Sydney Airport Corp Choose Tait P25 Digital Base Stations

With some 29.1 million people per year using both the international and domestic terminals, Sydney Airport Corporation Ltd (SACL) is responsible for managing Australia’s busiest airport.  Radio forms an integral part of these operations by connecting a vast range of personnel within the organisation, from SACL airfield operations and security personnel to baggage handlers and coordination staff. 

SACL needed to upgrade their radio network for a number of reasons including improved coverage, system redundancy and compatibility with other state and federal agencies. Importantly the system also had to provide a cost effective platform for the predicted future growth of Sydney Airport over the next 20 years.

Tait dealer Mastercom developed a dual site P25 solution using six Tait TB9100 digital base stations and utilising the advanced software features available in the TB9100.

The new system is designed to provide maximum coverage and emergency backup communications for the international and domestic airports. The two sites are designed with a significant coverage overlap and should one site be disabled, the second site can continue to provide the required radio coverage and meet emergency backup requirements. It was critical that in the event of any system failures that the two sites operate autonomously to provide seamless service to users of the system.

SACL has invested heavily in an extensive fibre network around the airport and this was utilised to link the sites together using 'Voice over IP’ built right into the TB9100 base stations. Base voting has also been implemented to maximise voice clarity (the TB9100 P25 digital base station has a built in voter as standard).  When a call is made, the bases operating on that channel at either site each receives and compares the signal. The base with the best quality signal then instantly retransmits across the whole network.  

The resulting TB9100 network repeats both analogue and digital signals providing seamless operation with existing SACL analogue equipment and coverage over the entire site. In the first month of operation the system logged some 40,000 calls so it is already proving its worth.

As well as compatibility with analogue, P25 digital radio is an open standard supported by many manufacturers and public safety agencies, allowing SACL the option of communicating with other emergency services should there be a need for it in the future.