Interview: Jacky Voss

INTERVIEW

JACKY VOSS

Corporate Business Development Manager, Riedel

Can you give us a little bit of background on your career?

My educational background is in electrical engineering, so I was an engineer initially - and that is actually how I started with Riedel about 10 years ago. I’ve been a System Engineer, a Project Manager – working on all kinds of projects, such as Formula 1 – the communication systems for the cars and Red Bull Air Race - the live transmission from the airplane. Then, I was the Technical Project Manager - and overall Project Manager - for Red Bull Stratos, designing the capsule and everything. From there, I further developed into a different position – and now I work directly under Thomas Riedel (Founder of Riedel) in the area of business development and corporate business development. I’ve been involved in several different projects, with the one I’m working on now being Managed Sport Services. So, under that umbrella, there is a range of different, smaller topics, with one of those being referee communications – that is a big project for us at Riedel right now. We have successfully implemented intercom systems in every single stadium in the Bundesliga and 2. Bundesliga in Germany, as well as the Swiss Super League. We’ve worked with FIFA and the NFL also.

Can you explain what Riedel offer for stadiums and sporting venues?

Well, in general, Riedel is a manufacturer of intercoms and signal distribution equipment, so when it comes to stadia and sporting venues, we do implementations of the infrastructure to route audio and video signals, but also communications solutions and the whole fibre backbone of a venue – so, we have all kinds of different applications in stadiums. Sometimes, we completely equip the whole stadium with intercom - wired and wireless.

How did the partnership with the Bundesliga start?

The Bundesliga partnership is quite interesting - I mean, in general, our customers are usually from the broadcast industry. However, when we introduced the Bolero wireless intercom system in May 2017, I believe that, shortly after, the Bundesliga introduced Video Assistant Referees. Initially, they used the audio system that had been in place before, which had some stability issues, so it wasn’t working too well.

Basically, Bundesliga directly approached us knowing that our intercom systems are sophisticated and very reliable, but to put it quite simply, the beltpacks were simply too big for what they needed. So, they asked if we could help by creating a smaller beltpack device – whether it was half the size or just thinner, they needed our expertise in that field. Of course, we were happy to pick up that project and, within four months time, we had a working prototype. Basically, we stripped down the regular Bolero S belt pack – getting rid of the display and a couple of buttons, as well as reducing the battery capacity by one third, which is still sufficient as it provides 10 hours – more than enough for a referee to officiate a game. It’s IP67 rated, too, so pretty perfect in terms of what they needed. So, while we were creating the new Bolero, we cooperated with the Bundesliga in testing various headset configurations and microphones in a bid to come up with the optimal system to deal with the ambient noise in a sold-out stadium. That is something that we had to get right – I mean, you can imagine the noise of 80,000 people at Signal Iduna Park in Dortmund, for example. After that whole process, we ended up with a setup that worked really well. Our approach was quite different, as we’re used to working with the broadcast industry, who are obviously quite technical. With the Bundesliga project, we were instead working with referees and professional communications equipment, so that’s why we definitely wanted to have that under our Managed Sport Services – offering fully managed systems in each stadium, with the central remote operation centre at Riedel’s headquarters in Wuppertal, Germany. When it comes to game day, we are able to talk back to the referee; adjusting volumes, thresholds, filters and so on. It’s been a great achievement, one that is really appreciated by the referees themselves as they don’t care too much for the technical side of things – they just want a working, reliable system that won’t let them down.

So, were those developments made exclusively for the Bundesliga?

They initiated the project and we were happy to exclusively develop that for the Bundesliga, but, from there, it spread like wildfire, so we had other leagues approaching us saying ‘We’re not too happy with our old version, can you introduce us to your new solution?’ We’ve since demonstrated

to different leagues, which has led us to persuade the biggest league in the world – at least in terms of revenue – the NFL to adopt the Bolero S system. It’s not just the top end of the scale in terms of leagues, though – we are able to scale the system down and offer a lower budget solution for smaller leagues. In general, though, it is a managed service - we do not sell this solution, we do not sell those small beltpacks and we don’t just dry-hire them. We really want to be in charge of the system, and we want to manage it for the customer in order to make it work, you know - make it live up to our standards, let’s say.

