Trojan at ButtertubsEvents either pre-planned such as sporting occasions and festivals or un-planned events such as natural disasters and emergencies result in complex and at times hugely disruptive communications situations.

Events form a huge part of the modern British cultural, sporting, entertainment and educational scene. They are big business, with millions of people attending concerts, athletics competitions, football matches, yacht races, religious and cultural festivals across the country each year.

While most go ahead safely and without incident, sometimes, tragically, they don’t, as the two air crashes (in Shoreham, West Sussex and Oulton Park, Cheshire) during the summer of 2015 demonstrated.

Event organisers have an obligation to ensure that they undertake robust and detailed contingency planning prior to running any event. Risk assessment and comprehensive event management, communications and monitoring, as well as liaison with emergency services, are key elements of good event planning and management, regardless of the type, size and complexity of the event being prepared for. Increasingly, the Health and Safety Executive has been taking an interest in event organisation and safety matters.

Primetech supplies and supports integrated MultiNet Comms portable Ka-band mobile satellite broadband system, wide area wifi and handheld and fixed radio systems, as well as other support systems, such as drones and CCTV .

Rob Walley, of Controlled Events, an event management company, has used Primetech during large events such as the Americas Cup; ‘Deploying and combining these systems means that Controlled Events, in conjunction with Primetech, can provide comprehensive communications support for its clients across events. SMS and email notifications are used for Event Liaison Team briefings, incident alerts, sponsors and run-sheet updates."

TDFno 2A recent Tour de France cycle also benefited from Primetech's experience and solutions. Given the remoteness of many of the roads along which the race was due to travel, and the lack of comprehensive 3G and 4G mobile phone coverage in these areas, it was decided that only mobile satellite broadband systems could provide the kind of comprehensive communications coverage required.

Primetech installed, at very short notice, a comprehensive temporary network comprising up to 15 individual base stations along the race route, utilising the high bandwidth capabilities of the new Ka satellite system. Using a chain of Ka satellite receivers positioned at key points along the route, some mounted on mobile cranes, Primetech was able to deliver integrated high bandwidth mobile broadband and voice over internet (VoIP) communications for personnel managing the public safety aspects of the race.

When major flooding hit the North of England it disrupted local communications in complex ways, creating a series of knock-on effects that threatened to make what was already a terrible situation even worse. Loss of landline Internet access and restricted voice and data communications placed immense pressure on local 3G and 4G networks disrupting the communications of responders attempting to use these same systems to manage their response to the flooding; in particular, staff attempting to deploy web-based systems critical to the management of all deployed assets.

Primetech supplied additional mobile satellite broadband capacity (both Ka-band & Ku-band) in the form of the Primetech Resilient Communications Trailer and the MultiNet Communications system therefore allowing the ELS teams to use their asset management systems to their full capability.