Case Study: How TMG Used VIAVI Technology to Get Qudos Bank Arena Up and Running Within 24 Hours

TMG are industry leaders when it comes to the latest telecommunications technology, but our greatest asset is our team of highly experienced, creative problem solvers. In March of 2021, we were called in to help solve a connection problem at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney Olympic Park. The integrator had been unable to lock onto the signal or locate the PCI provided by the operator. In addition to this, the technicians were unable to account for unusual amounts of dip in the channel that were showing up on the spectrum analyser. With a major sporting event scheduled for the 27th and technicians still unable to secure a connection by the 25th, time was of the essence.

The Right People

To solve their problem, the integrator decided to call in Hiren Shah (from TMG) and Shuo Pan (from VIAVI). The two 5G specialists spent the afternoon of the 25th attempting to connect to the PCI, but initially had no more success than the integrator technicians. They ordered a special test phone to the site, and the next morning were able to locate the PCI, confirming the information from the operator was correct. With this done, the integrator locked on to the 5G signal and began sending data, at which point the channel started showing as stable on the spectrum analyser.

The Right Technology

For the next stage, Shuo and Hiren resorted to the VIAVI Smart Access Anywhere. The Smart Access Anywhere (SAA) allows secure, remote assistance for field technicians directly on their instrument from a product or technical expert in another location. This can be used to remotely coach less experienced personnel, remotely control instruments, and access remote instruments. Using the SAA, the two technicians were able to connect remotely to the VIAVI CellAdvisor5G. The telecom industryÂ’s most innovative and easy-to-use bas station analyser, the VIAVI CA5G offers real-time spectrum and interference analysis. It provides a 5G route map for coverage verification, mapping in real time the PCI and beam strength, as well as providing coverage data for post-processing.

The Right Connections

Using the VIAVI technology, Shuo and Hiren were able to confirm that the connection was stable, but were still unable to solve the problem of the missing PCI. With time running out, they decided to contact VIAVIÂ’s R&D team in Korea, an were quickly rewarded with a solution. Logging on in real time to the CA5G via the SAA, the VIAVI team advised that the SSB frequency may be different to the Channel Centre Frequency, and suggested Shuo and Hiren cross check this information.

The Right Solution

The operator got back to the integrator that afternoon with the correct SSB frequency, which was manually entered into the CA5G. The CA5G was then able to swiftly locate the PCI and lock on to the signal, which by this point was stable. The issue had been caused by a mismatch between the Channel Centre frequency and SSB frequency.

As it turned out, due to the unique settings that the operator was using, the CAG5 AutoSearch feature was not detecting the SSB ARFCN. The VIAVI R&D team, having identified this issue, are ensuring this is covered in the latest software update. In the meantime, the integrator engineers were able to manually lock on to the SSB with the correct frequency and solve the problem within the tight time restraints.

How TMG Can Solve Your Telecoms Problems

This is a perfect example of how TMG are able to connect with different stakeholders – from technical expert s to integrators and end customers to quickly solve complex problems using th latest, world-standard technology. For the solutions to all your telecom needs, call TMG today on 1800 680 680.