High Tech Solutions at the 2010 Winter Olympics

I am one of those people that love the Olympics both the winter and Summer Games. There is something about the spirit of all these nations coming together in competition not only for themselves, but for their nation, for their community. They are there to prove to the world their strength's but more important the strength of their country. I admire this effort and the spirit in which the games are built upon.

Being an IT professional I like to observer how technology is being used. So while most people are watching the games, I am looking for the subtle things that run in the background that help us all to experience the games as if we were right there. Looking at these 2010 Olympics, I think the only thing missing from making one feel right in the middle of the action would be the lack of cold and rain found on most of the outdoor venues.

I have to hand it to the IT pros that put this project together they have done an excellent job in helping to ensure that we the public are given the most up-to-date information at all times, and I am sure that it took quite some time to put this all together. One site would be hard enough, but with all the different sites and the connectivity needed for transmitting data, video, voice.... This was a huge endeavor. Before I get into some of the behind the scene items that powered the 2010 Olympics I first want to mention some of the technology that I observed just from watching it all unfold on TV. Not all items will be especially cutting edge, but here are the items I noticed.

How many noticed all the camera tracks? From rail systems on the ground to over heard. Not totally a new technology, but impressive when you consider how many cameras need to be connected and managing all those camera angels, feeds. Etc.

I was also impressed with the Slalom gates, I like the stock-car racing lighting system, but who noticed how the trigger for the light released the gate for the racers? So instead of a representative ensuring no false starts, the system ensured that everyone was on equal footing.

Dry ice was used in three areas, one as a way to maintain the snow that is up on the mountain due to the unseasonably warm weather. They filled tubes with dry ice to help freeze the snow that they were trucking in to create the half-pipe and other slopes for the games. Second they used these tubes to try to maintain some sort of usable condition on the slopes for the two-week period of the games. Third, when it was raining and the skiers were on the finals for the slalom event they would pack the snow down then dump nitrogen and other chemicals on the snow to help produce some usable snow conditions for the remainder of the races.

Who noticed the IP phones that people were using all over the Whistler? From the officials to team coaches, there were the devices that helped everyone stay communicated during the last seventeen days.

Doing a little digging I found some interesting technology facts about the games that I wanted to share. One of the more impressive things I found out was that each Olympic sport had their very own dedicated IT lab. Not impressive enough? How about that this accumulated to the following: 800 servers, 6000 computers and 4,000 printers and more than 100,000 hours was spent testing these systems prior to the games.

"The 2010 Winter Olympics required over 700 kilometers (about 435 miles) of cables to reach 15 geographically dispersed venues across a 120-kilometer area (about 75 miles)" says Andy Patten, Vice president of Technical infrastructure.

Here are some more impressive numbers from Andy's Team

7,000 mobile phones

2,000 push to talk phones

All IP converged network

15,000 VOIP phones and fax lines

5,000 wireless access points

5,000 radios

This plus ensuring that the network will be ready to handle the entire network traffic from all the photographers' world wide. He predicts that each photographer will be taking ten pictures in a single second looking for the photos that captures the photo finish, then those photographers will be uploading their photos back to their editing teams so that within minutes they will be posted onto the Internet, adding that each photo will be about 15 megs in size.

In a couple of years when the summer games of 2012 are being held in London, keep your eyes out for how technology is being used. I am sure that you will be as amazed as I am. My list above is not an full and complete list by any sort.