Technical Surveillance Canary Wharf

An examination in Canary Wharf has to account for the building as well as the room. Shared risers, common infrastructure and estate wide systems mean that the boundary of an organisation's control does not coincide with the boundary of its floor, and a survey that stops at the tenancy line has stopped early. We establish where the organisation's control actually ends before determining what can meaningfully be examined.

The work itself covers the radio frequency environment, the physical fabric, the furniture and fittings, the power and data infrastructure and the installed conferencing and audio visual equipment. In an estate where fit out is constant, the infrastructure examination usually produces more than the radio work does.

Access history is treated as evidence. Knowing which contractors have been in a room, when, and under whose supervision narrows an examination considerably and is often the fastest route to an explanation for anything found. Where that history does not exist, establishing it becomes part of the recommendation.

Timing is scheduled around events rather than the calendar. Before a sensitive period, and after any work that gave third party access, are the two points at which an examination is worth most.

Findings go to a named recipient by agreement, before any wider distribution.

The method is the standard technical surveillance inspection, adapted to estate managed buildings where much of the infrastructure is not the occupier's to control.

The scoping exercise on the estate has to establish two boundaries rather than one: what the organisation controls, and what the building controls on its behalf.

Shared risers, common infrastructure, estate wide building management and a single facilities operation mean that a great deal of what affects a meeting room sits outside the tenancy. We establish who holds those systems, what access they confer, and what visibility the organisation has over them, because that determines what can meaningfully be examined and what can only be managed by agreement with the landlord.

Fit out history is then reconstructed as far as the records allow. Towers here are in near continuous refurbishment, and the connected equipment in a modern meeting room, conferencing systems, displays, room booking panels, environmental sensors and audio, is extensive and rarely inventoried by the people using the room. Knowing what was installed, by whom and when is frequently the fastest route to explaining anything the examination finds.

The survey covers the radio frequency environment, the physical fabric, furniture and fittings, power and data infrastructure and installed equipment, with the infrastructure element carrying more weight here than the radio work.

Findings are reported to a single named recipient by prior agreement.

Information can leave a building without any device being involved, and that question belongs to protective intelligence.

The estate runs on a corporate calendar, and it is a tightly clustered one. Results days, half year and full year reporting, and the announcement windows around them concentrate market sensitive discussion into a small number of days across a large number of organisations occupying the same buildings.

Restructuring and personnel cycles produce a second, quieter pattern. Discussion of redundancies, reorganisations and senior appointments carries a different kind of interest, frequently internal, and takes place in rooms that are not treated as sensitive because the subject is not commercial.

The fit out cycle is the third. Tenants take and surrender space on lease events, floors are stripped and rebuilt, and each of those periods places a rotating population of contractors inside spaces that will shortly hold confidential discussion. The end of a fit out, before a floor is occupied, is one of the two most valuable moments to examine.

The other is immediately before a sensitive period begins. Scheduling against those two points is considerably more effective than an annual cycle.

Older stock a few miles west raises different questions, taken up under technical surveillance in the City of London.

Requirements that follow a principal home rather than staying at the desk are taken up under technical surveillance in Mayfair.