Olympics IT faces marathon task

Companies offering more cost-effective technologies will do well in the next Olympic Games

Sport may be at the heart of any Olympic Games, but the success of London's 2012 extravaganza will depend on technology, from the infrastructure itself to HDTV-friendly broadcasting coverage, biometric security systems and even the remote scanning of injured athletes.

With Britain in the midst of recession, however, many wonder whether the financial crisis could put a significant dent in plans outlined by the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG).

Speaking to the press recently, Michele Hyron, chief integrator for the London 2012 Olympics, has vowed that the show will go on despite the downturn. Hyron, who works for Atos Origin, is responsible for leading a consortium that designs, builds and operates the huge technology infrastructure in support of the Games.

Being in charge of the technology infrastructure for London 2012 is no small feat. Before the Games open, Hyron's team will have deployed over 1,000 servers, 10,000 PCs and 4,000 printers, and put state-of-the-art security systems in place to allow organisers almost instantaneous awareness of any eventuality. Atos Origin will also ensure that all equipment has gone through over 200,000 hours of readiness testing before the Games begin.

"We are always aiming to be more efficient, and the budget is always quite constrained," said Hyron, who was operations manager at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, integration manager at Athens 2004 and quality manager at Salt Lake City 2002.

Jeffrey Immelt, chairman and chief executive at GE, a worldwide partner of the Olympic Games, has urged UK business leaders not to cut back on their historic Olympic investment.

"We are living through a period of unprecedented economic history where the relationship between government and business is being redefined," he said. "The London Games are a great opportunity for those businesses willing to show leadership, despite the tough times we are going through."

GE, a technology provider for the 2012 Games, managed projects in all 37 official Beijing Games competition venues. The company was praised for its innovative environmental technologies, including rainwater recycling systems which filtered 80 cubic metres of rainwater an hour from underground storage pools, and a nano-filtration system that provided drinking water for up to 100,000 visitors in the stadium. Many of GE's Beijing 2008 technologies will also be featured in London 2012 infrastructure projects.

Alongside GE, the BBC, Siemens, Accenture, Ofcom and a plethora of other companies are already lining up to offer their own IT services to the 2012 Games.

Prominent tasks on the committee's to-do list include a commentators' information system, allowing remote media access to all results and athlete information.
An environmentally conscious initiative involves installing an enormous wireless network across London's Olympic venues to effectively limit the number of PCs LOCOG has to provide.

In addition, Olympics organisers will utilise airwave radio for general inter-staff communications using the same Tetra technology employed by the emergency services but on a separate network. Work on the infrastructure has already begun, and should be ready by April 2011 in time for the test events.

LOCOG also plans to deploy 'distributed antenna' technology, allowing mobile operators to share high-density, low-power masts housed discreetly inside objects like lamp-posts. This, as well as being more environmentally friendly, also means fewer unsightly antennas and reduced power output from handsets.

As well as all the communications and sporting IT infrastructure, there is also the security infrastructure to consider. With the threat of terrorism weighing heavily on organisers' minds, hi-tech security systems with state-of-the-art face recognition and fingerprint technology are just as much a priority, and most are still out to tender.

Gadi Talmon of BriefCam, a video synopsis technology company, is just one of those waiting to hear whether his firm's bid will be successful. BriefCam already works with the UK police, and hopes to be a contender for a London 2012 CCTV contract.

Asked whether he was worried about the credit crunch, Talmon responded: "On the contrary. We believe that, because of the crisis, saving expensive manpower costs and using CCTV more effectively will drive the penetration of BriefCam into the market."

Talmon went on to note that firms offering more cost-effective technologies would do well in the next Olympic Games, not despite the recession, but because of it.