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The tech behind the Beijing 2008 Olympics
Thursday, May 08 2008
by Martin Lynch


Getting the technology behind the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games
up and running has been more of a marathon than a 100m
sprint.

The Olympics -- which open on 8 August -- will use more than
70 venues, which will host 302 events and 10,500 athletes. On
the IT side this is supported by 10,000 PCs, 1,000 servers,
5,000 results systems terminals and 4,000 printers, all
looked after by 4,000 IT staff including volunteers, in a
project which began in 2003.





The systems are designed, built and operated by Atos Origin,
which has the world's largest sports-related IT contract --
running from Salt Lake City 2002 right through to London
2012.



But each Olympic Games has its own requirements, explained
Patrick Adiba, Atos Origin executive vice president of
Olympics and major events: "The games are very scattered.
From a technical perspective we have to get the same level of
service whether you are in Hong Kong or Beijing and that's
what's challenging. Some days we are running 25 sports in
parallel, it's extremely complex."



He told silicon.com: "What's unique about the Olympics is
that it's highly visible and it's a fixed deadline; you
cannot change the date or the hour of the opening ceremony.
With other projects like launching a rocket to the moon or a
new car you can always delay. We cannot."



Adiba added: "What we do is risk management so the big
challenge is 'what if'. Everything is in the preparation and
anticipation; when the games start you don't have time to
think."



"We can reuse the expertise in other projects, what we do
for the Olympics is not Olympics specific. We are under tight
cost constraints because the Olympic committee wants the cost
of the games to be constant," he said.



Atos Origin provides two main IT systems for the games -- the
Games Management System (GMS) and the Information Diffusion
Systems (IDS).



The GMS helps the organising committee to plan and prepare
for the games, and includes applications such as the
accreditation system which assigns access rights to athletes,
coaches, officials, staff, the media and volunteers. Other
parts of GMS include the transportation system, the sports
entries and qualifications system, medical encounters system
and staffing information system.



The IDS provides competition results and other information to
athletes, judges and media. Jeremy Hore, chief integrator for
the games, explained: "There are several different
applications. For example, real-time results information
which all goes to the official website and to broadcasters.



"We also have a commentator information system [CIS]
which gives them information on the state of play so that
when they are talking on the TV they have all the statistical
information to make the commentary more colourful."



The data for the IDS is collected via touchpads (in swimming,
for example) timing systems or manual data entry at venues.



"We are not only providing the CIS in Beijing but also
overseas to broadcasters in their office in New York they can
have the same experience as if they were in the venues. They
can give more people access to the system and it's the first
time we've done that," Hore said.



The IT preparations in Beijing started with four people in
November 2004 and by the time of the games there will be
4,000 people working on IT. That number will drop to zero
again three months after the games, and preparations for
London 2012 start in earnest.



But unlike the athletes, nobody on the tech team is hoping
they end up on the front pages. "Our objective is that
nobody notices us," said Adiba.



Steve Ranger writes for Silicon.com.

Reprinted with permission from href="http://www.silicon.com">Silicon.com