The canton of Vaud’s Fire Safety Service (ECA) has opened its new headquarters in Lausanne. The ECA is the only organisation in Switzerland to have brought together all three emergency services (117, 118 and 144) under one roof, as well as the head office of the Cantonal Management Staff and civil protection. Bouygues Energies & Services was in charge of the building’s radio communication infrastructure.
The ECA’s new modern and high-tech headquarters is located in the Blécherette district in the north of the capital of Vaud. With a total area of 16,500 m2, the site can accommodate around 500 staff and includes both high-security areas and publicly accessible spaces. In addition to the areas occupied by the emergency services, the building is also home to offices, conference rooms, a training centre and an exhibition on the ECA’s mission.
What’s unique about the new headquarters is that it unites all of the canton’s emergency service numbers (117, 118 and 144, as well as the on-call doctor service), the infrastructure belonging to the Cantonal Management Staff (CMS) and the head office of the canton’s civil protection service (PCi-VD), alongside the future headquarters of the Lausanne-Morges Traffic Management Service (GCTA). It hosts a total of 190 specialist phone operators who receive an average of 2,700 calls a day. The canton will thus soon be equipped with one of the most effective emergency services and disaster management systems in Switzerland.
And that’s where Bouygues Energies & Services came in, providing proven expertise in radio communication and mobile telephony. Our experts developed all the infrastructure required by the different emergency services.
One of the key elements is the distributed antenna system (DAS), which is capable of combining professional radio networks and public mobile networks to ensure comprehensive coverage within the building across all the required channels and frequencies. The automated system is designed to work uninterrupted 24/7, 365 days a year. Redundancies prevent disruptions to the service in the case of system failures or maintenance work. The tried-and-tested technology also ensures that the system can be upgraded, both technologically and in terms of scale (e.g. adding new interfaces at a later date).
This fast, secure, reliable solution equips the ECA and its partners with what they need to provide the best possible response to the public’s safety needs.
| Client | The canton of Vaud’s Fire Safety Service (ECA) |
| Business area | Electrics |
| Location | Lausanne |
| Year | 2022 |
Three questions for Loic Zurcher, Head of Electrical Services, and Andrés Cabezas, member of the Special Projects team at BYES Prilly, who developed the building’s radio infrastructure alongside their team of specialists.
What’s special about this system?
We had to meet very specific technical requirements. The nature of emergency services means that their systems need to be extremely reliable. They need to be able to respond to people’s calls at all times, and also to react in the case of a major accident or disaster. Redundancy and upgradability were therefore particularly important.
What’s distinctive about our radio communication and mobile telephony services?
Unlike mobile operators who offer their own system, our multi-operator solution combines mobile technology with the Polycom network. Every project is different for us and requires specific expertise in the relevant technology and operational requirements. We offer solutions that are tailored to our clients’ professional needs.
What was the main challenge of the project?
It’s not every day that we have to develop a system of this scale. We needed 4 km of cables to connect the rooftop antennae alone. There aren’t many providers on the market that would be able to handle a project of this size.
