, even for temporary staffing. Furthermore, the new crowd management function enables clients to monitor crowds from CCTV feeds, using smart overlays and artificial intelligence to ascertain crowd sentiment, density, tension, and flow.

As we walk around Motorpoint Arena – a long-standing client – Major shows StandOut the venue’s control room and how the arena is using the platform to its advantage. The Halo system dashboard is visible, allowing all operational and security personnel to monitor crowds entering the building for a sold-out Lewis Capaldi concert.

Eric Gentian, director of Gentian Events, and chair of the UK Crowd Management Association, is also checking out the new system. Stuart firmly believes that having the right tools can make a world of difference to even the most experienced event, safety, and crowd management professionals.

Stephen Chaston, head of arena operations at Motorpoint Arena Nottingham, concurs. He says: “Halo Solutions’ system has allowed us to pull together several key areas of data that we use during an event, including ticket scanning, incident reporting, capacity control, and event checks. This allows our decision-making teams to be presented, in real time, with useful and accurate data to aid actions that provide a safe and smooth event experience for our customers.”

Motorpoint Arena has worked with Halo Solutions for more than four years, and has seen the system evolve during this time. Motorpoint Arena staff, who use the system on a regular basis, feed information back to the Halo team, which takes on board constructive feedback.

Chaston continues: “As a venue, the Halo system has changed the way our teams interact, speeding up communications, reporting and information sharing, working alongside venue CCTV and radio systems.

“The majority of our front-line staff use a Halo device for the duration of their shifts, using one device to switch between a number of tasks that are required of them.”

Recognising Threats

Major tells StandOut that Halo v5 has been in development since May 2022. However, the crowd management module has only been developed in the last six months. It has been driven by the latest tech innovations from Amazon Web Services and by what’s happening in the world. Major and his team could see a need for it.

“Crowd management specialists are a resource that not everyone can enjoy because either they don’t have the budget or they lack the knowledge to know they need one,” Major continues, whilst we watch Capaldi fans have their tickets scanned using Halo Solutions’ ticket scanning tech. “Or it could be that there are not enough of them.

“The way to distribute some insight and support is to give people tools for them to recognise any threats themselves.

“Despite having built this software, I am taking the position that it’s not a replacement for a crowd manager, it’s not going to solve crowd issues, and it’s not going to dramatically change everything a crowd manager does.

“But you give a crowd manager a radio, you give them access to CCTV, and you give them access to an incident management platform. If you can give them a tool that helps them to speed through the calculations they need to do, they are forewarned and forearmed, using technology to make the best possible decision.”

Rusty Spoons

Major says that Halo v5 is the culmination of five years of feedback and dream features that clients have said were on their wish lists. The beauty of being such a small and ethical business is that Halo can pause what it thinks is a good idea to “do something that loads of other people think is better”.

Major continues: “You wouldn’t send a surgeon into surgery with a couple of rusty spoons. The more kit you can give incredibly talented people can only be a good thing. Where those people are missing [because of staff shortages] at least there is some kind of safety net and a tool that people can use.”

But what’s next? Major believes that Halo v6 will benefit from new control room features that make life easier and safer for control room operators. He is a fan of Apple and HubSpot so any new versions of Halo will continue to be designed with the user experience at their heart, and in terms of the future, growing the business globally, and helping to protect more people are key.

Major concludes: “Halo v5 truly is ‘designed by you and built by us.’ It lays the foundations for a lot more powerful features to come throughout 2023 and beyond.”

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