New Year’s Eve is one of the most significant events of the year, with hundreds of thousands of people gathering in London to witness the Mayor of London’s NYE fireworks display which never fails to sell out. Featuring 12,000 fireworks, 2,000 lighting cues and 30 tonnes of equipment, choreographed to music, London’s spectacular New Year’s Eve fireworks is the largest annual display in Europe – but it is the work that goes on behind the scenes which is truly fantastic.
Making sure operations run smoothly is no easy feat, with everything from public transport and London’s emergency services to internet connectivity facing a significant increase in demand - and Telent is proud to support these services, ensuring they are equipped to face the challenge.
The busiest time of the year
News Year’s Eve is one of London’s biggest nights, with the fireworks display alone selling over 100,000 tickets. The display is also for more than just the people in London; it is broadcast to tens of millions of viewers across the globe, promoting London and often displaying many of Britain’s successes from across the year. There is no room for error, and there are dedicated teams in place to make sure the event runs seamlessly. For a celebration this large, multiple infrastructures need to be put in place to keep people safe, make sure transport runs efficiently, and that telecommunication networks are available for the peak demand.
Equally, making sure party-goers can get home quickly and safely is the number one priority, which is why there was free travel on Transport for London (TfL) public transport from 23:45 on New Year’s Eve until 04:30 on New Year’s Day. Alongside the influx of people, there was also a number of station and road closures that TfL had to manage in order for travel to run smoothly. Making sure travel routes ran on time and without problems required a high level of organisation and efficiency from teams across TfL.
Helping London celebrate
Telent has always been passionate about working with the emergency services. During the New Year, Telent supported the Met Police Control Rooms, London Ambulance Service Mobile Data Terminals and London Fire Brigade Appliance radios. As some of the most critical communications networks in London, all these emergency service teams had to be able to communicate in real-time to ensure the safety of London’s public.
City-wide, Telent also provided round-the-clock management of; TfL’s CCTV cameras; TfL’s Bus information systems; London Underground communications systems and Control Rooms; and over half of the capital’s traffic signals. So, no matter how people planned to get to their celebrations and home as they welcomed in the new year, Telent was behind the scenes making sure that journeys ran smoothly and efficiently.