Pressure vests developed by researchers at the International Centre for Crowd Management and Security Studies at Bucks New University are designed to warn event organisers of a build-up of pressure in specific areas in the audience.
The vests, which also carry GPS locators and thermometers, transmit data to event managers so that they can monitor the pressure and temperature within the mass of people. The development team says that, until now, crowds have been modelled without the benefit of such real-time information from inside a mass of people.
Their experiments at a range of venues including Wembley, the V Festival, the Milton Keynes Bowl and Roskilde in Denmark aim to give event security and crowd managers a picture of what’s happening at music or sport venues, religious festivals or transport hubs.
Some valuable insights into what’s happening
Professor Chris Kemp, pro vice chancellor and executive dean: design, media and management at Bucks New University – a music promoter in his previous career and the initiator of the vest – believes the prototypes have afforded some valuable insights into what really goes on.
“A relatively small number of people in an audience cause a large percentage of the pressure,” explained Kemp, “so 500 people could create just as much of an issue as 60,000.”
Initial testing of the pressure vests has so far found that:
Barrier load measuring system
The vests are designed to complement information on crowd pressure received from MoJo Barriers’ barrier load measuring system, widely seen to be one of the most technically advanced pieces of safety equipment in use at major music and sporting events.
Professor Kemp stated that earlier work interpreted by Manchester University had shown a peak of 8.6 kilonewtons per square metre at one concert. “That’s like having a bus on your chest for a second.”
Bucks New University’s Crowd Management Centre has developed the vests in collaboration with a firm which makes motor vehicle tyre pressure monitors – namely A M Bromley Ltd of Buxton, Derbyshire.
Each vest comprises a cotton waistcoat containing a pneumatic tube which houses pressure and temperature sensor systems duplicated for increased reliability. These send data via a wireless link to a radio receiver which can be up to a mile away.
Six vests may be monitored simultaneously. Temperature sensors are included because the build-up of heat when people are squashed together, partly as a result of anxiety, can quickly cause dehydration.
Data for improved crowd modelling
Bucks New University’s Professor Geoff Lawday developed the suit in conjunction with colleague Dr Tim Coole. Professor Lawday told SMT Online that the aim was to produce a commercial version of the vest, and to provide data to improve crowd models.
He also said crowd behaviour researchers typically use mathematical models which are hypothetical. “They don’t hold up when you have large numbers of people funnelling into stairs or at the top of an escalator.”
The pressure suit currently features in one of the shortlisted experiments in the annual contest ‘So You Want To Be a Scientist?’, which is run by BBC Radio 4’s The Material World.
Listener Sam O’Kell’s hypothesis is that crowd pressure is highest a little way back from the front of a concert. He’s testing this theory by wearing one of the Bucks New University vests to some of the events, including the Roskilde Festival in Denmark (itself the scene of a tragic accident in 2000 which saw nine people die at the front of the stage).
The International Centre for Crowd Management and Security Studies
The International Centre for Crowd Management and Security Studies at Bucks New University is dedicated to making events across the world safer places to be, and its purpose is to help promote the creation of a safer concert and security environment.
In addition to providing a research/study centre, it offers work-based foundation degrees and short courses as well as longer programmes of study in crowd management as well as events and festival management.
The Centre works with (and is supported by) institutions and businesses all over the world, and is involved with many major events including VE Day in London, the various Knebworth festivals, Glastonbury and the V Festival.
*Copies of the ‘pop code’ – The Event Safety Guide (Second edition), a guide to health, safety and welfare at music and similar events – is published by the Health & Safety Executive (click the dedicated link on the right hand panel of this page for further information)
