Helsinki weathers the storm

The Helsinki authorities knew they were embracing a major challenge in 2005 when the city hosted the World Championship Athletics, which was the year's biggest sporting event. But organisers faced an unexpected test when an extreme thunderstorm knocked out the city's electricity for several hours.
Luckily, the radio networks provided by Cassidian continued to work throughout the crisis, providing vital support for the teams charged with repairing other systems. The organisers also benefited from being part of Helsinki's shared public safety and municipal private radio network, which handles energy, public transport and security services. This helped them co-ordinate their efforts effectively.

Turin turns in a faultless performance
The Turin winter games in 2006 coincided with the completion of an expanded radio network for the organisers and a state-of-the-art police control room, which ensured that everyone involved was ready for anything. It took a constant flow of information to keep the games running smoothly. During the peak fortnight, some 7,000 terminals generated around 6,000 calls every 15 minutes. In one case, a single base station processed more than 1,200 calls in just 15 minutes. In spite of this heavy workload, the radio communication system from Cassidian kept the civil authorities and the event organisers in touch without any major hiccups.

Qatar builds on games success

An impressive performance in helping to secure the 15th Asian Games subsequently led Qatar to choose a permanent national radio network from Cassidian.
"We wanted the Asian Games in December 2006 to implement a comprehensive approach to security," says Colonel Ali Salem Al-Hinzab, Director of Telecoms & Operation Department for the Ministry of Interior of Qatar. "The radio communication system matched our goals very well." The organisers also needed to train up several thousand users in the run up to the games. This was possible in record time, thanks to the simple and intuitive interface common to all radio terminals by Cassidian.

Beijing beats the traffic

Beijing 2008 relied on the world's largest city-wide network to co-ordinate and safeguard events. The network coped with immense volumes of traffic from around 90,000 users. On the day of the opening ceremony, for instance, the network handled more than 1,500,000 calls. "Such a grand sports event requires the best communication flow. The network and the technical support provided by Cassidian is outstanding, and this has played a vital role in the communication and event management of the Beijing games," says Pan Feng, director of the Beijing municipal network management centre.

World-beating performance
Major events bring huge numbers of people together and create enormous challenges for organisers. Good communication is vital to ensure everything runs smoothly and safely. Cassidian can empower the professionals in charge of even the biggest events. Offering high-level security and unrivalled flexibility, Cassidian PMR solutions meet the precise needs of each customer and event, whether simple voice calls or the latest data applications. Cassidian PMR solutions have strong track record in securing large events. The following examples are just a few of the events where they have been used successfully:

• Skiing Championship Games, St Anton, Austria, 2001
• Mediterranean Games, Tunis, Tunisia, 2001
• Nato Summit, Czech Republic, 2002
• Walloon festival, Namur, Belgium, 2003
• IMF Conference, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 2003
• G8 Summit, Evian, France, 2003
• Royal wedding festivities, Spain, 2004
• Tour de France, Belgium, 2004
• IAAF World Championship in Athletics, Helsinki, Finland, 2005
• Asian Games, Doha, Qatar, 2006
• Turin Winter Olympics, Turin, Italy, 2006
• Pori Jazz Festifal, Pori, Finland, since 2001
• WRC Neste Rally, Finland, since 2001
• Formula 1 Grand Prix, Bahrain, since 2004
• Formula 1 Grand Prix, Spa, Belgium, since 2004
• European Football Championship, Austria & Switzerland, 2008
• Olympic Games, Beijing, China, 2008
• Tour de France, France, since 2008
• NATO Summit, Budapest, Hungary, 2009
• Paris Air Show, France, since 2009
• G8/G20 Summit, Ontario, Canada, 2010
• Football World Cup, South Africa, 2010
• Royal wedding festivities, Sweden,2010