Magglingen lies in the Bernese Seeland region, above Lake Biel at the southern foot of the Jura. A wonderful location for the national sport and training centre, surrounded by greenery. Here, elite athletes train, while teaching staff and trainers complete their specialist qualifications and prepare themselves for their future activities.
The National Sport Centre in Magglingen is a conference, education and sporting hub for Swiss sport. Indoor and outdoor facilities play host to a wide variety of sports. In addition, sports medical care is provided here, including facilities for physiotherapy. One important building is the quintuple sports hall "End der Welt" (End of the World). Numerous major events and competitions are held inside the 3,740-square-metre sports hall. As a result, the need for mobile communications coverage over a wide area is quite high.
Interview with H. Hofstetter, BASPO.
Antenna installation by cablex.
In places where many people meet or train, there is also a need for extensive network connections. In 2021, the Wireless Team from cablex was awarded the contract for facilitating Swisscom coverage for all FOSPO buildings. The first step entailed the replacement of all optical repeaters, since they needed to be 4G compatible. In addition, our team installed microcells, in order to provide full coverage for the complex exterior area.
This year, our team of technicians installed some 50 antennas and transmitters in the new training hall. All in-house antennas are operated via a passive coaxial network. This simplifies the use of mobile communications hosted by different providers in the buildings.
Optical fibre for all buildings.
The distance between the old and new buildings is too great to establish an effective connection using coaxial cables. This is why the entire complex has been connected using optical fibre. Thanks to their smaller diameter, these cables can be installed more easily between buildings, and the data portability is significantly higher. This work was also carried out by cablex.
Interview with M. Lebo, technician cablex.
The next construction project.
The new university building is currently under construction on Lärchenplatz. This encompasses facilities for sports medicine, sports physiotherapy, performance diagnostics and office workstations. cablex has also installed optical fibre cables here. There are currently 40 in-house antennas planned.
Philippe Houmard is coordinating the extensive construction plans as cablex project manager. The collaboration with the counterparts at FOSPO has been seamless.
One of the challenges of this project has been the significant level of complexity. More than twelve buildings will be equipped with optical fibre and antennas over several years. If all the project managers, draughtsmen, site managers and fitters are included, there are around ten cablex employees involved. All of those working on the project are very committed and quite enthusiastic. I am thrilled to be coordinating such a great project.
Philippe Houmard, project manager at cablex.
