use case | Public Safety

Security Of The World’s Largest Music Festival

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80 000 people

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6 minutes set up time

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Day/Night vision

For the largest World’s Largest Music Festival who took place in July 2023, two Elistair Safe-T 2 tether stations supported the flight of two DJIM300 drones during 3 days, ensuring the security of 80,000 festival attendees. G4S Secure Solutions selected this system to provide continuous aerial surveillance of both the festival and campsite areas.

The main reason why the festival officials asked us to monitor the event with tethered drones,was because of the limited height of static cameras. Using a tethered drone offers us a larger view from above, and consequently a better interpretation of the images.

Sam Wolters Mission Coordinator G4S DroneServices

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Solution

During the first weekend of the festival, two operating sites were set up using two Elistair’s Safe-T 2 tether stations paired with two DJI M300 drones with H2T cameras. They were deployed besides the festival itself and the camping area. Teams of two pilots operated the drone and the camera sensor from trucks, integrated with monitors and streaming equipment.

A tethered drone next to a tethered station in grassy field

Drone pilots monitoring a festival crowd

Result of the mission

The tethered drones not only ensured long flying hours but also played a pivotal role in various critical aspects of the festival. They were key for identify ing people in need of assistance or any other situation that could cause danger to the participants. The persistent views from the tethered UAVs were necessary to monitor crowd flows, medical interventions, and police interventions. They were also useful as a fire precaution considering the large number of fireworks during the week.

Tethered drones for events security

Legal permissions to conduct drone surveillance operations are easier to acquire when using tethered systems as their physical attachment to the ground allows for safer and more reliable flights,with greatly reduced risks of fly-away. In addition the flying non-stop for several hours is key for security teams to keep a constant eye on their area.

View of the crowd from the surveillance post

” By using Elistair tethered station, we were able to gain a significant advantage in keeping people safe at a large event such as this massive festival. Our main goal was to take people flow of the festival and send it to the CPOPS event coordination team, so they can have live footage of what is going on around the festival. We were flying up to 90 meters for three hours straight and we were using the zoom camera to record everything. The previous years we had to land the drone to change its batteries, this made us lose time and surveillance footage.”

Sam Wolters

Mission Coordinator G4S Drone Services