Gunshot Locating Press Release

Posted on February 8, 2012 by Richard Bissett

GunShotLocating LLP is proud to have worked with West Midlands Police and the Birmingham Community Safety Partnership on Operation Safe and Sound, the gunshot detection system deployed in Birmingham since December 2010. We have been involved as a member of the Project Board since its inception and pleased to see community members and Police Authority representation on the same Board.

To ensure the effectiveness of the system after the initial deployment and the WMP testing programme, we agreed on a pause period in mid-2011 to do quality testing. During that time, GunShotLocating Ltd and SST introduced a number of significant improvements at no cost to the police. These included 24/7 monitoring and review of all gunshot alerts from the system and significant upgrades in the technology hardware and software.

The quality testing of the new system on 1st August 2011 met all of the system requirements. It also provided for the first time confirmation that ShotSpotter can detect ‘non-standard’ weapons, often the weapon of choice of the UK criminal gangs.
Since ShotSpotter was deployed in Birmingham, gun crime has been reduced by 17%, compared with London showing a 4% increase in gun crimes and no ShotSpotter system.
Of real significance is the community confidence the ShotSpotter solution provides.

Community engagement with the police is increased with the ShotSpotter deployment as the communities see the police responding to gunfire incidents more frequently and putting an emphasis on reducing gun crime and violence in their areas. WMP provides a range of community feedback strongly indicating feelings of safety and reduction in gun crime are linked to Operation Safe and Sound.

GunShotLocating LLP will continue to work with WMP and all the other parties in evaluating the ShotSpotter solution deployed in Birmingham during 2012.

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Don’t just count shoppers, analyse what they are doing

Posted on November 23, 2011 by Richard Bissett

In line with the Bloomfield Group’s ethos of keeping up with leading technology, a famous, but shall remain nameless for obvious reasons, High Street Chain has asked Group Member Security Design Centre Ltd (SDC) to lead them into a whole new level of customer analysis. SDC in partnership with a major security industry software house has developed a system that takes analytics to a whole new level. Utilising existing analogue or IP cameras, this plug on hardware box can replace the existing DVR or NVR, can replace the wired or wireless router and has the added advantage of some incredibly flexible and leading edge analytics.

Picture the scene, a customer walks into the shop and waits patiently at the counter waiting to be served. The system will analyse this and report to HQ just how long it takes for their staff to approach the customer. If the customer walks out with out being spoken to this will also be reported. How about the areas of the shop where most people congregate, if HQ knew this they would know precisely which campaigns were working and where to put new advertising. Of course there are by-products of this information. For instance, security will be interested if someone is running in their shops as this would be deemed as unusual behaviour.

Outright purchase is always an option but for this system SDC are offering a fully managed system contract that saves the customer the capital outlay allowing him to effectively “rent” the system and have bespoke reports created just for him and delivered electronically in the time frame of his choosing.

Security is normally a grudge purchase as it doesn’t add profit, it just protects it. But what if security could be provided by the marketing departments budget?

For further information please feel free to email or phone us.

 

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Thermal Imaging does so much more than just security

Posted on November 14, 2011 by Richard Bissett

The Bloomfield Group once again marches forward with leading edge tech by marrying deployable CCTV with Thermal Imaging, but with a difference. The 360 degree view primarily monitors thermal preset positions in the field of view of the camera and stores temperatures. When one of these temperatures exceeds pre-determined norms a technical alarm is sent to the customer’s help desk to let them know of an imminent failure of say, a pump or motor. (This is of particular interest to facility companies). But thats not all, whilst doing this “tour”, should an intruder be detected by one of the battery operated wireless detectors, the NAS deployable system will turn and look at him whilst simultaneously sending a live video stream to the central monitoring station who can audibly challenge him. Obviously being thermal, no external lighting is required. Now thats what I call deployable!

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Service above and beyond…….

Posted on August 26, 2011 by Richard Bissett

During the recent riots The Bloomfield Group member, REMAS, truly went above and beyond the call of duty by permanently monitoring certain key sites that were in the troubled areas. Additional staff were called in to man the receiving stations and worked all night to ensure nothing untoward was happening on customer sites in the vicinity of the riots.

