The large crowds attending festivals and concerts around the world each year are often unaware of the seamless co-ordination required to ensure the successful and safe running of such events.

The Bavarian Red Cross (BRK), in charge of health and safety at two major summer festivals in Bavaria, southern Germany, experienced first-hand the outstanding performance of TETRA radios.

At the Sonnenrot festival, which took place in the town of Eching in mid-July, radios by Sepura radios were delivered to BRK volunteers by Sepura’s German partner Selectric. In addition, Selectric completed the on-site installation and trained the users in a record time of less than three hours.

“Our users were extremely impressed with Sepura radios”, commented Martin Bengler, project manager for BRK. “The hand-portables’ outstanding audio quality enabled clear communication as it filtered out any background noise and the loud music from the 23 bands performing at the festival over two days. In addition, the fast call set-up time and the ease with which talkgroups can be created and changed enabled smooth and efficient operations”.

‘Dramatically better’

BRK also used Sepura radios to cover another of Bavaria’s outdoor events, the 11-day Schützenfest Kronach in August. More than 300?000 visitors participated.

“Our users were so impressed with the digital radios that they didn’t want to part with them!”, said Ralf Schmidt, responsible for volunteers’ management and co-ordination for the BRK.

And Andreas Kristek, deputy manager of BRK Rescue Services, explained: “Sepura radios’ audio quality was dramatically better than that of our old analogue radios. For instance, talkgroups prevented any miscommunication. In particular, dynamic talkgroups proved to be a very useful function at events like this where groups often need to be created and modified.

“In addition, the radios’ emergency button was vital in incidents dealt with by single rescuers, who were able to have both hands free while communicating. Although security is not strictly our area of responsibility, knowing that communication was secure at all times gave us great confidence and peace of mind.”

•  Sepura radios were also used, for the third year running, at the world-famous Oktoberfest in Munich.