Britomart Transport Centre - Auckland, New Zealand

The Customer

Britomart is a transport centre linking train, bus and ferry services in Auckland, New Zealand and is an important component in developing the city's passenger transport network. The facility is also an urban renewal project that preserves one of the city's historic precincts. Located in Auckland's central business district, Britomart is the largest infrastructure project ever undertaken by a local authority in New Zealand.

The Challenge

Britomart needed an emergency radio communications system to be used primarily by the city's public safety providers - the New Zealand Fire Service and the New Zealand Police. The emergency services' basic requirements was for a network with excellent underground coverage and above ground linking to their control centres.

The underground area included 100 metres of concourses, 200 metres of station platforms and 500 metres of underground tunnels.

The Solution

There were two key criteria that Tait needed to meet in order to win this contract. The communication system had to cover 99 per cent of the facility, including: the underground train station, Central Post Office and the large shopping concourse. The system also had to be designed and installed within a very short time frame.

The Fire Service would only give Britomart a certificate to operate, once the communication system was working effectively. The Tait solution also had to blend in with the transport centre's architectural design.

The Britomart Transport Centre uses innovative technology, which ensures the safety of the Auckland public. Tait provided a customised solution, which included a seven channel system using Tait base station/repeaters, allowing the New Zealand Fire Service and New Zealand Police to communicate effectively, both underground and above ground to their respective control centres.

To get the radio signals to the emergency services', "leaky feeders" were used in the tunnels and passageways, while discrete antennas were used on the platforms and concourse areas. One of the challenges Tait overcame was to ensure that the antennas would blend in with the architectural design of the complex.

A huge advantage of the Tait solution was the above ground linking capabilities - allowing the users' to communicate with their control systems. This was achieved by using separate antennas for each channel. There are six antennas and they have been designed to minimise public awareness for aesthetics and potential vandalism. All in all, there is in excess of one kilometer of RF cable installed in the complex.