They carve through fresh powdered slopes, glide down epic terrain, and perform extreme freestyle acrobatics. They are the U.S. Ski and Snowboard team! The organization represents nearly 200 elite skiers and snowboarders competing in seven teams: alpine, cross country, free-ski, freestyle, snowboard, Nordic combined, and ski jumping. In addition to representing these elite athletes, the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Team also provides leadership and direction for tens of thousands of young skiers and snowboarders across the U.S.
Problem
In order to be the best, the team trains at some of the most spectacular and most dangerous venues in the world. Unfortunately for them, these picturesque sites are often dead zones for connectivity. For example, in the remote and mountainous areas of Europe, the team’s connections to each other, weather tracking devices, as well as video uploads and playbacks are not reliable. To complicate matters further, the team frequently travels to different locations week after week.
These problems are not confined to training sites. The team also encountered issues in a large, Austrian city when 50,000 fans challenged the limits of available bandwidth. The team uses a cloud-based service to organize the skis and the waxing schedule. To do this, they need access to live video of races for timing purposes. Sometimes connectivity problems are no more than a simple nuisance, but at other times the safety of the athletes is at stake.
Solution
The U.S. Ski and Snowboard team required unbreakable connectivity and they got it using Peplink’s HD4 MBX router. The HD4 MBX is designed for industrial usage and is ideal for on-the-go deployments. It is capable of aggregating the bandwidth of up to four cellular links into an unbreakable, high-speed, SD-WAN connection. The device is installed in the team’s mobile wax truck, affectionately named Yolanda. An antenna is mounted on top of the vehicle and the router is securely mounted away from works stations. The HD4 MBX uses local WiFi when available, and the team also uses SIM cards. With up to 16 cellular providers to connect to, the team’s spotty coverage issues are a thing of the past.
US SKI Team Deployment discussed in our recent webinar
Check out the highlight from Peplink’s broadcasting webinar and find out more about the deployment for the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Team!
“The connectivity provided by Peplink is crucial to the success of the team.”
Eli Brown, Ski Technician
Result
“We need to operate with uninterrupted access to weather, databases, and changing information on the events. We are constantly uploading video for technique analysis and sending press images and articles back home to share our success… and once in a while we watch stupid cat videos on YouTube!” says Ski Technician Eli Brown. Brown says the HD4 MBX was a breeze to set up and bring online. He adds that the connection is always strong and secure regardless of where the team is on the circuit.
Deployment
The HD4 MBX is capable of combining the bandwidth of up to 4 cellular links into an unbreakable, high-speed SD-WAN connection. The HD4 MBX supports up to 8 SIM cards, with room for another 8 with the optional SIM Injector.
