Delta Communications
The size and scale of the communications system for the Tour de France was unprecedented and, to ensure delivery was joined up, innovision developed a Master Plan for London, Medway and Kent. This was coordinated in one central location with the implementation of a powerful, secure and simple to use web-based information portal, allowing registered parties to share information in a structured manner and all using the same protocols.
From an original brief to supply 250 walkie-talkies, Delta’s communications systems grew to encompass 200 vehicles, all kitted out with radio systems (which took vehicle fitter, Jack the Fitter, a week to install, taking care not to damaged council vehicles in any way), around 2,400 marshals, the innovision team and all-subcontractors.
In charge of this aspect for Delta was Phil Kidd, who arranged for 19 antennas to be set up in London and across Kent, covering 30 on-site personnel at the press centre in ExCel, as well as around 300 units for the marshals in London. This spread across 11 sectors out to Dartford (with another 300 radios in Kent) and all the way from Medway down to Canterbury for the Kent County Council Marshals, to form the most complicated communications system that Delta has ever tackled -and probably the biggest ever used in the UK.
Meetings were held with each different department involved, including the police in both Kent and in London. Delta was invited by Offcom, which was liaising with the French authorities on how frequencies would be allocated, to talk about the frequencies required. “When we turned up to the meeting, which was held in both French and English, we were told not to worry as all our frequencies were already allocated. Not only that, but we’d been given you twice as much power as we asked for just in case we needed it,” says Delta managing director Mark Bonner. “That is unheard of in our industry. If anything, you are always fighting to get more and they were giving us twice as much as we asked for. Nothing was a problem, which was indicative of the whole event.”
Kidd’s imaginative layout included putting systems into a waste disposal dump in Averly near Dartford, because the hills between London and Canterbury meant it was impossible to get transmission into the area without installing another complete system.
