The 2009 Tour of Britain, Britain’s largest free-to-attend sports event, ends in London with a spectacular sprint past some of London’s best loved landmarks. With cycling more popular than ever since the British cycling team’s Olympic win, and a forecast of good weather without rain, London expected a massive turnout to see this elite race.

Such races are decided by seconds and this is a totally one-off event - exactly the kind of sport which challenges the performance of wireless cameras.  OB crews have to work amidst huge crowds, to cover a large stretch of London that is packed with people, working with a camera that is moving as fast as the racing bikes.

Broadcast RF provided RF facilities for Century TV who captured the event for the big screens and for ITV. They used a live radio-camera carried on a motorcycle, transmitting to three receive sites which were all fibred back to the OB and switched to the optimum receiver to gain the perfect pictures.  Receive sites were based on the roof of the London Studios, Embankment and Whitehall.  Picture from the aerial camera were also received on the London Studios roof and re-transmitted back to the OB.

All in all, the coverage was a great success.  Rohan Browning, Managing Director of Century TV stated:

“With an eight stage race up and down the length of the country, the last thing we needed to worry about was the last stage going live and the RF coverage being a mess.  We contacted Broadcast RF, to devise the best possible solution given a tight budget and the fact that we would be working in an extremely challenging environment, namely central London.  BRF organised everything from the roof access we needed, to the interaction with the bike suppliers and the helicopter.  We were extremely satisfied with the results and by the pictures we received back. The signal was solid and clean with little or no breakup, even far outside the planned RF radius. The most impressive element though was the fact that the signal remained completely solid through a half mile concrete tunnel, without using any extra receive equipment. We completely expected there to be no coverage in this tunnel, but there was and it made the job that much easier.”