A casual conversation in 2010 between Nicholas Zinas, during his thesis year, and an Irish doctor gave birth to Secure Concert System (SCS). “The doctor had a private business that offered first aid services at music events,” says Mr. Zinas. “She stressed the need for better emergency services at concerts.”

Mr. Zinas was intrigued and began to explore the idea by meetings with members of the music industry in countries around the world as well as by conducting research into the international safety regulations for large music gatherings. Step by step, the idea for  SCS took root.

The purpose of SCS is to design and develop technology dedicated to the safety of outdoor event productions. “The system makes use of the geo-tracking devices of mobile networks, among other things, making it possible to send messages between users in real time, that is between security personnel, doctors, production teams and others,” says Mr. Zinas. “There’s also the possibility for an automated application of pre-planned emergency operations so that no time is lost during the development of such a situation caused by delays in the communication when many people are involved.” All communication is monitored by a central computer and one supervisor that can intervene whenever it is deemed necessary so that the right people can respond to each emergency.

Initial tests were run at the Zosimadon Stadium of Ioannina. Since then SCS has been tested at three large events: The Rockwave Festival (2013) with 10,000 people on the first day of the event, at the Ejekt Festival (2014) with 15,000 people and at Metallica by Request (2014) in Istanbul with 40,000 concertgoers. At the last two events, the system was used by the personnel following a training session. The technology will be presented at Event Tech Live in London in November so that it can be shared with the music industry at large.

The project is co-financed by the European Union and through Greece’s Operational Program known as “Human Resources Development” of the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF).