Author: Katherine Fleming, London Heritage Quarter, Chief Operating Officer
Safety is at the heart of everything we do at London Heritage Quarter. Our daily mission is to support more than 1,000 businesses, their employees and the millions of visitors who come to experience some of London's most iconic landmarks each year by creating a safe, welcoming and well-managed environment across the areas we represent.
To deliver our mission, we focus on helping our on-street patrol teams and local businesses run their day-to-day operations smoothly, while identifying, reporting and resolving security and anti-social behaviour incidents as quickly and effectively as possible. Clear, reliable communication is fundamental to this effort, supported by real-time data and body-worn video capture for faster decision-making, improved coordination and a safer experience for everyone who lives, works and visits the area.
As our operational requirements continued to evolve, we recognised the critical role communications solutions play in maintaining these high standards of safety and service and delivering our wider mission to create a safe and welcoming environment across London Heritage Quarter.
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User
London Heritage Quarter -
Project Time
2025 -
Market Segment
Cities, Boroughs and Municipalities -
Product Category
Body-Worn Camera
HALOPTX
Challenge
When incidents develop quickly, any delay in sharing accurate information can affect how effectively teams respond on the ground.
We had already been using Hytera body-worn cameras for capturing evidence, and they had already proven valuable for capturing frontline information, including GPS location, video footage and incident audio. The devices are reliable, durable and well suited to a busy, high-footfall environment. Their coverage range and battery performance ensure our patrol teams feel supported across the large and complex areas where they work. However, we were still manually removing video and evidence from individual body-worn cameras which was time consuming and ineffective. We need live information to stream from the body-worn camera including its location and the audio recording instantly.
As our operational needs grew, we recognised that manually removing and administrating data was too challenging. What we needed next was a more connected way to manage live incident data: where an incident was taking place, all the information was available, who needed to be informed and how quickly that information could be turned into action.
This highlighted three clear issues that any future communication solution would need to address. First, our teams needed faster and more accurate visibility and the live location of the incidents so they could coordinate their response on the ground. Second, they needed a streamlined way to bring together the exact location of the incident, and all the necessary data including live stream video, live audio streaming without relying on ‘after-the-fact’ manual processes and fragmented information flows. Third, we needed a better view to previous trends and consistent information so we could identify repeat hotspots, understand patterns and manage recurring issues more proactively.
There was one more challenge identified by the businesses we support. During an incident, businesses need to know that the situation is being dealt with and that support is on its way. A future solution therefore had to do more than connect our patrol teams; it also had to help us communicate clearly, provide reassurance and maintain confidence across a wide business community.
This is where HALOPTX and Digital Evidence Management (DEM) becomes invaluable.
Solution
With more than 1,000 businesses across multiple sectors and a wide geographical area, HALOPTX[1] and its DEM solution had to be reliable, easy to use and effective for teams operating in different locations and circumstances.
Cost is also a key consideration. As a Business Improvement District, we have to manage budgets carefully, so any investment needed to demonstrate clear value and deliver practical benefits for the businesses and communities we support.
Trying to solve our challenge, we considered a few alternative communication methods, for instance, using WhatsApp groups. While these helped to improve informal communication at first, we faced the same issue - they became harder to manage as the number of businesses involved kept increasing.
This led us to look for a more robust solution, that uses our existing devices and that could bring communication, incident information and frontline evidence together in a more coordinated way and make it scalable. As we were familiar with Hytera technology [Body-Worn Camera SC780], the quality of outcomes and the level of support they provide, we asked Hytera to suggest a complete live steaming voice and video solution with the added advantage of live evidence management uploading that could support our teams, improve the flow of information and scale effectively across London Heritage Quarter.
Hytera’s understanding of the operational needs of on-street teams gave us confidence that they could respond to the specific challenges we had identified, and we tested Hytera’s HALOPTX managed services.
[1] HaloPTX provides a highly resilient, GPS, Voice and Video data transfer solution, in real time, with high level encryption. The solution gives us complete piece of mind even in the most challenging of environments.
Benefit
With all the above in mind, HaloPTX's Fully Managed Solution, including the latest DEMS evidence management system, was the perfect choice for London Heritage Quarter.
The main benefit of the Hytera solution was that it directly addressed the communication and evidence-management challenges we had identified and improved efficiency of our communications in every aspect we identified. By combining body-worn cameras with the HALO PTX platform, we were able to capture detailed frontline information and make it available to the control centre in real time. This gave our teams faster access to the incident location, including live video streaming, live video sharing, audio groups calls and other key details, helping them understand what was happening and respond more quickly.
This also removed the need for time-consuming manual data handling. Previously, evidence from body-worn cameras had to be uploaded and managed separately. With HALO PTX managed services, location data, video and calls can now be streamed directly into our command and control centre as an integrated flow of information. This allows decisions to be made and communicated back to frontline teams without delay, improving coordination across different teams and wider areas.
The solution also supported adoption on the ground. Because it integrated smoothly into our existing ways of working, teams were able to use it quickly without adding unnecessary complexity to existing procedures. This was important because the future solution needed to improve communication at scale, not create additional operational burden.
The increased visibility and control across our Operations portfolio has also helped us respond to recurring issues more proactively. By using the GPS location of incidents, we can highlight hotspots at specific times during the day and increase are presence. By bringing together information about incidents, locations and activity, we can better identify repeat these hotspots, understand patterns and make more informed decisions. For the businesses we support, this means clearer updates, greater reassurance during incidents and more confidence that the right support is being coordinated in real time.
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