Media Centre gets gold medal security

24th July 2014

High Security, Security, Temporary Events

The Challenge

Olympics organisers accredited 21,000 media and broadcasters to report on the greatest show on earth. They were crafting the story beamed to the estimated global audience of almost five billion tuned in to London 2012.

Quite apart from keeping them safe and secure, any hint of a breach of security would have been latched upon, sending negative tales of London far and wide and damaging the city’s image and the nation’s tourist industry for years.

The Solution

The London Olympics Media Centre (LOMC) was designed by architects Allies and Morrison. It is 900,000 sq ft and 275m long and cost £355 million to build on the former Hackney Wick Stadium close to the Riverbank Arena.

The main contractor Carillion asked Zaun to design, manufacture and install the 1.5km of HiSec and MultiFence security fencing with the same Super6 panels as the Olympic Park perimeter. The two high-security fencing systems use a close mesh of 6mm steel vertical wires near impossible to scale and very hard to cut through except with power tools.

The fencing incorporated vehicle and pedestrian access points, as well as detection systems and CCTV. The Olympic Delivery Authority planned to create a high-security complex of business space that would form part of the legacy to the Games, recouping much of the public investment in the construction.

The LOMC was part of Zaun’s Olympics contract, its largest ever, which included work on the perimeters to the Olympic Park and Stadium and temporary installations at venues across the country, all completed on time and within budget.

About Zaun

Zaun Limited is the sole remaining manufacturer of welded and woven mesh fencing systems that manufactures the entire system in the UK. Zaun makes the mesh, fencing panels, posts, clamp bars and fixings at its state-of-the-art five-acre production facility in Wolverhampton in the West Midlands. Products have been tested and approved by testing organisations including CPNI, LPCB and Secured by Design.

Zaun works very closely with all stakeholders within the business including employees, local, national and international suppliers and a long-established customer base of fencing contractors to design, manufacture and supply high-quality fencing systems, increasingly often providing expertise in integrating PIDs and other systems into holistic security solutions.

Zaun was founded in 1996 and remains a private company solely owned by co-founder Alastair Henman with a regional office in Dubai. They are certified to the ISO 9001 quality standard. It is also a member of the Perimeter Security Suppliers’ Association (PSSA), of which Alastair Henman is a director.

Zaun is a proud British manufacturer and founder member of the Made in Britain campaign, a key player in the UK fencing market and one of the fastest-growing companies in an increasingly competitive industry.