Fluidity and safety of pilgrim flows at the Mecca pilgrimage
Protecting a critical site such as Mecca, seat of one of the greatest pilgrimages in the world, requires a very high level of expertise. Thales has deployed an innovative solution to ensure optimal security in the central perimeter of the Grand Mosque, as authorities entrusted them to do.
An integrated solution for the protection of pilgrims
The Mecca pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia annually attracts more than 3 millions people of all nationalities over a period of one week. Protecting such a strategic public site requires taking into account a large number of risks: crowd movements, terrorism, fire, accidents ...
Thales was first responsible for securing the perimeter surrounding the Kaaba, at the heart of the pilgrimage, before receiving further responsibility in the new extension of the Mosque. The deployed solution uses video surveillance to detect and prevent incidents, but also to regulate people movements and inform them in real time.
Perimeter security and managing streams of people
To achieve the objectives, Thales has set up a network of cameras to secure people and the infrastructure itself. The added value of the solution lies in the use and processing of smart video surveillance data, in order to:
- Identify significant events and react to them;
- Evaluate in real time crowd density, regulate the opening and closing of doors and inform pilgrims of waiting times via screens.
The technology integrated by Thales thus makes it possible to optimize both security and the good course of the first pilgrimage of the Muslim world.