Wireless project spawns novel antenna design

A BAE Systems Aerospace Controls product story

Edited by the Electronicstalk editorial team May 11, 2006

A new wireless system allowing television studio cameras to be operated without the need for clumsy, trailing cables has been developed by BAE Systems.

A new wireless system allowing television studio cameras to be operated without the need for clumsy, trailing cables has been developed by BAE Systems.

The same technology can be applied to military communications with several battle field and platform applications.

Project ROFMOD (radio on fibre mobile data network demonstrator) has solved the problem of moving cameras quickly and silently around the cluttered environment of a TV studio, and brings fibre optics and broadband radio together in this setting for the first time.

BAE Systems, alongside partners from the broadcasting industry, has developed wireless links attached to the cameras which relay video signals via a microwave transmitter into a fixed, fibre optic network carrying broad bandwidth data to fixed receivers in the studio ceiling.

The receivers then pipe the signals along optical fibres - without loss of quality - over many metres to the control room.

Currently, the demands of high definition picture quality mean that TV cameras use lengthy, heavy cables that need to be manhandled in absolute silence by studio technicians so as not to interfere with recording.

This limits the degree of movement and can pose real problems for fast-moving action.

Freed of their burdensome connections, camera operators can freely move around to find the best shooting positions.

Through its Advanced Technology Centre in Filton, BAE Systems has designed and patented a special mushroom shaped antenna to achieve this.

Once safely encoded in the optical fibre, the signals can be relayed through great distances - kilometres if necessary - without risk of too much degradation or interference.

BAE Systems' Mohammed Nawaz comments: "The studio cameras have two-way communication using 60GHz - suitable for high bandwidth and capable of supporting high definition TV channels".

"These signals are short range as they only need to reach the fibre optic network in the ceiling, and they don't interfere with the studio next door".

Single frequency tests have been performed at TV studios in Teddington to determine multipath effects.

A low bandwidth video link was successfully demonstrated in the lab and further operational system tests are planned at the TV studios in the near future.

Four patents have resulted for BAE Systems from this work, and the team is now working on ways to exploit the technology for defence and security purposes.

The unique mix of mobile, short range radio and long range fibre optic links that cannot be intercepted or degraded, offers several potential military applications.

Among them are naval ship communications below and above deck, ship to ship links, and communications for rapid military deployment of vehicles with mobile headquarters.

Other ROFMOD partners are Broadcast Project Research, Shell and Wilcox, and the University of Leeds.

The project is part-funded by the DTI Link programme.