The Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA) yesterday said it has met the substantial radio-communication requirements of the UCI Road World Championships Doha 2016 (RWC) with temporary frequencies assignments.
CRA approved 741 different types of radio equipment such as walkie-talkies, wireless microphone systems and wireless cameras, and 88 different frequency channels for the organising committee of the cycling event, it said in a press statement.
Qatar is the first country in the Middle East to stage the event, which has been organised annually since 1921.
“RWC attracts pan-global broadcast and online coverage; hence, clear and interference-free operations are essential for both – the teams racing in the competition and for broadcasters. CRA played a major supporting role in the organisation of the event in line with its national mandate of managing scarce resources such as the radio spectrum,” the statement noted.
Large-scale events typically require significant use of the radio spectrum for activities such as broadcast coverage, surveillance, managing spectators and security, and high-quality radio communication within assigned bands of the radio spectrum is essential for smooth operations.
CRA pointed out that it met the needs of the organisers within a short period and extended its full support for the timely release of imported equipment shipped to Qatar in co-operation with the authorities concerned.
In 2016, CRA has met the full radio communication needs of all large sports events held in Qatar and assigned a total of 360 temporary radio spectrum frequencies and approved 2,366 items of radio equipment for use across seven sports championships.
In addition to RWC 2016, CRA has supported the MotoCross Championship, Qatar MotoGP, Commercial Bank Qatar Masters, Tour of Qatar, Qatar ExxonMobil Open and Qatar Total Open in 2016.
“CRA intends to contribute to the success of these high-profile sports events within its jurisdiction and will continue to support all future events,” the statement added.