NIKOS – Kirchentag

Visitor guidance for the Catholic Day 2028 in Paderborn

autonomous reliable cost-effective

NIKOS is not a conventional PA system, but a radio-based public address, alarm and control system for large events, construction sites and crisis situations, which you can rent by the day through certified partners and either integrate into your PA or use on its own.

Challenge

Different venues need a shared communication and alerting layer

At the Catholic Day 2028 in Paderborn, services, meeting places and programme events will be spread across different areas of the city. Coordinating visitors effectively presents a particular challenge: all visitors must be reached simultaneously and precisely with relevant information—even when events are taking place in parallel and large crowds are present. At the same time, announcements must be clearly understandable in every situation and assigned precisely to the relevant areas. In addition, a decentralised major event of this kind often does not have continuous infrastructure available everywhere.

Solution

One unified solution for everyday use and emergencies

NIKOS brings together announcements, alerting, visitor guidance and device control in a single network-independent platform. NIKOS combines announcements, alerting and output control in a single platform. For events such as the Catholic Day 2028 in Paderborn, the system ensures effective visitor guidance even in the event of a power failure or disruptions to public communication networks. With rapidly deployable, radio-based units, announcements can be made precisely where visitors need to be informed, guided or assembled. NIKOS [dispatcher]² controls individual announcement locations, specific areas or the entire event site. NIKOS [audio]² and NIKOS [horn]² deliver the information on site. This reduces the need for materials, installation work and personnel, as additional cable routes and operator posts are no longer required.

FAQ

Information for planners and organisers

Are announcements made via NIKOS standard-compliant?+
Yes — NIKOS fully meets DIN EN 50849 (electroacoustic emergency warning systems). The system was designed specifically for safety-relevant announcement and alerting tasks, technically built for everyday operation as well as for emergencies. For ELA systems, DIN EN 50849 sets out the relevant framework. Because NIKOS — unlike mobile network-based solutions — does not depend on any external network, it is always immediately usable and fully meets the requirements set out in the standard. Other safety-related standards such as DIN EN 54, DIN VDE 0833-4 or DIN 14675 (voice alarm systems) concern a different field of use and functional scope and are therefore not relevant for NIKOS in terms of approval. Since 2017, NIKOS has been used successfully many times a public address system for temporary and mobile applications in mission-critical communication tasks. RADACOM and your regional NIKOS partner will be happy to advise you on the wide range of NIKOS functions and support you in implementing the requirements cost-effectively.
Where does NIKOS deliver cost benefits?+
Depending on the application, NIKOS uses a single communication platform to implement a range of different functions. These savings quickly offset NIKOS rental and installation costs. When the wide range of functions is used consistently, it often results not only in a higher level of safety and less work for employees, but also in savings across the overall budget. NIKOS mainly reduces the effort required for separate loudspeaker, control and communication solutions. Material requirements and cabling work are reduced, and information and emergency announcements can be made from a single location. In addition, NIKOS replaces personnel: tasks that would otherwise require several security, reporting or operator posts distributed across the site can be handled from a single location through central announcements, remote control and status monitoring. This saves personnel or allows them to be deployed more effectively at safety-critical points. Fenced events offer additional savings potential: emergency exit gates no longer need to be guarded, because NIKOS monitors the gates technically. This means that rental and installation costs are offset by savings in personnel and other technology. Particularly for temporary, time-limited events, this significantly reduces the costs of planning, setting up and operating the safety technology.
Is NIKOS resilient in a crisis?+
NIKOS operates via its own autonomous radio network and is completely independent of public communication networks and their availability. This makes the system highly resistant to external influences. Because NIKOS does not rely on cable routes but communicates via radio, the connection is automatically re-established after an interruption. NIKOS therefore responds far more resiliently to disruptions of normal operations than many other systems, demonstrating the crisis resilience of this communication system. NIKOS [audio]² has an internal battery with a runtime of up to 16 hours and also supplies connected accessory modules with power. Even if the mobile network is overloaded, the internet provider has been hacked or someone has pulled the wrong plug, NIKOS continues to function. This ensures that visitor guidance at the Catholic Day 2028 remains reliably operational even in the event of a power failure or disruptions to public communication networks.
How can different visitor areas at the Catholic Day be addressed specifically?+
NIKOS [dispatcher]² controls the announcement units as required for individual announcement locations, specific areas or the entire site. NIKOS [audio]² receives the voice transmission on site via radio and outputs it as an analogue audio signal. At locations without an existing public-address system, NIKOS [horn]² supplements the acoustic output.
Visitor guidance for the Catholic Day 2028 in Paderborn: Where can NIKOS be rented?+
NIKOS is rented by the day through certified partners, including advice, instruction and technical support. Your regional partner coordinates the deployment with you. Find a partner and request a rental

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