AIRWAVE AT WORK | Secure Accommodation & Prisons

The secure accommodation and prison sectors strive to provide a safe and secure environment for residents / inmates, sta and visitors.

Stringent security and safety protocol necessitate the design and implementation of specifically tailored television systems to meet the requirements of these specialised facilities.

Airwave is delighted to partner with various secure accommodation and prison facilities, in the delivery of bespoke technology solutions.

ALDER HEY CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL

Situated a few miles east of Liverpool’s city centre, Alder Hey Children’s Hospital is one of Europe’s biggest, busiest, and most prestigious children’s hospitals, caring for over 330,000 children, young people and families every year.

Recognised as a world leader in children’s healthcare and research, Alder Hey is a World Health Organisation accredited health promoting hospital, and a Centre of Excellence for cancer, spinal, heart and brain conditions.

As part of its long list of children’s services, Alder Hey operate 1 of only 7 Children’s inpatient mental health facilities in the UK.

Formerly known as the Dewi Jones Unit and previously based in nearby Sefton, the facility relocated to the Alder Hey campus in 2022, receiving not just a new building, but a new name as well.

The Sunflower House

The Sunflower House is a fully equipped, 12-bed inpatient mental health unit for 5–13-year-olds with challenging mental health conditions.

O ering a range of facilities, such as family bedrooms, chill-out zones, therapy rooms and a kitchen diner, Sunflower aim to provide a friendly, safe and comfortable environment, enabling children to experience a semblance of normality, in a home-like environment.

Of course, very much an intrinsic part of a 5-13 year old’s normal experience, is a TV system, gaming technology and access to on-demand content – particularly YouTube.

Airwave was tasked to provide a modern SMART TV system to facilitate easy access to TV and gaming content in the facility’s inpatient bedrooms, and communal spaces.

Airwave recommended 43-inch LG US662H Series commercial TVs, providing a low footprint design (each display was flat-to-wall mounted to enhance this minimalist aesthetic), UHD definition and HDR10 Pro picture technology.

An Otrum Mirage patient entertainment system was implemented on each display, o ering a branded graphical user interface, an electronic programme guide, and intuitive access to a commercially certified Google Chromecast service – allowing patients to cast content from a smart device to the TV.

In the building’s communal spaces, Airwave floor-mounted a further 4 displays, all featuring Otrum Mirage, Chromecast and connected to games stations (Xbox and Playstations).

Due to the specific needs of the facility, Sunflower House requested a shelf and security solution for the games machines, o ering protection from damage and theft. Airwave bespoke designed a metal casing unit, o ering a lockable, easy access and ventilated solution for the gaming hardware.

G4s

With over 500,000 employees, G4S is the world’s largest security company. Headquartered in London, the company o ers a range of services, including the supply of security personnel, monitoring equipment, response units and secure prisoner transportation.

G4s has operated within the criminal justice sector since the opening of the UK’s first private sector prison, and currently operates 5 highly rated custodial care and rehabilitation facilities.

Airwave has supplied and installed 5,000+ institutional television screens across G4S facilities at HMP Winson Green, HMP Oakwood, HMP Rye Hill, HMP Parc, HMP Altcourse and the secure training centre at Oakhill, Milton Keynes.

“Secure environments require a di erent type of television” said Paul Chambers, Airwave sales & marketing director “as a consequence, we proposed dedicated institutional television hardware.”

Institutional TVs, (also known as prison TVs) are specifically manufactured for secure site environments, o ering specially designed features. These include:

· Transparent housing – to prevent inmates hiding weapons and contraband inside the television’s fascia (see image).

· Prison mode – to prevent

NOTTINGHAMSHIRE HEALTHCARE NHS FOUNDATION TRUST – RAMPTON

Rampton Forensic Hospital is a high security (category A) psychiatric hospital, housing approximately 400 patients detained under the Mental Health Act 1983. Rampton’s patients require treatment in conditions of high security, owing to ‘dangerous, violent or criminal propensities.’

In accordance with the facility’s strict security protocol, Rampton required a robust and secure in-bedroom entertainment platform, featuring access to a virtual campus and important patient information - such as policies on possessions, room searches, activities and education.

