The Australian International Aerospace and Defence Exposition and Air Show
The Australian International Aerospace and Defence Exposition and Air Show is held every two years at Avalon Airport in Melbourne, Victoria, and is the largest civil and military air show in the Australian calendar, with over 250,000 attendees. The air show has grown rapidly over recent years and now features a strong international military presence including aircraft from the Royal Australian Air Force, the United States Marine Corps, and the United States Air Force. Representatives from other countries have also appeared at the air show on many occasions, including aircraft from the Royal Air Force, Japan Air Self-Defence Force, Republic of Singapore Air Force, and many others.
Public safety is paramount at this large event, and a strong communications system is key to being able to provide a safe environment. Reliable voice communications plays a vital part in ensuring all operations and logistics associated with the event run smoothly. One of the great challenges of providing a communications system for the Avalon Air Show is the breadth of users that the network must cover. Event organisers are not the only ones who use the supplied radio network. Members of the emergency services must also be furnished with communications devices and the network covers a major command and control centre, staffed with police, ambulance services, firefighters, military and federal police. All international military delegations must also be given radio devices incorporated into the network, allowing full ease of communication between everyone involved.
The organisers of the air show provide a shuttle bus service, consisting of 50 buses, travelling to distances of up to 20km outside of the air show site. The Simoco radio network infrastructure allows it to be strong and scalable enough to provide coverage to those shuttle buses even if they are away from the site.
The Simoco Xd network infrastructure is truly unparalleled
Simoco Wireless Solutions provided Aerospace Australia Ltd with the company’s Simoco Xd network – a DMR Tier III trunked system that provides resilience, scalability, and secure communications across the campus-style geography of the show. The network consisted of over 440 radios. In addition, the Simoco team also provided a range of air band radios to complement the private DMR network. Airband radio is a group of frequencies on the VHF spectrum, designated specifically for civil aviation.
The Simoco network simultaneously runs 24 independent and disparate radio talk groups, with volunteers and staff members using the network from 6 am until 1 am the next morning. During this time, the network facilitated between 200 and 300 conversations every hour, and over the 6 main days of the 2023 event, more than 16,000 calls were made. The network operates over a frequency specifically licensed by Simoco for the Avalon Airshow, and this, coupled with the inherent encryption of the DMR network, ensures all voice communication remains private and secure.
Simoco Wireless Solutions have provided a network to the Avalon Air show that is secure, private, scalable, and resilient. This has allowed them to run a world-class event, bringing together international groups from both the military and civil industries, without having to be concerned about the resilience of their voice communications infrastructure.
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