Working on leagues of different sizes, do you find there is much variation in terms of what is needed when it comes to the bigger stadiums compared to the smaller ones? No, with soccer, it’s pretty similar, but if you talk to other sports, like rugby or American football, obviously they have different workflows and different ways to operate communication systems. For example, in American football, usually they use external PTT buttons - they call it the easy button. While, in soccer, they don’t have time to push any buttons. This leads up to, what I would say, is one of our USPs – soccer referees don’t operate any buttons, so we basically adjust the voice activation threshold on the flight, so if a referee shows up at Signal Iduna Park, it’s a different situation than a referee showing up in a small stadium in 2. Bundesliga where you only have a couple of thousand fans cheering. We are able to listen into the audio, adjust the voice activation threshold

and filter the whistle for the referee – just lots of little tweaks that we do during a game. That’s pretty neat and really appreciated by the different leagues - they like that a lot. But, as I said, American football, for example, they only want to be heard once they push a button. You know, sometimes they yell at players and they don’t want anyone to hear it!

Are there any particular difficulties that you came across during the installation process?

In the beginning, during the roll out process, if you are working at 36 different stadiums across Germany, you will find different circumstances. Sometimes the connections are fairly easy, sometimes you have to take some time in figuring out how to route the signals. That was a challenge; we had to do site visits in every stadium, talk to the clubs or to the owner of the stadium and prepare everything well enough to allow us to install everything properly. To be honest, there wasn’t really a blueprint or a guide in terms of how to set everything up in those 36 different stadiums. It was a series of individual projects – we had to take a close look and document all the different stadiums to see which installations really worked. But it worked quite well and was actually pretty fast, too, considering. Also, one aspect we had to consider was the positioning of the antenna. We have two of the antennas in the stadium itself in order to cover the pitch. The second antenna is located right next to the first basically as we don’t need two antennas to do the range – it’s purely a back up. We also have one antenna in close proximity to the mixed zone where the pre

and post-match interviews take place as that is usually pretty close to the referees’ locker rooms, which gives us coverage there, too. So, the procedure is that the referee comes in, they take the beltpack out of the charger, turn it on, talk back to our team in Wuppertal, do a first check, then start warming up and doing a second check. We have a full game day run down to go through and they are able to talk back to either the central video operation room where there fellow referees are located – in Germany, that is in Cologne – or they can also talk back to our engineers in our remote operation centre and check back if they have any problems that they would like us to solve.

What is the process like when it comes to setting up for a tournament or sporting event?

Well that’s a bit easier, or, should I say, different – it’s not a permanent fixed installation that’s going to live in the stadium for the next few years. The typical approach here is the same for any major tournament or event, such as the Olympics or the World Cup. We build everything in mobile racks and we just ship everything for a temporary installation. Afterwards, you de-rig everything and go back home, so that’s a little bit of a different story! We have people on site to support the system there, but we also are able to support everything remotely.

How long did it take to install the system in each stadium?

Overall, for Bundesliga stadiums, which we did last year, that took us eight weeks and, this year, I think it took us around 10 weeks for 2. Bundesliga.

Are there any other projects coming up for Riedel?

We did the FIFA Women’s World Cup, with our communications system in every stadium used for the tournament in France. We did the FIFA U20s World Cup in Poland and we’ll be doing the FIFA U17 World Cup in Brazil.

What has been your favourite stadium or sporting venue so far?

Well it was very impressive to be at the Super Bowl this year! Obviously, that’s a totally different universe, all of a sudden you feel like you are in a different world. Atlanta was packed with people and there was a huge compound around the stadium – you actually had to go through several different securities to actually get in the venue. But, in terms of how the halftime show was set up and how it all worked together – it was really, really impressive. Plus, the stadium itself! I’m an engineer and a bit of a geek, so,

to me, that roof structure is unbelievable. I had to take a time-lapse video of it opening and closing like an iris – it’s incredible how someone can come up with something like that, especially in that size. Also, the video screen that goes right around just under the roof is very, very impressive. The way they used that for the show was spectacular. So, I think that is the most impressive stadium that I have seen so far – definitely a highlight for me, personally.

Is there anything new coming from Riedel?

We are constantly developing new things and trying to improve. Bolero will have a new firmware version shortly, in which we have implemented some more features. That is, basically, what we are trying to do constantly – sometimes its bigger things, sometimes its small tweaks, but I’m a huge fan of those smaller updates, too! For instance, the last firmware upgrade for Bolero brought what I think is the coolest feature ever for a wireless intercom belt pack, which is a functionality where you can program a button to replay the last call. That’s the coolest thing I’ve ever seen on an intercom belt pack - if you miss a call, you just push the button and it replays the last 10 or 15 seconds, whatever you set it to. It’s just a really neat and simple idea that works so well. Also, we are currently working on improving Bolero S. I can’t quite reveal too much about that yet, but you can be sure that they are on the way.