Bosch

The customer

Bosch is a high profile technology and services company that has a long history, particularly in Germany. With operations in more than 60 countries, a global turnover exceeding €52bn and over 305,000 employees, the company is a key player on the world stage.

Despite this global presence, the organisation still employs almost 120,000 people in Germany and continues to develop its operations in its home market. With the increased demand for "green" technology, Bosch is developing its activities in this area and the cornerstone of its solar division is located in Arnstadt, in the German state of Thuringia, which is the competence centre for its crystalline photovoltaic operations. The Arnstadt site not only includes a manufacturing operation, but also a training centre and a state of the art research and development centre.

The challenge

The Arnstadt site was expanding and the existing radio system was too small to cope with either the volume of users or the increased area to be covered. The radio system not only needed to cover the numerous buildings on the site, but also much of the outdoor area. This was particularly relevant to the requirements of the on-site fire brigade, who needed a totally reliable radio system in case of emergencies.

The solution

Bosch chose to install 2 Sepura Systems eXTRAS FR400 base stations and 6 eXTRAS SOLO base stations to provide TETRA coverage across the Arnstadt site. The FR400s have an extended fall-back mode with individual call, group call, SDS and packet data functionality, all of which is designed to provide Bosch not only with advanced functionality but also with the resilience that is required. All 8 base stations have single carrier capacity.

In addition, the Sepura system was integrated both with the existing network of indoor antennas and leaky feeders to ensure indoor coverage in the existing buildings and with similar equipment in the new buildings. In order to improve reception/coverage in a situation where there was likely to be a lot of interference / reflections, Sepura used an equaliser and receiver diversity reception in the base station. Overall, the Sepura Systems solution provided Bosch with the site coverage and resilience that it required.