The uniqueness of the solution became apparent as the initial site survey unveiled the peculiar conditions in which the telecommunications link needed to be established. The link comprised of a point-to-point solution providing 20 Mbps of aggregate capacity. Advanced RF equipment had to be procured that could operate in the niche 1.4GHz frequency range to address the issue of reflection off the water, which would otherwise have distorted the signal and caused the connection to fail (this is known as the ducting phenomenon).
The challenges with a project like this include:- The vast amount of water and the curvature of the earth made alignment difficult and special equipment had to be used to overcome the ducting effect;
- Movement of the buoy on rough seas proved challenging when it came to installing, aligning and maintaining the equipment;
- Special permission had to be obtained and a unique design by structural engineers was required to mount the 3 metre antennas on to the platform;
- The execution area was considered highly hazardous because of the fact that production deals mainly with oil and gas which is highly flammable, which meant that the equipment had to be deemed safe for long term use as well.
