TechCentralTechCentral
    Facebook Twitter YouTube LinkedIn
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn YouTube
    TechCentral TechCentral
    NEWSLETTER
    • News

      New Openview channels coming as platform turns profitable

      27 May 2022

      Wapa’s Paul Colmer on why Icasa should open up 6GHz for Wi-Fi

      27 May 2022

      How Broadcom’s blockbuster VMware deal happened

      27 May 2022

      The cost for South Africa to quit its coal habit: R4-trillion – study

      26 May 2022

      Apple is feeling the smartphone industry chill

      26 May 2022
    • World

      Musk sued by Twitter investors for stock ‘manipulation’

      27 May 2022

      Broadcom agrees to buy VMware for $61-billion

      26 May 2022

      Musk pledges more equity to fund Twitter deal

      26 May 2022

      Sony looks beyond the console to PC and mobile gaming

      26 May 2022

      Andreessen Horowitz raises world’s largest crypto fund

      26 May 2022
    • In-depth

      Bernie Fanaroff – the scientist who put African astronomy on the map

      23 May 2022

      Chip giant ASML places big bets on a tiny future

      20 May 2022

      Elon Musk is becoming like Henry Ford – and that’s not a good thing

      17 May 2022

      Stablecoins wend wobbly way into the unknown

      17 May 2022

      The standard model of particle physics may be broken

      11 May 2022
    • Podcasts

      Spectrum auction opens up big growth opportunities – Ruckus Networks

      26 May 2022

      Everything PC S01E03 – ‘The story of Intel – part 1’

      25 May 2022

      The rewarding and lucrative careers to be had in infosec

      23 May 2022

      Dean Broadley on why product design at Yoco is an evolving art

      18 May 2022

      Everything PC S01E02 – ‘AMD: Ryzen from the dead – part 2’

      17 May 2022
    • Opinion

      A proposed solution to crypto’s stablecoin problem

      19 May 2022

      From spectrum to roads, why fixing SA’s problems is an uphill battle

      19 April 2022

      How AI is being deployed in the fight against cybercriminals

      8 April 2022

      Cash is still king … but not for much longer

      31 March 2022

      Icasa on the role of TV white spaces and dynamic spectrum access

      31 March 2022
    • Company Hubs
      • 1-grid
      • Altron Document Solutions
      • Amplitude
      • Atvance Intellect
      • Axiz
      • BOATech
      • CallMiner
      • Digital Generation
      • E4
      • ESET
      • Euphoria Telecom
      • IBM
      • Kyocera Document Solutions
      • Microsoft
      • Nutanix
      • One Trust
      • Pinnacle
      • Skybox Security
      • SkyWire
      • Tarsus on Demand
      • Videri Digital
      • Zendesk
    • Sections
      • Banking
      • Broadcasting and Media
      • Cloud computing
      • Consumer electronics
      • Cryptocurrencies
      • Education and skills
      • Energy
      • Fintech
      • Information security
      • Internet and connectivity
      • Internet of Things
      • Investment
      • IT services
      • Motoring and transport
      • Public sector
      • Science
      • Social media
      • Talent and leadership
      • Telecoms
    • Advertise
    TechCentralTechCentral
    Home»Editor's pick»LTE towers for N Cape speed attempt

    LTE towers for N Cape speed attempt

    Editor's pick By Duncan McLeod28 October 2013
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email

    Bloodhound-SSC-640

    MTN has completed a project to deploy four 4G/LTE-based wireless broadband base stations at a site in the Northern Cape where a project is underway to smash the land-speed record.

    The Bloodhound SSC Project, a global education initiative, wants not only to break the previous land-speed record of 1 227,9km/h, but wants to push the barrier even further by reaching 1 600km/h. The record-breaking attempts will take place over the next few years at the Hakskeenpan in the Northern Cape desert.

    The MTN towers, which range from 15m to 70m in height, will be used to beam video and data from the car to the outside world.

