Neutrik opticalCON cables bring connectivity to the Tour de Suisse

Neutrik’s opticalCON fibre optic connector system helped leading Swiss broadcast service provider tpc Switzerland provide connectivity to last year’s Tour de Suisse, the world’s fourth largest cycle race.

For the Tour de Suisse, some of the outdoor broadcast conditions included temperatures in excess of 30 degrees, as well as driving rain and snow.

“The opticalCON fibre optic connector system was subjected to an extreme stress test during the Tour de Suisse,” said Martin Sturzenegger, the man responsible for the technical specification of tpc’s OB vehicle.

To provide technical flexibility during the tour, he came up with a technique of siting a hub at a strategically advantageous point, to assemble the signals transmitted from the various locations and save on cable runs. He carried out several test runs before deciding to use the opticalCON MTP24 lightweight 24-channel mobile field cable, for the single cable run between the broadcasting van and the assembly point.

“For me, that was the most important cable in the production of the Tour de Suisse, because we only had this one cable from the hub to the broadcasting van,” he added.

Seven production vehicles covered the Tour de Suisse and had to be taken to a new end stage for each of the nine days, brought into full working order and then dismantled again. Every day around 4.5km of cable was unrolled.

The opticalCON MTP cable connector has a robust metal casing, while its spherical dust cover protects the fibre optics from dirt. The precise fit of the push-pull connector modules enables easy use of the opticalCON fibre optic connector system, something Neutrik product manager Fabio Röllin describes as “one of our core competences”.

The opticalCON MTP24 worked perfectly throughout the Tour de Suisse, suffered no damage and required no cleaning, according to Sturzenegger.