LONDON CALLING
Skymasts systems provide the backbone to some of the most critical communications infrastructures used in the City of London today. Here are some examples of Skymasts technology at the heart of the action.
Metropolitan Police London
The Metropolitan Police Radio Branch has an extensive radio infrastructure to manage, and demands best quality components with a proven track record for durability, reliability and performance. Over the years, we have supplied more than 1,500 base station antennas to the Met’s Radio Branch, either directly or through system integrators. Most recently, we have assisted system integrators in fulfilling a £¼m contract for the supply and installation of a new Airwave Antenna System.
Back to Top
London Fire Service
We were delighted to supply the London Fire Service with products and components for its new and highly-sophisticated citywide UHF Radio System. This involved meeting some very stringent technical criteria, and providing more than 400 system elements including UHF Base Antennas, mounting hardware and feeder cable products.
Back to Top
London Ambulance Service
In 1997, The London Ambulance Service commissioned Skymasts to supply and install a much-needed VHF upgrade system. On four of the London Ambulance sites the installation was particularly challenging because the proposed support structures were more aesthetically pleasing than practical. In fact, the near-vertical beams of metal could have been mistaken for sculptures, arching 50m into the sky and finished in duck-egg blue paint. Undaunted, our hardy installation team managed to scale the structures and mount the antennae as required, and the systems remain fully functional and operational to this day.
(On a side note, the beautiful blue beams won an Architectural Design of The Year Award for being a feat of British Structural Engineering!).
Back to Top
EDF Energy plc (Formerly London Electric)
UHF Trunking System:
In 1999 Skymasts was awarded the contract to supply and install the new London Electric UHF Trunking System, in partnership with Motorola. This wide-ranging project involved constructing numerous UHF Base Station sites on third party sites located around London and across the Home Counties. The Skymasts system is still in operation today, a testament to the quality and reliability of our work.
Tunnel Communication System:
In 1999 Skymasts was delighted to help EDF Energy with another landmark project – this time, working underground. Our brief was to design, supply, install and commission a sophisticated Tunnel Communication System to support a 60-kilometre network of tunnel complexes located 
beneath the City of London. And with 13 separate tunnels to deal with – the longest an impressive 8.9km.
To deal with the variations between the tunnels, each of the Tunnel Communication Systems was individually designed with a radiating cable network system incorporating indoor antennas – so operators could communicate with others in the main tunnel bores, the shafts, the head houses, access shafts and any other areas listed as requirements. We also designed and supplied an extremely robust portable Base Station Unit for each of the Tunnel Complexes, along with intrinsically safe radio units fitted with back-up battery power for emergency use.
The entire project took 5 years to complete, which indicates the breadth and complexity of the work involved.
Back to Top
London Buses (Transport for London)
Skymasts were chosen to supply the entire antenna infrastructure for Transport for London (TFL) as part of a £270m contract for the upgrade and enhancement of the London Bus Communications Network. In addition to supplying new Base Station site antenna systems and fixed mobile antenna systems for all London Bus depots, we were commissioned by Siemens VDO (the main system integrator) to design and supply a rugged, multi-functional bus antenna that would guarantee extremely high performance.
To meet this very specific requirement we developed a variant of our own version of an established vehicle antenna that has already proved itself in the field – the 403L. The 403L has an excellent track record, having been used extensively in public transportation systems across Scandinavia. Our derivative antenna, the 403.10, complies with all of the technical requirements specified by TFL while providing a more cost-effective and reliable solution for the multi-frequency iBus system supplied by Siemens VDO.
Back to Top
