Case Studies
HM Queen Elizabeth II funeral & HM King Charles III coronation
A foreign television broadcasting event, involving the security of broadcast sites and personnel, VIP transport and equipment protection
The death and funeral of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth in 2022 was a momentous occasion for the United Kingdom, the commonwealth and much of the world’s population. The UK government had been contingency planning for the event for many years. So too, in recent years, had the international media and Sceptre Protection.
TV networks in the US, New Zealand, Australia, Canada and much of Europe, had collaborated to form the Foreign Broadcast Service (FBS). This body represented the networks at many meetings with UK government and private industry to secure prime accredited broadcasting sites in London and the wider UK, together with the necessary infrastructure, to support up to two weeks of live broadcasting.
Also critical to the plan was the need to secure appropriate accommodation and transport for staff and news anchors who would be flying in from all over the world. In addition, equipment costing many millions of pounds would need to be at the broadcast sites located on public land and secured to prevent loss or damage.
The Foreign Broadcast Service, which had previously contracted Sceptre Protection on many other state engagements, secured our services again to provide a safe environment for their affiliates, to secure the broadcast sites and protect technical equipment. Sceptre was fully engaged in the overall planning process with FBS and the UK government for nearly two years prior to Her Majesty’s death and several years before that, as individual leads in the public and private sectors. As a result, processes and procedures were in place to permit the outside broadcast trucks unhindered access to the high security areas provided by the police, along with the necessary passes for personnel and equipment.
The transport of high-profile news anchors and journalists to the newly established broadcasting sites and the arrival of VIPs for interview were facilitated by Sceptre moments after news broke of the Queen’s death. As a result, the television networks were broadcasting live to their respective countries in the shortest time possible with the necessary infrastructure, security and resourcing to support two weeks of round-the-clock broadcasting.
From the perspective of overseas broadcasters, the television coverage of the days ahead of the Queen’s funeral, and the day itself, went as smoothly as planned. As a consequence, Sceptre were asked to provide the same support for the King’s coronation a few months later.
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