Royal Connectivity
We were pleased to work recently with one of our UK partners, Pylon One, in the provision of a temporary Gigabit-speed wireless network in central London to support security and communications requirements for two large events over the summer – the King’s Coronation and Birthday.
As a nation, England is world-renowned for carrying out ceremonial duties and capturing the grandeur, traditions, and spirit of the occasion.
As one can imagine, the providing a network for the Coronation was a particularly massive endeavor. Pylon One had to achieve the necessary network coverage across a densely populated area featuring a large number of tall buildings dotted across the landscape.
In addition, three million spectators attended and more than 4000 military personnel had to be in synch throughout the day’s events.
Enabling Mission-Critical Applictions
Under such conditions, security is of the utmost concern and all parties involved recognized that the most-advanced deployment of hundreds of CCTV HD cameras would be required.
In addition, the wireless network would have to support more than 100 Wi-Fi APs and video transmissions to scores of very large outdoor monitors that were showing live feeds fo the day’s events.
Accordingly, Pylon One was tasked with the design and build-out of a wired and wireless network capable of carrying multiple mission-critical services across its expanse. The network would cover significant swathes of central London, traversing both sides of the Thames to ensure that those various services that were required by many stakeholders (such as fire, police and other emergency services) were delivered in a manner that would enable and ensure the highest level crowd safety and stewarding.
Pylon One deployed a 10Gb/s fibre ring around Green Park and St James Park and for widespread connectivity, numerous wireless access points were used. To safeguard resiliency, the fixed network was backed up by a wireless backhaul. Two independent 1Gb/s internet feeds were installed at different parts of the network and resilient routing would redirect traffic should any interruption occur.
The MultiHaul TG & EtherHaul Solution
Siklu’s millimeter wave microwave network technology was deployed, boasting exceptional speed and bandwidth capabilities, multi-gigabit capacity, providing lightning-fast connectivity, facilitating high-quality video streaming, coupled with seamless voice communication, and rapid data transfers.
Siklu’s microwave technology operates in the higher frequency range, offering enhanced reliability as well as robust and long-distance connectivity, allowing connectivity across geographically dispersed locations, without compromising on performance. The Siklu microwave link points were placed on the rooftops of a large number of iconic buildings throughout and across Central London.
And with regards to the MultiHaul TG product line, this part of the network installation was facilitated as the MultiHaul TG equipment features a 360-degree field of view. This industry-unique feature allows full coverage of a particular area and simple connection of up to 60 terminal units and the high capacity provides plenty of bandwidth as the number of users grows.
The “360-degree” feature also speeds the process of connecting the terminal units as it enables an automatic “point and connect” capability.
And just a few weeks later, Pylon One turned on a slightly down-scaled version of this same network to support the King’s Birthday celebrations.
Working with Siklu and others, Pylon One was to exceed the expectations and requirements put forth by the event organizers, the IDENTITY group, and delivered on all promises of technical excellence. This was a a comprehensive IT and Communications infrastructure buit for what IDENTITY described as the largest event of its kind, The Kings Coronation celebrations. Building out a network that covered wide expanses of Central London that needed to be resilient, robust and highly secure, was not going to be an easy task – but Pylon One delivered.
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