Communication Systems

Here is how this works in practice. Our team supplies and configures communication packages built for the distances Icelandic shoots demand: digital two-way radios with the range and channel plan a dispersed unit needs, repeaters to bridge terrain, surveillance earpieces and director headsets, and Clear-Com or Riedel intercom with wireless beltpacks for the video village. We plan channels by department, programme radios before delivery and survey locations where possible to find coverage gaps in advance.

Here is the short of it. Radio range in Iceland is covered by Fjarskiptastofa, the Electronic Communications Office of the country, and we arrange the needed licensing and set up frequencies so comms do not collide with wireless audio, video or lens control. Core comms stock comes from the skilled Reykjavik rental base. For large multi-unit shoots we supplement radios, repeaters and intercom matrices from suppliers in the UK and mainland Europe under ATA carnet, since the country is outside the EU customs union. Gear is weatherproofed against wind, cold and grit, batteries are conditioned for low temperatures, and we deliver charged, tested units with backup and on-call support across the shoot.

Here is the breakdown. Iceland's terrain is the real comms challenge. A large, sparsely populated subarctic island of around 103,000 square kilometres on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, it routinely has crews working miles apart, and a unit can be strung along a black-sand coast at Reynisfjara, scattered through the lava fields of Myvatn or split across the Highlands at Landmannalaugar and Thorsmoerk. Rift walls at Thingvellir, glaciers and mountains shadow radio signal, so repeaters and antenna placement are planned per location. The upside is little of the RF congestion of dense urban countries.

Here is what that looks like on the ground. Weather changes fast, the Highlands open only in summer via F-roads needing 4x4 super-jeeps, and light swings from the near-24-hour Midnight Sun to short midwinter days, all of which lengthen the chain of command. Productions from 'Game of Thrones' to 'The Fate of the Furious', filmed at Lake Myvatn, have set up large crews across these landscapes, where trusted comms keep a dispersed unit moving as one.