Communicating at high speed

An innovative South Australian company is developing advanced communications technology for emergency services vehicles.

Cohda Wireless’ digital wireless communications technology enables users to reliably send and receive broadband data, video and voice messages - even while driving in high-speed emergency situations.

Existing products typically only allow users to communicate with one another when vehicles are stationary or travelling at low speeds. They can't work at high speeds because of signal degredation due to loss in signal power and changes in the radio channel.

Cohda’s product, when commercialised, will allow users to communicate at a high bandwidth rate of up to 64Mbit/sec while travelling at speeds up to 200km/h.

They've solved the earlier problem by developing a receiver with patented signal processing techniques, very high sensitivity and several antenna that are used for reception.

The communications system has obvious applications for the police, ambulance and fire services – using it ambulances could send back live video feeds to hospital staff, for example.