The German rescue organizations are facing one of the largest operations in their history and are expecting thousands of rescue workers to be deployed to stadiums, team quarters and training venues. Hundreds of thousands of other medical personnel and up to 300 hospitals will also be on standby to be prepared in the event of a so-called “major incident”.

In line with the exceptionally high security requirements, extensive security concepts have already been developed and solutions devised to ensure that they function reliably when it counts from mid-June.

In the course of these preparations, solutions with DAKS were requested that far exceeded all previous requirements. Specifically, no fewer than a thousand telephony channels and a hundred simultaneous processes in DAKS are needed to map the very complex alerting scenarios that the departments responsible for security had drawn up.

The most important scenario was a mass casualty incident. In a mass casualty incident, or MCI for short, hospitals have to treat a very large number of injured people. This occurs, for example, in cases of disasters, major accidents or terrorist attacks. According to the Civil Protection and Disaster Relief Act, hospitals must take such exceptional cases into account in their hospital alarm planning. In the case of an event the size of a European Football Championship, the procedures in the rescue chain, as well as the internal hospital processes and structures, must be adapted accordingly in order to be optimally prepared for the worst-case scenario.

In response to the request, extensive tests were carried out with the significantly higher loads at the DAKS.

1000 channels

Sounds like a lot, and it is! By “channels” we mean simultaneously running communication connections. This means that with 1000 channels, not just 1000 text messages are distributed, but a thousand people can actually be alerted by phone or interconnected in prorated telephone conferences at the same time. Previously, DAKS was approved for a maximum of 500 channels – usually far more than enough, but special events require special services! For the European Championships, the latest DAKS generation has now been successfully tested on no less than 1000 channels. This is invaluable in the event of an alarm – after all, human lives are at stake!

100 simultaneous processes

Being able to alert many people at the same time is a huge advantage. However, being able to run many processes at the same time makes alerting really effective.

Processes are defined communication sequences, for example a broadcast call, a telephone conference or a combination of both. Each process can have very specific characteristics due to individually preset parameters, such as prioritization, call interruptions or a minimum number of positively confirming subscribers. The broadcast call processes ensure that the right people receive the information relevant to them via the most efficient accessibility channel. The conferences bring those involved and those responsible together and accelerate decisions and measures.

→ Read more about the extensive and precise setting options of DAKS processes here.

In order to save resources, processes are usually processed one after the other in non-critical cases. However, when human lives are at stake, it is very important that as many processes as possible can be started simultaneously. Especially when those responsible are under enormous pressure, it is not only a relief, but also much safer if all the necessary processes can be triggered simultaneously at the touch of a button to enable the fastest and most effective response to an emergency event.

For the demanding challenges of the UEFA event, we were able to run DAKS with 100 simultaneous processes without any problems.

The requirements were extraordinary, but DAKS was able to prove its performance even under the highest pressure without a doubt. 

We are pleased to be able to reliably provide our technically mature, robust and powerful alarm portfolio even for high-profile requirements.