Brilliant Bonhomme wins Ascot - Riedel guaranties signal transport and comms

Brilliant Bonhomme wins Ascot - Riedel guaranties signal transport and comms

Britain’s Paul Bonhomme was crowned the winner of the Red Bull Air Race World Championship stop at the famous Ascot Racecourse on Sunday, flying brilliantly under pressure in the world's fastest motorsport series. The victory was Bonhomme’s third this season and second straight win at Ascot to the delight of more than 40,000 spectators.

Repeating the pattern of recent editions of the Air Race, Riedel engineers again built a signal distribution infrastructure for video, audio and communications and data based around a MediorNet real-time media network. Technicians interfaced audio signals via both MADI and Riedel’s RockNet digital audio network solution, in combination with the MediorNet system. Meanwhile, a Riedel Artist digital matrix intercom served as the events communications infrastructure, and was integrated seamlessly with Riedel’s digital trunked (TETRA) installation.

Brilliant Bonhomme wins Ascot - Riedel guaranties signal transport and comms

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To get all the action of the pilots in the cockpit down to the spectators on the ground and infront of their TV sets and delivering also the pilot's perspective when flying the course a Riedel developed red onboard comms box is delivering two camera signals and other flight related data.

Bonhomme’s final run was flawless and he stopped the clock in 1.06.416 seconds. Australia’s Matt Hall took second place in a time of 1:09.024 while Yoshihide Muroya got his first podium of the season with third.

Brilliant Bonhomme wins Ascot - Riedel guaranties signal transport and comms

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With the hard-fought victory in the Final Four, Bonhomme picked up 12 points to widen his lead at the top of the Red Bull Air Race Championship to eight points (46) ahead of Hall (38 points) in second going into the final three races. Reigning Red Bull Air Race World Champion Nigel Lamb of Britain, who last year finished second at the race over the historic Ascot Racecourse, finished back in 5th place, a result that destroyed his chances of defending his title.

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"It was a hard day at the office but today was great fun – I enjoyed that ," said Bonhomme after hitting speeds of near 370 km/h on the track that featured a static start in front of the majestic grandstands and a challenging course made up of 12 Air Gates standing 25 metres high on the infield of the track. "All I can say is this was due to teamwork, teamwork, teamwork. I’m only the driver. I just point the plane in the right direction."

It was the second time the Red Bull Air Race was staged in Ascot, just west of London, that has quickly become one of the most attractive air race locations in the world and a favourite of the pilots who relish taking off and landing on the grassy strip in front of the big crowd.

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In the Red Bull Air Race, which is the official world championship of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI), the world's top pilots hit speeds of 370 km/h while enduring forces of up to 10G as they navigate as precisely as possible through a low-level slalom track marked by air-filled pylons.

Among other specific items of equipment, the Ascot event also saw Riedel make use of its 2RU large-scale MediorNet MetroN core router. Announced in early 2014, MetroN provides 640GB real-time signal routing capacity through 64 x 10G ports.

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Once again, the latest Air Race found Riedel working in close collaboration with OB providers TVN and Euro TV. In addition to the Riedel technology, the TVN set-up at Ascot included a Lawo audio router and mc²56 console, EVS servers, Vizrt graphics solutions, and more.

The Red Bull Air Race World Championship moves to its next stop to Spielberg, Austria on September 5-6.

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World Championship standings: 1. Bonhomme 46 points, 2. Hall 38, 3. Arch 30, 4. Sonka 18, 5. Lamb 17, 6. McLeod 14, 7. Dolderer 12, 8. Muroya 11, 9. Ivanoff 11, 10. Goulian 8, 11. Besenyei 8, 12. Chambliss 2, 13. Velarde, 14. Le Vot