To make snow you need snow making machines (snow guns). But this is just the tip of the iceberg, because a snow cannon needs:

Water at a certain pressure
Electricity
Compressed air (sometimes the gun generates its own compressed air)
Communication system with the management software (in the case of automatic installation)

The snow gun is therefore connected to what is called a “snow shelter“ or “field connection point”, which provides it with at least water and electricity, and in some cases compressed air.

Pressurized water and compressed air are created upstream by one (or more) machine rooms. We distinguish:

Pumping stations: which provide water
Compressor stations, which supply compressed air.

The air used by the compressors is captured directly in the ambient outside air.

On the other hand, pumps need to be supplied with water (this is called water resources). This may be:

A lake
A tank
A river
A pipeline …

Water sometimes needs to be cooled and/or filtered before being injected into the system.

Electricity comes from electrical transformers which will supply the energy necessary for the machine rooms but also for the snow guns (we are talking about power resources).

All system components (pumps, compressors, cannons, valves, etc.) can be managed:

Manually (we speak of manual installation)
Automatically (we speak of automatic installations)

It is a PC which communicates with all the components of the system and guides their operation according to the parameters which have been entered by the operator.

Communication can be by cable, fiber optic or radio.

The network is the set of pipes and cables that connect all the elements together.

Unlike all that has been mentioned before, the networks are made of industry standard components, and therefore are not specific to snowmaking systems.

This part is necessarily subcontracted and sometimes even does not form part of what MND realizes as works.