As you’re heading into Folsom Field for the upcoming Dead & Company shows and ready to get your mellow on, know that you could well be on television.

And if you’re of a mind to cause any kind of trouble — that could likely also be caught on screen.

Reflecting an increasingly common trend in a security-conscious era, the University of Colorado police will be supported in monitoring the situation at Friday and Saturday night’s shows by live, hi-definition digital TV providing real-time images of the crowd to police as it enters and flows from the stadium.

That service will be available through BCARES, which stands for Boulder County Amateur Radio Emergency Services. It is an all-volunteer organization of Federal Communications Commission-licensed radio amateurs, which provides backup emergency communications services to local public safety agencies in the event of disasters and also large community events.

“Obviously, it’s helpful for us or we wouldn’t be using it,” said CU police Chief Ken Koch. “The way BCARES plugs in is, they add an additional layer of situational awareness by providing video feed, real time, to various sources within the event management process, that allows us to be very responsive to real-world developments.”

Jim Andrews, retired as founder and president of Picosecond Pulse Labs, worked the Dead & Company shows at Folsom Field last year for BCARES and expects to do so again this week. He said the importance of the group’s work is underscored by the recent terrorist bombing at the conclusion of the May 22 Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, which took place outside the arena, killing 22 and injuring many more.

“You’ve got to put it in perspective of what happened just recently. That’s exactly the kind of things they’re looking for,” said Andrews, who splits his time between Boulder and Maui, Hawaii. “As a matter of fact, our involvement with the Bolder Boulder race was a direct result of what happened at the Boston Marathon. Prior to that, we were not involved with the Bolder Boulder race.”

Koch agreed the need for such measures is more compelling in the post-9/11 world.

“I think in today’s day and age you have to assume there is always the possibility” of a Manchester-type event. “We have to assume that is a concern in any one of our events on campus — especially when you have a large gathering of individuals.”

CU police also will have what Koch termed “various surveillance and real-world monitoring systems that we rely on” online within Folsom Field this weekend.

A preference for Hawaiian

Broomfield resident George Weber is the emergency coordinator and chairman of the board for BCARES, which counts about 100 volunteers in its Boulder and Broomfield county membership. While terrorism is always a concern, he said their cameras’ presence can be critical to responding to far more common emergencies.

“Basically what’s going on is we have somebody in the command center who can see our television pictures, and then if they hear something has happened outside of portal 4, they will send us over there to be videoed from the sidewalk,” Weber said. “This video is transmitted up to the people in charge of security at CU police. We provide eyes on the situation for them.”

The camera crews are “highly portable,” their gear built into backpacks, Weber said.

He added, in cases involving a medical crisis, “We’re able to get them good proper medical help faster than if we weren’t there. We can put a camera on it, and they’ll know if they need a stretcher. We can help them do an assessment to help them figure out exactly what they need, saving them a lot of time.”

Weber, asked if he was a fan of the Dead, sidestepped into diplomacy with, “I like all kinds of music.”

Andrews, too, did not sound like someone simply working an angle to hear Bob Weir’s vocals or John Mayer’s solos on the cheap.

“It’s not my kind of music,” Andrews said. “To be perfectly honest, I prefer Hawaiian music or classical music.”

Hoping for boring

Beyond the Dead & Company assignment, Weber said, “There’s a much bigger picture. We work wildland fires, floods, the Bolder Boulder, just lots of other public events that we’ve worked through the sheriff’s department, CU police and other public entities.”

BCARES has four of its volunteer members assigned to the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office SWAT team on a standing basis, a position that Andrews held in the past. Andrews is also trustee of the group’s radio and television transmitters, meaning it is his name on the group’s records filed with the FCC.

“If there was ever any problem the FCC would be upset about, I’m the guy they would come to,” he said.

Andrews has been with BCARES since its 1977 formation in the wake of the disastrous Big Thompson Flood.

“We, all of us, got started because of our love of amateur radio — and in my case in particular, an interest in television, dating to the mid-’70s,” he said. “And within the amateur radio community, it’s actually written into the FCC regulations for amateur radio that we should be supporting the public good in times of emergency.”

Not that Weber or Andrews view two nights of the Dead & Company as a likely setting for emergencies.

“I thought it went quite smoothly” in 2016, Weber said. He added, however, “There are always situations that need to be attended to.”

“To be perfectly honest, the vast majority of the people (at the 2016 concerts) were your or my age,” said Andrews, who is 75. “There was all the marijuana. …. It was definitely a more mellow crowd. They were obviously into the music. Not into making trouble.”

At assignments such as this weekend’s shows, Andrews said, “Ninety-nine-point-nine percent of the time, it’d be very boring. Hopefully it’s 100 percent boring.”

Charlie Brennan: 303-473-1327, brennanc@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/chasbrennan