Riedel powers air show comms

Switzerland: The Breitling Sion Air-Show with its spectacular manoeuvres, was one of largest events in Switzerland in 2011. No surprise then that a suitably comprehensive comms infrastructure – using a combination of Riedel Artist digital matrix intercom and trunked digital radio (TETRA) – had to be established for it on behalf of Swisscom Broadcast AG.

The communications infrastructure of the event integrated the organizing team, the pilot’s radio network and local security such as police or fire fighters. The system combined Riedel Artist digital matrix intercom and digital trunked radio. At the heart of the installation were three Artist 64 mainframes that provided the fibre backbone for a total of 16 Artist control panels that were used at various different departments, including security and event organisation. The redundant network infrastructure of Riedel’s Artist digital matrix intercom system guarantees a reliable communication and is secured against system failures.

“Riedel’s comprehensive consulting and service allowed for a detailed planning of the event- Thanks to the close integration between all systems we were able to react swiftly to tasks and were able to coordinate the event safely”, said Grégoire Epiney, Chief of the Valais’ police department.

A Riedel IPx8 interface integrated the control of the Valais police department into the communications infrastructure. The interface allowed for a direct connection of two Artist control panels via the police’s local area network.

Two CTS TETRA cells provided the digital radio network for the Breitling Sion Air-Show. 22 radio channels of analog and digital trunked radio as well as the pilot’s radio network were integrated into the comms system via Riedel’s universal radio interface RiFace. This allowed for direct communication between selected users. A total of 150 TETRA mobile radios were used.