A race against (down) time
Precision under pressure
When Switzerland’s national rail operator, SBB, faced the imminent shutdown of public 3G services, the challenge was both urgent and uncompromising: modernise its mission-critical rail communications while keeping one of Europe’s most punctual rail networks running without interruption. This film tells the story of how Ericsson partnered with SBB to deliver Europe’s first live migration from legacy GSM-R to IMS/VoLTE – executed safely, at pace, and with zero operational downtime across a national network.
Shot near Ericsson’s Swiss headquarters and supported by contextual rail b-roll, the film uses time as its central narrative device. Ticking clocks, metronomic sound design and tightly controlled pacing reflect the pressure, precision and accountability required to upgrade a live, safety-critical system. Through the voices of Ericsson’s technical and commercial leads, the story brings to the surface the complexity that passengers never see: rigorous testing, regulatory certification, multi-vendor coordination and live deployment across more than 3,100km of railway infrastructure.
The film features b-roll footage captured over a 100+ km stretch of the Swiss rail network and countryside, from Bern to lausanne – captured to help contextualise the scale of operations, efficiency and visual interest of the theme of the film.
Designed as a lead-generation case study and cut social-first for high recall and engagement, the film positions Ericsson as a trusted partner for rail operators across Europe facing similar legacy shutdowns – and sets a blueprint for future-ready rail communications.
My role was end-to-end, spanning concept and presentation, creative and art direction, set design, film and photography direction, editing, and oversight of the entire project – ensuring a seamless delivery for Ericsson, from idea through to final output and social content.
The production also featured a film that gave in-depth technical detail, acting less as a lead generation film, and more educational to give better insight into the capability that Ericsson can provide. This was shot on site in a studio at the same time as the hero film, and meant managing both films in tandem while they were being shot.
