Tait data mobiles are a good match for sport events

Though it wasn’t all smooth sailing for Emirates Team New Zealand at the America’s Cup, the team was able to compete each day confident that vital data would get through.

Such high-profile events attract high security and organisers reserve the right to switch off cellular networks without warning as cellphones have been used in previous terrorist incidents.

This presented a problem for Emirates Team New Zealand. How could they count on getting the weather data they needed if their cellular devices went down? The answer was for the team to run its own data solution using Tait data radios as a back-up.

“Losing cellular communications could have been a huge issue for us in the lead-up to a race when we are constantly sending weather data from our weather boats to our strategist’s laptop on the race yacht,” says Greg Lewis, who is responsible for ETNZ electronics.

“This data is communicated to the race yacht until five minutes before the starting gun, and is crucial for us to determine the yacht’s optimum starting position. We needed a reliable high-speed data communications solution as a back-up to cellular so we worked with Tait to develop that.”

Tait data solution – development and testing underway

ETNZ and Tait developed a data communications solution using Tait’s flexible and high-performing TM8110 mobile radios. These radios are based on Digital Signal Processor technology and can transmit high-speed data through an internal software modem.

Five Tait radios were used for the data solution – a TM8110 in each of three weather boats and in the ETNZ tender, and either a TM8110 or a Tait Orca portable radio on the race yacht to receive the weather data.

Tait Electronics Mobiles Products Manager Paul Elmes says data mobiles are crucial at sporting events where teams or event hosts need to rely on their radios for data and voice information. “Sports teams can no longer solely rely on their on-water, or on-field, abilities, they need the most up-to-date information off the field to achieve success.”