    “In 2015 or 2016, when the team attempts, initially, to break the existing land-speed record set by Thrust SSC in 1997, and then push on to an unprecedented 1 600km/h, the world will be watching,” the Bloodhound Project says. “Video and data will be streamed live and shared with audiences in 220 countries, supporting what will become one of the biggest news stories on the planet.”

    “Getting live data and images at supersonic speeds off the car is not only extremely tricky, it is pivotal to our ambitions,” says Conor La Grue, commercial and product sponsorship leader of the Bloodhound Project. “From the very beginning, we have shared our story as we have gone along. It is fundamental to our education goal. If we can’t show what we’re doing in the desert, and involve our global audience in the adventure, then we will have failed –- no matter how fast we go.”

    The Bloodhound SSC Project hopes to have at least three live video channels with live data coming off the car. Each will provide 3,5Mbit/s of data, enough for high-definition broadcasts.

    A detailed analysis of the Hakskeenpan area was done before MTN’s construction teams could start work on the base station and three other towers at specific places on Hakskeenpan, known as “Speedweek”, “KK Hoog” and “Klipkolk”. The video feeds will be sent via microwave signalling to Upington. From here, Bloodhound data can link into a national fibre network and be distributed worldwide.

    The completed KK Hoog site is already fully powered by solar and wind energy, while a generator is used to power the Speedweek site when the venue at Hakskeenpan is used for tests or events. A hybrid system of solar energy and Eskom power will be used at technology centre and at Klipkolk.

    The system will be put through its paces in the coming months and will culminate in a trial with a mock-up section of the Bloodhound Supersonic Car tail fin with the antenna attached and the on-board car electronics to measure performance. Once these receive the green light, the systems will be built into the car itself.

    On the decision to use a fixed mast system in conjunction with high-speed Long Term Evolution (LTE) modem links from the car itself, rather than follow the example of Formula 1 racing that uses a series of helicopters and high speed communication systems to shoot footage above the track, La Grue says: “For Bloodhound, a 1 700 km/h helicopter at low altitude and in close proximity to a car that generates shock waves off the ground was never going to be an option. The car, after all, will be able to travel almost five football pitches in just one second – hard to keep up with.”

    MTN South Africa GM for capital projects Brandon Gombert says that even though the modems to be used at Hakskeenpan are custom-built for Bloodhound, the core 4G/LTE equipment used is the same as is being rolled out to ordinary consumers. “It’s exactly the same system that you would be using to surf the web from your LTE mobile phone, except that we use temporarily-allocated 800MHz spectrum for Bloodhound, and not the 1,8GHz spectrum normally used by mobile operators,” Gomert says.

    “We lock the channels to each other to control the frequencies we use and to ensure these are the best ones available,” he says. “The Bloodhound SSC is the only customer connected to a private network, so there will always be a good connection available.”

    MTN SA will also provide 2G and 3G mobile connectivity to cover the entire Hakskeenpan area, including local communities.  – © 2013 NewsCentral Media

    Bloodhound Bloodhound Project Bloodhound SSC Bloodhound SSC Project Brandon Gombert Conor La Grue Hakskeenpan MTN
    Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email
    Previous ArticleRwanda to offer free national Wi-Fi
    Next Article SKA an R18bn boost to economy: Hanekom

    Related Posts

    New Openview channels coming as platform turns profitable

    27 May 2022

    Wapa’s Paul Colmer on why Icasa should open up 6GHz for Wi-Fi

    27 May 2022

    How Broadcom’s blockbuster VMware deal happened

    27 May 2022
    Add A Comment

    Comments are closed.

    Promoted

    Financial advisers: manage your commission and analyse revenue effortlessly

    27 May 2022

    BT, MTN Business form strategic alliance in Africa

    26 May 2022

    Think like a start-up: how to build a competitive digital enterprise

    26 May 2022
    Opinion

    A proposed solution to crypto’s stablecoin problem

    19 May 2022

    From spectrum to roads, why fixing SA’s problems is an uphill battle

    19 April 2022

    How AI is being deployed in the fight against cybercriminals

    8 April 2022

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    © 2009 - 2022 NewsCentral Media

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.