For the sixth consecutive year, intercom, fiber and audio systems provider Riedel Communications served as the official global supplier of the Red Bull Air Race World Championship. Riedel also supplied the wireless video links for the planes’ onboard cameras to enable stunning pictures to be delivered from the pilots’ perspectives. In total, the company delivered six containers with approximately 11 tons of communication equipment to the event.
The demands on the technical infrastructure of such a production, which includes the setup of a mobile airport including a control tower, are enormous. The signal distribution infrastructure for video, audio, communications and data of such a production plays a key role because it directly affects all other areas of the production.
This year, the communications infrastructure was based on Riedel MediorNet, a new fiber signal transport solution that includes routing and signal processing. The communications and video signal infrastructure of the Air Race production in Barcelona covered large areas. Video signals were needed at several locations for various applications such as the broadcast production, race control or video wall production. MediorNet’s network approach, which is capable of point-to-point and multipoint routing, proved ideal, delivering camera signals to both the German production company SIVision with its new 52ft HD truck (with 26 cameras) and the video production for the events video wall production.
The fiber-optic signal backbone of the event was based on seven MediorNet nodes, which transported all intercom, HD video and audio signals uncompressed in real-time. Audio signals were interfaced via MADI and Riedel’s digital audio network solution RockNet. This allowed the seamless integration of the event’s main Yamaha audio mixing console, which provided the mix for the live audience.
Riedel has also provided an IT infrastructure for all Red Bull Air Races, including Internet access, VoIP telephone, network infrastructure with servers and firewalls and a media center for journalists.
