The Formula One Test Weeks 06 in Barcelona

The Formula One Test Weeks 2016 in Barcelona posted: 16/03/2016

Since Formula One World Championship's inception in 1950, the sport has always sought to innovate, constantly pushing the technological boundaries in order to find the quickest and safest route to victory. Riedel has been supplying systems to motorsports events since 1993. Today, Riedel serves all Formula One races world-wide with specialized radio-, intercom- and camera-systems for the FIA race control and various racing teams. Despite the ear-piercing noise at the racetrack, these systems enable failure-free communications between race control, teams and drivers and help FIA to control if the teams perform according to the rules and follow possible penalty decisions of the race control stewards.

The 2016 Formula One season is the 67th season of the FIA Formula One World Championship and is recognized by the sports governing body, the F d ration Internationale de lAutomobile (FIA), as the highest class of competition for open-wheel racing cars. In 2016 teams and drivers are scheduled to take part in 21 Grands Prix - making for the longest season in the Formula One sports history - starting in Australia on 20 March and finishing in Abu Dhabi on 27 November as they compete for the World Drivers and World Constructors championships.

The Ferrari Command Stand at the Pitwall in Barcelona

The 2016 season will see the grid expand to 22 cars with the addition of the Haas F1 Team entry. Renault returned to the sport as a constructor after a four-year absence following their takeover of Lotus prior to the start of the season. The calendar has similarly expanded, with the return of the German Grand Prix. The European Grand Prix will also be revived, with the event visiting a new circuit in Azerbaijan.

Before the Teams left their home bases for the Australian Grand Prix they all got together for the only pre-season tests at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya for 8 days across 2 weeks. The two Sessions took place from 22nd to 25th February and from 1st to 4th March. These test weeks also were the unique opportunity for Riedel to crosscheck the communications infrastructure which has to work bulletproof for the 21 races across 5 continents and in severe weather conditions - rain, extreme heat, cold and humidity.

Intercom - RiFACE: all eleven Formula One teams work with Riedel

Riedel's Artist Intercom matrix has been adopted by FIA and the Formula 1 teams as the standard communication platform for the 21 Formula One World Championship races in 2016. It is used to connect FIA race control, stewards, the Safty Car, the Medical Car, the pit crews and the drivers - which totals to more than 2,000 walkie-talkies in operation during a race weekend.

The seamless integration of wired and wireless systems, the securing of 100 % tap-proofness and the networking of various team structures require extensive experience in the system planning of high-quality equipment. Riedel's Artist digital matrix intercom platform provides this maximum on flexibility and reliability. The tight relationship of Riedel's rental business with Riedel's manufacturing department places the company in the unique position to furnish customized systems directly from the factory. Looking into Formula 1 team communications, a typical intercom system incorporates two to four Artist nodes, which are connected over a redundant fiber ring to form one non-blocking matrix. Communication between team and driver is - of course - wireless. An especially developed intercom interface, which is geared to work even under the extreme F1 racing conditions, allows for pristine communication between the drivers and the teams.

RiLink - five of eleven Formula One teams work with Riedel

In addition to the communication on the race circuit the teams require communication links with their factories and engineering teams, most of which are located in the UK, France and Italy. To serve this demand Riedel has setup a secure WAN MPLS (multiprotocol label switching) connection for the teams, directly from the circuit to the mission control in their headquarters. This is monitored 24/7. The service completely bypasses the mainstream internet so there is no fall time and no time waiting to reach a host because, this is a completely dedicated point-to-point connection. Riedel's RiLink Global Fiber Service provides bidirectional links between the race circuit and the headquarters, allowing not only the transport of 3G/HD/SDSDI broadcast signals, but also return video feeds, full-duplex communications, VoIP telephony and IP data (e.g. telemetry).

Furthermore, RiLink provides higher bandwidth connections than regular satellite links, which directly translates into better video quality. RiLink's latency is also significantly shorter and its transmission is completely independent of weather conditions. Various redundancy layers within the network provide maximum reliability and quality of service for this real-time network.

RIDAR - Race Incident Detection and Review System

Riedel also provides a video recording service for FIA. Riedel supplies a custom-built carbon fiber race control container which travels to all F1 Grand Prix races so that the operators know exactly where all the buttons they need are located. The carbon fiber chassis is designed to cope with the rigorous and hectic F1 touring schedule, which takes in race locations ranging from Brazil to Canada and Europe to Australia. A hard disk recording system (+ backup) as well as a data logger is part of the installations in the container.

FIAs custom-built carbon fiber race control container

Riedel extends the eyes and the ears of FIA

The recorded material (synchronized by time code) is taken from about 20 camera positions around the track (operated by the host broadcaster FOM) but also additional close

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