How we rebuilt the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service’s national Incident Command Centre around the assessor’s workflow, not around a list of replacement parts — and built it to scale as the training programme grows.
The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service is Scotland’s national emergency service, formed in 2013 from eight regional services. At its National Headquarters it runs an Incident Command Centre (ICC): a suite of assessment spaces where personnel are evaluated under simulated incident conditions, comprising assessment pods, an Incident Command Room and a Plenary observation space from which assessors watch candidates in real time.
By 2025 the ICC’s AV infrastructure had fallen well behind operational requirements. Ageing equipment meant many features had been disabled altogether. Audio pick-up across the assessment pods was inconsistent — which matters in an environment where an assessor needs every word, instruction and decision on record — camera quality was insufficient for the detail required, and recordings were difficult to store and share.
SFRS needed a system that supported its digital strategy and the objectives set out in its Training Vision and Strategy 2023–2028. The new ICC needed to:
Before any equipment was specified, EIS ran a structured discovery process across multiple sessions with SFRS stakeholders from Training, ICT and operational teams — mapping every requirement in turn, across audio quality, camera coverage, recording workflows, assessor control, multi-room streaming, governance and auditability.
That process established what the finished environment had to deliver: a centralised assessment control system, beamforming audio processing, hardware-based recording, multi-room and multi-camera capability, and live streaming to remote assessors across Scotland. The design also deliberately avoided the third-party platform dependency that had constrained the legacy system — core recording and local assessment functions run on hardware, with no licence risk or uncertain product lifecycle in the way.
“Our starting point wasn’t the kit — it was the assessment workflow. We spent time with the Training and ICT teams understanding exactly what an assessor needs to do, from the moment a candidate walks into a pod to the moment a recording lands on a secure drive. Once we understood that end to end, the design followed.”
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EIS designed, supplied, installed and commissioned a complete integrated AV environment across every space within the ICC, from the assessment pods through to the control room.
A dual-lens PTZ camera in each pod pairs an optical zoom for framing individuals with an AI panoramic lens for full-room capture. Audio-Technica beamforming ceiling microphones offer configurable pickup zones with voice activity detection, and audio tracking automatically triggers camera preset recall — no manual camera work required.
Dual-lens PTZ coverage plus a fixed wide-angle camera captures the full operational picture of a running scenario, including command boards, maps and written material.
Reinstated dual-screen capability and an upgraded touch panel handle switching between camera feeds and content sources. The room converts to a teaching space when needed, with a camera bar supporting Teams as an option, not a dependency.
Centralised DSP maintains consistent audio across every space, with scalable video routing bringing all rooms into a single managed environment.
The media processor in each pod records locally, streams live over RTMP/RTMPS to remote assessors, and uploads completed recordings to a designated secure SFRS network folder, tagged with room ID and timestamp — no manual file handling required.
Each pod includes a local button panel for direct volume and source control, alongside an Extron media processor for recording, so core functions work without relying on any third-party platform.
Because the architecture is built on beamforming microphones, modular DSP, scalable video routing, centralised recording and PTZ cameras, SFRS can introduce additional cameras, new display surfaces, further assessment pods, or additional recording and playback workflows without replacing the control system or reworking the core infrastructure.
Remote assessor capability — live streaming from any room to authorised assessors anywhere in Scotland — is available subject to SFRS IT network permissions, with media processors already configured for secure RTMP and RTMPS streaming.
Beamforming microphones capture consistently across every pod and common space.
Voice-triggered PTZ tracking follows candidates through an assessment with no assessor input.
Assessors start recording from a wireless tablet; files are tagged and uploaded to the secure network drive automatically on completion.
Live streaming from any pod to authorised assessors anywhere in Scotland, reducing travel and widening access while maintaining assessment quality.
Core recording and local functions work without internet connectivity or a third-party platform.
Further rooms, cameras and workflows can be added without touching the core infrastructure — and SFRS has since brought a second and third site into the same programme of work.
This project is EIS’s largest single SFRS engagement to date, and establishes a reference point for specialist assessment environments in emergency services. The ICC is designed for expansion, and SFRS’s training programme continues to grow:
Additional pods, extended remote streaming configuration, and refinements arising from live use of the new system.
This site and two further SFRS training locations together make the case for an estate-wide AV programme across around 350 stations.
SFRS’s ICT team has a clear requirement for an AV support partner across a growing estate — a role EIS is already established in.
Consistent audio pick-up across every assessment space, PTZ camera coverage with automated tracking, hardware-based recording that doesn’t depend on a single software platform, and centralised control so an assessor can run a session without managing the technology themselves.
Yes — with media processors configured for secure RTMP/RTMPS streaming, live sessions can reach authorised assessors anywhere, subject to the client’s own network and firewall permissions.
To remove licence risk and product-lifecycle dependency from a system that has to keep working regardless of what happens to a third-party platform — core recording and local functions run without relying on internet connectivity or any external service.
Tell us how it’s used today and where it needs to scale to — we’ll tell you what a system built around that actually looks like.
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