From The Economist: The message, which read "neutrino", was transcribed into a string of "0s" and "1s" using the standard code employed in digital communications. The beam was then tweaked so that a pulse created using a full bunch of protons corresponded to a "1", while one with no protons signalled a "0". The pulses were separated by 2.2 seconds and the message was repeated in cycle for about two hours.

At the receiving end, each "1" translated into an average of 0.8 neutrino events registered in the detector; a "0", naturally, translated into none. This was enough to reconstruct the message accurately.