The tech behind the Beijing 2008 Olympics
08-05-2008
by Silicon.com

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 Silicon.com