Project Extreme: Satellite System for Hotel in Kenya

  Despite all the advance planning, our experts repeatedly have to overcome unexpected difficulties when traveling to a client to install a media solution. But as our technicians Thomas Schmid and Christian Arnsberg experienced during a project in Africa, distance isn't always the biggest problem ...

One of the strengths of AUDITORIUM is the ability to plan even larger projects in advance, in consultation with everyone involved, so that implementation and commissioning can proceed as smoothly as possible. But despite all this planning, it still happens from time to time that the conditions on site do not match the construction plans, a last-minute customer request needs to be implemented, or simply an important tool or component has been forgotten. When something like this happens on a project close to our locations in Hamm and Münster, it's already annoying enough. There are phone calls and discussions, and in the worst case, one or two hours are lost just to retrieve what was forgotten. But what if the construction site is 10,000 km away, right in the middle of East African Kenya? These and other questions went through Christian and Thomas's minds as they dealt with a customer's request. In an existing hotel complex, 60 rooms were to be retrofitted with televisions, including the distribution of signals from a central satellite system to all rooms, of course. A project of this scale is always a technical and logistical challenge; the local climate conditions and the Kenyan satellite system with completely different standards and encryptions made things significantly more difficult. Together with a major German manufacturer of satellite reception technology, the two designed a matrix that, starting from a large headend station, distributes the TV programs as analog cable signals to all endpoints. This solution was intended to meet all requirements and ensure robust operation.

Just like in the textbook: Such an installation can later be conveniently maintained, expanded, and repaired. In total, Thomas and Christian needed a full two weeks for this project, during which they laid almost five kilometers of cable, soldered, crimped, or spliced countless connections, and sweated countless liters of fluid. But the result speaks for itself—the system has been running smoothly to this day, and AUDITORIUM has once again proven that with good planning and the necessary implementation experience, any project can be completed successfully, no matter how great the challenge!