Further requirements included the restriction of distributed television content in line with patient policies, and restricted & controlled access to the Internet. Rampton also requested a management system that unauthorised communication to, from and between inmates (enabling the control and locking of features such as Teletext, EPG, subtitles and USB ports).

· Advanced volume control – TV volume levels can be restricted to prevent noise disturbances.

Ahead of delivery to site, Airwave pre-programmed each television to secure mode, ensuring optimum security protocol was adhered to, and enabling each TV to be plug-and-played enabled remote access control of content & services - and most importantly, allowed sta to monitor the status of each individual TV.

Airwave was tasked to design an IPTV-based platform to fulfil Rampton’s very specific needs.

Airwave recommended Samsung’s 690 Series SMART Commercial TV platform, embedded with a REACH 4.0 IP CMS – providing the necessary features, benefits and security to meet the project’s various conditions. Airwave designed and implemented a REACH graphical user interface and configured bespoke TV settings to limit both content, and access to other features & services.

Ahead of delivery and installation into Rampton, Airwave pre-configured each TV activating the secure ‘locked’ mode, enabling a plug and play installation on site. This was further facilitated by the pre-build of units to include the connection of cables and assembly of wall-brackets.

As per Rampton’s request, the project was delivered on a just in time basis, and includes ongoing service and technical support.

8 out of 10 UK adults regularly use on-demand content services such as BBC iPlayer, Netflix and YouTube.

Amazon Prime, Apple TV+, HBO Now, Disney Plus, ITVX, BritBox, Spotify, Now TV – the choice of platforms is vast, providing the viewer with a gargantuan array of TV shows, movies, music and online content. This (perhaps understandably) feeds addiction to an already favourite pasttime – watching TV. “Have you watched any good boxsets lately?” is now as commonplace a conversation piece as the weather, in today’s technology driven world.

WATCH WHAT YOU WANT, WHEN YOU WANT

Of course, the introduction of on-demand technology, has seismically shifted our viewing habits. We now have enormous choice, not just in the content we watch, but how we watch it. Content can now be consumed via portable devices such as laptops, tablets, and most notably – smartphones (the UK is the world’s leading smartphone user with 83%1 market penetration).

Binge Watching Brits

So, what does all this this mean? Well, simply speaking, the UK public are smartphone-addicted, hungry consumers of on-demand television & movie content. Binge-watching is facilitated by the choice, accessibility and portability of content – all leading to watch what you want, when you want consumption of content.

IS THIS THE FUTURE OF TELEVISION?

On-demand content is not the future, it’s the now. The future will simply see greater adoption of on-demand technology until it becomes as standard at the TV itself. Whilst linear TV is still important, it’s not nearly enough to satisfy today’s content-hungry generation.

Beating Boredom

In the latter part of 2019, half of UK homes subscribed to at least one of Netflix, Amazon Prime or Now TV - this figure rose stratospherically during covid-19’s period of lockdown. 12 million new streaming subscriptions2 were initiated in this relatively short period of time, perfectly demonstrating the importance of content to a captive audience.

The parallel is obvious; patients in hospital wards, away from the comfort and convenience of home, look for ways to pass the time.

WHY IS ALL THIS IMPORTANT?

There’s no getting away from it - patients used to watching what they want, when they want, won’t be impressed with a standard line-up of terrestrial TV channels in a healthcare environment. In today’s technology-driven world, a property must provide a vehicle for the patient to watch their own content on the TV.

HOW DO I PROVIDE ON DEMAND CONTENT IN MY PROPERTY?

Many on-demand services can be embedded on SMART healthcare TV displays. Whilst this does provide the patient with a good amount of extra content, the line-up of available apps can be limited. Significantly, the provision of certain subscription services (most notably, Netflix) is problematic due to licensing restrictions.

This can be remedied by the installation of Google Chromecast - allowing patients to simply cast their content from a portable device to the property’s television.

Whilst other methods of content sharing do exist (for example screen mirroring) Google Chromecast is by far the most secure, flexible and user-friendly casting platform.

1 Newzoo's 2019 Global Mobile Market Report 2 Ofcom.