LARNACA, Cyprus, 18 May 2004 — In April at Gulf Air’s Bahrain Grand Prix this column provided a glimpse of the role technology plays in the glamorous world of Formula One racing. Due to the popularity of that feature, we put motor sports on the agenda once again, but this time decided to go for something a whole lot crazier and dirtier.

Right now the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) is smashing and crashing its way around the planet. Over hill and dale, through rain and snow, the six teams competing in the 2004 WRC are churning up the ground everywhere. Since 2001 when the WRC was allowed to come out from the shadow of the flashier Formula One circus, interest in the rallies have been booming. WRC TV now broadcasts to 186 countries globally and over the last year there was a 65 percent growth in the TV audience following the sport.

And sport it is. WRC is considered to be the most demanding and challenging motor sport competition. Each car with its crew of driver and co-driver compete on a variety of terrains, as the event moves through 16 nations. From May 14-16, the WRC was in Cyprus, the first of three loose surface events where the cars and drivers take a pounding as they cover a rough, rock-strewn landscape. Under the Cypriot sun, temperatures inside the cars reached 50 degrees centigrade. Driving in the rally was akin to operating a vehicle in a sauna.

Unlike their flashier F1 cousins, WRC cars originate from hatchback road cars. That’s not to say that there isn’t considerable investment involved. It takes about $700,000 worth of sophisticated engineering and computer technology to put together a car that can truly compete for the World Rally Championship and top rally teams such as Peugeot and Citroen are thought to spend $40-$50 million annually.

All rallies are divided into different sections known as “road sections” and “special stages.” Most of the best action takes place on the special stages, which are closed to public traffic. In Cyprus, getting to some of the special stages required at least a four-wheel drive vehicle, or preferably a helicopter, and then a hike up steep hills to reach the dirt road where the rally cars would fly past. Due to the logistical challenges, none of the spectators, officials or journalists at the event were able to see the entire rally. Even so, tracking the cars and recording their times was a must. That’s where global WRC sponsor Inmarsat comes into the picture at every event.

Inmarsat mobile satellite technology has been used to created equivalent of a modern sky nanny for the WRC. The cars are fitted with equipment that collects telemetry data for the teams, safety information for the rally organizers and timing and location data. Each car’s exact position is recorded five times per second via GPS and profiled against its competitors. This information is used to produce a virtual reality “head to head” simulation of the race showing the cars racing on the stage at the same time. The first 20 or so cars of the main WRC teams accumulate up to 4MB of data each per rally stage, especially during longer stages.

Inmarsat Global Area Network (GAN) terminals are mounted in the “timing cabinet” at the end of the stages. As the cars of the main teams pass by the cabinet, a wireless network (WLAN) link sucks off the data and transmits it via a 64kbit/second link to the Service Park and rally headquarters. The remaining cars — driven by junior drivers, production teams and private entrants — only generate basic timings, about 20 bytes of data, and this is transmitted via GAN’s 64kbit/s Mobile Packet Data Service (MPDS), an Internet protocol similar to GPRS in operation.

In the past, safety data and finish times were relayed on UHF radio via an airplane circling above the stage in a halo operation. The data relay could take several minutes depending on the plane’s location in regards to the Service Park. Data is now delivered in less than three seconds via an Inmarsat Swift 64 aeronautical terminal, making available near real time information about the race for organizers, teams and broadcasters.

Each WRC national rally has a headquarters where the organizers and FIA officials follow the progress of the cars, monitor safety issues and ratify and collate the results. This headquarters has a PC LAN and Internet access via Inmarsat Regional Broadband Global Area Network (RBGAN) or Inmarsat GAN terminals, which distribute results across different channels — such as WRC’s website (wrc.com) — as soon as they become available.

The Service Park, where team support personnel and equipment are based, may be several hundred kilometers from rally headquarters. This area is also used by the media and fans. Inmarsat supplies two GAN terminals which deliver 64 kbit/s mobile ISDN services for the Service Park and two GAN terminals for rally headquarters which create a network (WAN) between the two. This network availability is in excess of 99.99 percent and provides instant network infrastructure that is completely controlled by Inmarsat and the WRC.

“In the past, putting out information to rally fans in a timely manner was thwarted by the lack of technology,” said Richard Heaselgrave, sponsorship director at the WRC. “This year we are using Inmarsat mobile satellite technology at every rally to overcome those challenges. The speed of the set-up and the simplicity and the reliability of the technology have created huge changes in the way we cover the rallies. We are delivering much more information in near real time and this is leading to a phenomenal increase in the popularity of the events.”

Samer Halawi, regional director for Inmarsat, agreed that the corporate sponsorship of the WRC had been a win-win situation for both organizations. WRC has been an ideal showcase for Inmarsat’s satellite technology. The truth is that due to the remote, harsh locations of most WRC events only Inmarsat mobile technology could rapidly and consistently provide the data transmission required.

Inmarsat has proved to be hugely popular in other harsh environments. Halawi stated that in the Middle East over 70 percent of the traffic on RBGAN comes from Iraq with about 98 percent of RBGAN’s total traffic coming from the Middle East and North Africa.

“RBGAN really is a service for the Middle East and North Africa,” Halawi said. “It is very popular and growing. Even though mobile communication is picking up in Iraq, there still is nothing to handle data transmission. There isn’t any infrastructure or any plans for any infrastructure to handle high-speed data transmission so we foresee that our services to Iraq will continue to grow in importance. Some camps are being set up in Iraq with fixed satellite connectivity, but many people still prefer the flexibility and portability of Inmarsat’s mobile satellite communications equipment, especially due to security concerns.”

Even in Saudi Arabia security and reliability issues have led to many companies purchasing Inmarsat terminals as a backup.

“Inmarsat units are so cheap to acquire that many companies have purchased them to ensure that essential communication can continue without interruption,” Halawi said. “A lot of multinationals who depend on communications with their headquarters have bought RBGAN units. The RBGAN units are priced at less than $1,500 retail so it is an easy solution to acquire and it provides companies with confidence that they have a reliable backup in place.”

The launch of the first Inmarsat satellite is scheduled for the end of 2004 and the second Inmarsat satellite should be in orbit before mid-2005. By the end of 2004 Inmarsat hopes to migrate all the users of RBGAN onto the new satellite and away from Thuraya. This will provide much more coverage. With both satellites about 86 percent of the world will be covered by Inmarsat. The first satellite will be launched over the Middle East, Africa, Europe and India where Inmarsat currently has the most demand. The next satellite will cover the Americas. Once the second satellite and new BGAN service is launched the data transmission speed will go from 144 kbit/second to 432 kbit/second.

“With that users will be able to transmit full motion video and for the media it will be a spectacular improvement,” Halawi said. “Also in terms of functionality the terminals will enable a full fledged voice service. We will have four different terminal manufacturers and people will have a range of options to choose from. The terminals will cost between $600 and $2,000, so they will be quite a cost effective entry into the satellite market.”

Inmarsat plans to continue and expand its relationship with WRC. Halawi pointed out that Inmarsat mobile satellite technologies have already dramatically changed WRC processes. The enhanced level of communications and new value added services have already proved hugely successful.

“What we would like to see now and we are lobbying very hard with WRC management to do, is to bring a rally to the Middle East and also to Africa,” Halawi said. “We want to have a WRC event in the Arab world. We have a lot of WRC fans in the Arab world and the Middle East rally scene is quite successful, so I think it’s time for the WRC to make a move there. They are much more open to this consideration now that the Bahrain Formula One has been a success and they are looking at the idea seriously.”

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