With such fierce competition on the water for the America’s Cup, International live television and web broadcasts, clear and reliable communication is critical for the Race Management, International Broadcast, Race Teams and Security.
Customer Demands
During the whole race, radio communications were required for a variety of user groups including umpires and officials, medical support staff, security personnel, race teams, television production, helicopter, boat and shore camera crews as well as technical & rigging crew, and the race was spread over 18 regattas, in 6 host countries with at least 200 days on water, therefore all radio equipment supplied needed to be rugged and robust for communication between events, and all handheld equipment needed to be IP67 rate for reliability in salt water environments. Due to limited on-site preparation time for the regatta, all radio equipment needed to be operational within 48 hours, requiring reprogramming of all repeaters and subscribed radios and retuning of the antenna to combine system to host countries’ specific frequency allocations.
Solutions
The Hytera solution consisted of 24 RD98X repeaters (44 Logical Digital Channels, 2 Physical Analogue Channels), 280 PD78XG portable radios and 18 MD78XG mobile radios.
Benefits for all users were less downtime with fewer repairs and longer duty cycles due to high efficient Li-Ion battery. High Power 100% Duty Cycle Repeater was the ideal solution for constantly keyed channels used in television production.
The rugged and waterproof handheld radios provided reliability and durability in the demanding salt water environment
.
Highlights
- Hytera DMR 2-slot functionality allows more efficient use of spectrum and resources. This reduces physical repeater channels, which saves space and antenna combining and setup time.
- Hytera Pseudo Trunking system improves channel utilization.
- IP linking and multisite roaming connects a sub-set of repeater channels at a remote land-based site or on-course boat to provide seamless communication at challenging locations.
- High Power 100% Duty Cycle of RD98X secures constant and clear communication between director and camera crews in television production.
- Digital Voice Vocoder reduces background noise, providing clear communications from helicopter or boat crews. Highly configurable RD98X Rear Connector provides external audio and PTT inputs from television production audio panels.
Voice from Customer
“ The IP Multisite Connect and Roaming allows us to easily tailor the network coverage to suit the race course while maintaining a rapid deployment time. The robustness and reliability of the Hytera PD78X is second to none working well in rough saltwater environments. The AMBE++ vocoder enhances communication in areas with loud background noise such as ground to helicopter communications. All round the Hytera DMR system has proved itself beyond comparison.”
——Race Management & Course Official