CCTV is a great tool, like it or love it, having recorded time stamped footage of an incident is the ultimate evidence used in court as it is indisputable. BUT, if the building housing the CCTV recorder is damaged, or in the case of many buildings affected by the riots, totally destroyed by fire, then the evidence gets destroyed as well.

This is where remotely monitored CCTV come into its own. Normally remote CCTV sits there minding its own business until an intruder is detected, at which point the footage is transmitted to a manned monitoring centre for escalation to the Police or key-holders. But, a byproduct of this system is the ability to connect to the site and monitor it even if no intruders are present. Normally this would be far too expensive to consider but in unusual circumstances, like a riot for instance, the customer or monitoring centre can connect to site and view it live.

So, next time you are facing troubles and your current supplier isn’t stepping up to the plate, remember this blog and the service that The Bloomfield Group offers its loyal customers. Oh, I forgot to mention, we did all this completely free of charge!

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England Riots and CCTV

Posted on August 12, 2011 by Richard Bissett

Lets not get into the why the riots happened, let us instead get into what we can do about it. We have all seen the endless reams of footage shown in the world media giving us a graphic insight into the minds of so-called ordinary people who, given the opportunity, are eager to indulge in wanton vandalism, robbery, arson, burglary, assault, public order offences and ultimately, murder. Most of them, due to the nature of rioting and the confusion it causes, simply walk away from it and never face justice for their crimes. There are of course some “unlucky” rioters who are close enough to a camera to be recognised but most are a simply a blur of a dozen or so pixels in the background of the picture.

What can we do about it then? I hear you cry.

Welcome to High Definition or Megapixel CCTV! We have all read about it, we have all probably played with it and tested it but how many of us have actually installed it? The Bloomfield Group has, and guess what, Mr Pixel head rioter can now be identified and will therefore be facing justice at a night court hearing near you soon.

When I say “justice”, 16 weeks jail, (which is automatically halved to 8 ) is hardly a fitting punishment for setting fire to premises, looting shops and hurling petrol bombs at the Police but I guess at least they become “known” which means its easier to capture them on the next crime.

We have all been used to our digital camera at home which allows us to “zoom” into the holiday snaps and read the “Lifeguard” sign on the side of the boat in the distance behind the cheesy grin of our loved ones, but until recently this was not available in the CCTV market. The main reason was processing power. Your holiday camera only has to deal with one 12 megapixel image every few seconds but CCTV requires multiple images of this size per second. Aracont’s megapixel range now has the capability and allows the security personnel or Police to pick out an individual face in a football crowd from the other side of the stadium. So, transpose that technology to a Police van, a lamp post mounted camera or The Bloomfield Group’s award nominated NAS deployable camera system and you have your evidence. Mr Pixel head rioter can no longer hide because he will be captured on high definition video, stored digitally so it will never degrade and the Police can then arrest him at their leisure.

All we need now is a punishment system that fits the crime…. don’t get me started!

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The Bloomfield Group designed NAS awarded June Product of the Month

Posted on July 8, 2011 by Richard Bissett

The Bloomfield Group member company, REMAS Deployable Systems, received yet another accolade from the Industry when their NAS Deployable system was voted Product of the Month for June in Professional Security Magazine.

The NAS system requires only mains electricity to work and can be literally installed in minutes. No further cabling is required as the comms and detection are wireless and the audio is already built in. The Kevlar reinforced NAS is highly vandal resistant as none of its antenna are external and it comes with a GPS tracker as standard.

The NAS can be received by virtually all the monitoring centres in the UK but obviously REMAS Deployable Systems recommends REMAS Global Monitoring as it is probably the best specified BS5979, BS8418 and A.C.E. accredited visual monitoring centre in the UK.

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Bloomfield nominated for IFSEC CCTV System of the Year Finalist

Posted on June 23, 2011 by Richard Bissett

The Bloomfield Group member company, REMAS Deployable Systems, received the highest possible accolade from the Industry when the product they designed made it to the  finals at IFSEC 2011 for the CCTV System of the Year with their innovative truly deployable NAS (Network Accessible Surveillance).

The NAS system requires only mains electricity to work and can be literally installed in minutes. No further cabling is required as the comms and detection are wireless and the audio is already built in. The Kevlar reinforced NAS is highly vandal resistant as none of its antenna are external and it comes with a GPS tracker as standard.

