At the heart of security provisions for Rio 2016 were a series of TETRA infrastructure covering the sporting venues, city infrastructure and transportation.
Teltronic, part of the Sepura Group, helped ensure that critical communications ran smoothly at the Summer Olympics and Paralympics, informally known as Rio 2016.
A total of 30,000 users made more than 300,000 calls per day, successfully supported by Nebula TETRA infrastructure, a CeCoCo control centre utilised by over 100 dispatch operators and four transportable high-traffic base stations, to reinforce coverage for key events, and thousands of fixed, mobile and portable terminals.
A team of 20 systems engineers and technicians provided round-the-clock maintenance and operational support, including resource planning and real-time optimisation of coverage and traffic on an event-by-event basis.
Significant upgrades were made to the existing system, which was originally provided for the Pan American Games in 2007, to meet the coverage and traffic requirements of the Olympic event, allowing the system to provide critical communications for Rio's State Police and emergency services, as well as 14,000 members of the Olympics organisation work force.
Further TETRA communications infrastructure was installed for the new metro Line 4 in Rio de Janeiro by Kapsch CarrierCom, the Austrian public transport and telecoms solutions company, just in time for the games.
The Line 4 network, which started operating on 1 August, was delivered by Kapsch from planning to design and deployment in co-operation with Rohill. The TETRA infrastructure was integrated with the existing Lines 1 and 2 and third line support. Kapsch provided four base stations, 60 in-train cab radios, 21 optical repeaters and 140 hand-held portable radios.
Cobham Wireless, formerly Axell Wireless, installed a distributed antenna system solution for indoor coverage. This included tunnel, technical rooms and platforms. Schnoor, a radio technology and communication systems company, delivered the cabin radio solution for trains with a public announcement interface.
The new network helped manage more than 300,000 passengers a day and removed almost 2,000 cars off the road during rush hour with 15 trains serving six major stations over 16 kilometres of Line 4.
When it came to public safety, TETRA was also at the heart of the planning. Public safety forces from the State of Rio de Janeiro rolled out TETRA radios from Motorola Solutions in time for the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The ICCC of Rio de Janeiro and the Army Operations Centre (COp) worked together, making it possible to gather intelligence to carry out joint actions, such as delegation protection, protest management, incident prevention and routine activities in the region. In addition to radio communications, the COp had full visibility of the real-time location of the officers in the field at the command centre.
“Having an ultra-rugged radio solution that guarantees communications under any emergency situation, that offers immediate response times, and that has a secure encryption system, is of the utmost importance for the operations of the Security Forces, either in major events or routine operations,” Edval Novaes, sub secretary of Command and Control at State Secretariat for Security of Rio de Janeiro, said.
More than 16,000 portable, in-vehicle mobile and fixed station radios were used to address critical communications needs of the public safety personnel, Brazilian Army and other first responders safeguarding the millions of visitors and residents.
Motorola Solutions Public Safety grade APX series (Project 25 standard) radios were used by the Brazilian Army, with applications in P25 providing real-time location of officers in the field from the command and control centre. The Brazilian Army’s communications system included six mobile repeaters to expand radio coverage and capacity.
The APX series and the TETRA radios were public safety grade, including features like protection against dust ingress and water submersion, resistance to shock. Other capabilities included over the air programming, GPS tracking, Bluetooth capability to use wireless accessories, clear audio in extreme noise environments and a one-touch emergency button.
