Sydney Airport Corporation, Australia

The Customer

With some 29.1 million people per year using both the international and domestic terminals, Sydney Airport Corporation Limited (SACL) isresponsible 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.

The Challenge

SACL needed to upgrade their radio network to improve coverage, system redundancy and compatibility with other state and federal agencies. SACL needed a system which was 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 Solution

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 signifi cant 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.

The resulting TB9100 network repeats both analogue and digital signals providing seamless operation with existing SACL analogue equipment and
coverage over the entire site. 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.

Paul Mendoza, IT Manager for SACL is satisfi ed with the installation, "Tait equipment was chosen because of its features and support for P25 standard. Combining this with Mastercom's detailed understanding of our requirements, the choice was simple. The new wide area network has improved radio coverage and quality of voice communications", he said.

SACL invested heavily in an extensive fi bre optic network around the airport. This was utilised to link the sites together using VOIP built 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 Outcome

SACL's new dual site P25 digital solution provides the organisation with improved coverage, improved voice clairty, emergency backup communications and system fl exibility for future growth. In the fi rst month of operation the system logged some 40,000 calls, rapidly proving its worth.