Audio Visual Assessment of CBRN hazards and injuries (AVA)

In recent years, there has been a significant rise in the uptake by the general public, of audio visual (AV) technology. In part this is driven by the wider adoption of smartphones, social media, broadband internet, computers with in built webcams and wearable devices. Despite the widespread adoption of AV technology, it has seen limited use in CBRN incidents, environmental hazards and emergencies.AVA will systematically measure and evaluate the current communication situation, capture and analyse the information requirements of groups of users, whilst identifying any constraints, consult UK, European and international standards and processes associated with communication during a CBRN incident. It will assess, evaluate and support the development of methods for the secure transmission of real time video over low bandwidth connections, to a web-video player, with the ability to adapt to any screen size, work on any smart device and to provide support to CBRN incident responders and field epidemiologists, where there is a shortage of specialists. The project outputs will help to inform decisions about the use of such new technology for front line needs, enabling remote responders in a disaster/hot zone, where there is limited network connectivity, to live-link with back-office specialists. AVA will develop the standards, procedures and guidelines for the use of this technology for remote risk assessment and decision making.