Airwave completes land-to-sea testing for Olympic Games

Airwave has successfully completed the first land-to-sea testing in Dorset of its dedicated private mobile radio (PMR) network for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

David Sangster, UK services director at Airwave, said: “It is the first time that we have performed land-to-sea coverage testing of a radio network and this followed months of planning by our team of engineers. With the upcoming sailing events for London 2012 taking place in Dorset it is vital that we provide a world-class PMR network.”

The sea off Dorset’s coast will host all the sailing events for London 2012.

Apollo – the name of the PMR network – has been purpose-built to provide mobile radio communications

to all London 2012 competition venues, from the Olympic Park itself to sites across the country such as Glasgow, Manchester and Coventry.

Voice communications will be provided for over 18,000 staff and volunteers from the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) during the Games, including the officials involved in the sailing events.

“A secure and effective radio communications service is a critical piece of infrastructure and extending the network to include Weymouth Bay and Portland Harbour means that for the first time we are able to include a land-to-sea solution,” added Mr Sangster.