The NAS can be received by virtually all the monitoring centres in the UK but obviously REMAS Deployable Systems recommends REMAS Global Monitoring as it is probably the best specified BS5979, BS8418 and A.C.E. accredited visual monitoring centre in the UK.

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Bloomfield Group moves further into the IP age

Posted on December 20, 2010 by Richard Bissett

IP has been the buzz word for the industry for several years and yet most people you speak to still propose and install analogue CCTV…why?

Well, in short, IP didn’t actually offer you anything that analogue couldn’t but cost substantially more, so whilst people were prepared to entertain the idea of IP CCTV, they were not prepared to entertain the cost….until now.

So it appears that finally the manufacturers have understood the price premium they have been asking for has been the reason why people have not been getting on board with the technology, unless funds are unlimited for government or military etc, especially when you consider the world financial situation.

So, with all this in mind, Bloomfield Group member REMAS are now installing full HD cameras from IP leaders Aracont. These 8mb cameras are world class and allow the Holy Grail that is retrospective zoom resulting in fewer cameras providing more evidence. Imagine starting with a wide angle view showing large areas but not much detail. Then imagine “zooming” into the picture to pick out the detail. The best of both worlds.

Combine these cameras with a 4Tb network video recorder (NVR) and you are faced with amazing HD clarity and an archive of either real time footage for a couple of weeks or a more realistic 6 images per second per camera for 28 days.

But, what if you already have an analogue “coaxial” cable backbone? Well simply use the Veracity High Wire IP over coax converters and enjoy a 100mbps network over your existing cabling. HD clarity over original coax, a future proof system at a fraction of the cost

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Bloomfield’s Gunshot Locating system goes live in Birmingham

Posted on December 9, 2010 by Richard Bissett

Birmingham introduces cutting edge technology to fight gun crime

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-11950517

GunShotLocating LLP, part of the Bloomfield Group, working with the Safer Birmingham Partnership on ‘Project Safe and Sound’, is proud to have installed highly sophisticated Gun Shot Detection technology aimed at improving public safety for communities within Birmingham.

The technology will enable a faster and more efficient response to firearms incidents, providing the community with more effective policing. Speed of deployment to a crime scene will be increased, thus benefiting the community by saving money and lives.

Police will be alerted about the time and origin of shots fired prior to officers arriving at the scene, which maximises the effectiveness and safety of officers and the public at large.

The Shotspotter ‘GLS’ technology is in use in 57 US cities, where it has played a significant role in reducing gun crime and bringing offenders to justice.   The system uses high-tech communications technology, which is able to pinpoint the location of gunshots to within a 25 metre radius.

Birmingham is the first UK city to benefit from this revolutionary system and is now leading the way in gun crime reduction in the UK.

Kirsty Hobson, Director Marketing from GSL said, “We are delighted that months of hard work with SBP & WMP has come together, this sophisticated technology will hugely benefit the community of Birmingham to reduce gun crime, minimise police response times and save lives!’

Please see the link below for coverage of the system on national BBC News including video footage.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-11950517


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Gunshot Locating Ltd and REMAS join forces to form an LLP

Posted on November 22, 2010 by Richard Bissett

The Bloomfield Group is very pleased to announce a new member.

GunShotLocating LLP joins the group bringing unique expertise to the UK and Europe which you will undoubtedly hear about in the media over the next few weeks.

GunShotLocating survey, specify, project manage, install, commission, monitor and service Europe’s first acoustic gunfire detection system installed in an area of Birmingham.

The system uses passive acoustic sensors to detect the sound of gunfire and then, by triangulation processing it plots on a map precisely where the gunfire occurred.  This information is transmitted to a police control room enabling personnel to see where the incident occurred on an interactive map so that an armed response team and paramedics can be quickly dispatched to that location. This rapid response should lead to a greater capture rate and, it is hoped, lives saved, as the Ambulance service will not be delayed by relying on members of the public to call it in.

Already installed in over 50 cities in the USA and other countries worldwide it is truly tried and tested and is so accurate that it has been known to lead the police to the discarded shell casings lying on the ground. The system differentiates gunfire from fireworks and car back firing, and it can also give an indication of the type of weapon fired, the severity of the incident, as well as the sequence in which the shootings took place.

It is expected that other authorities will soon follow the example set by the West Midlands Police and Safer Birmingham Partnership, so watch this space as our inner cities become safer places to be.

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