In Beijing, the World Communicates through Riedel

Of the 55 mobile production units providing international coverage of the Beijing Olympic Games, nearly half – representing eight different countries across the globe – are outfitted with a Riedel Artist intercom. In all, 25 of the 55 official OB trucks covering the Olympics utilize Riedel Artist intercom systems, making Riedel the most popular intercom provider at these Games.

Riedel’s international clients covering the Games in Beijing include the BBC (UK), KBS (Korea), ARD/ZDF (Germany), ORF (Austria), TVE (Spain), ERT (Greece), ERR (Estonia) and CHT (Taiwan). Riedel Artist systems can be found in trucks provided by Alfacam (Belgium, 16 trucks), Prisma (Sweden, 3 trucks), SFP (France, 3 trucks), SIS (UK, 2 trucks) and Outside Broadcast (UK, 1 truck).

In addition, Ridel’s Artist Digital Matrix intercoms and Performer Digital Partyline intercoms are in use at all of the venues at the Beijing Games. For the communication operations alone, which include venue communications and time keeping, 51 Artist 64 intercom matrices are in place (some linked via fiber), along with 185 Artist 1000 control panels and 123 C44 system interfaces to integrate the Digital Partylines. On top of that, 1,370 Performer C3 digital two-channel beltpacks are also in use, along with 42 PMX Panel Multipleers to remote panels via fiber and more than 320 professional mobile radios that are integrated with the wired communications systems using 30 RiFace radio interfaces.

For the opening and closing ceremonies of the Games, the Organizing Committee relied on what is likely the largest and most complex temporary intercom installation ever built. The global first consists of eight Artist digital matrix intercom systems linked via fiber, 80 intercom control panels, 24 C44 system interfaces for the integration of Digital Partylines, 210 C3 Digital Partyline beltpakcs, 44 RiFace radio repeaters/interfaces, 650 professional mobile radios, six FM transmitters and 12,000 Riedel FMR-1000 radio receivers for the mass monitoring of the on-field actors.