The Olympic Games are not just a sporting competition, but a major event in the world of sport that invariably attracts millions of spectators. Broadcasting the Olympics is a complex technical process that involves many IT systems and solutions. It concerns timing, collecting, and publishing results from different competitions in different formats for different users-judges, commentators, news agencies, and spectators in different languages. Also important are live streaming both on the Internet and on TV, automatic selection of hot moments, and the creation of replays.
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In addition, the internal processes of the event need to be organised: thousands of participants, hundreds of thousands of guests, tens of thousands of volunteers, and permanent staff require careful attention to meeting, accommodation, and control. After analysing all these business challenges, it is clear that organising the Olympics is one of the most technologically complex and time-consuming processes at the international level.
In the next section, we will discuss the key IT systems that support the competition, staff training, and other organisational aspects, and talk to experts who will share their experience in the technical organisation of the Olympic Games.
Performance Measurement System
As the name implies, this set of systems is designed to record and measure the results shown by athletes. All of these systems are physically located directly at the Olympic venues. Each competition venue, be it tracks, rinks, or swimming pools, is equipped with sensors that record and transmit information about the progress of the competition to a database.
Spectators will be able to see results, replays of the most exciting moments, and other useful information both during online broadcasts and on scoreboards installed in the sports arenas. Let’s consider some subsystems of this complex with the example of winter downhill competitions; it will be the most illustrative.
Start clock system
This system is designed for the athlete to know exactly when to start his performance. Working in tandem with it is the start gate system, which sends a signal to start timing the moment the athlete pushes off from the start line. Sensors installed along the course and at the finish line record the time of the course, from which the athlete’s speed is calculated.
At the finish line, there is a high-precision photo-finish camera, which helps determine the winner in cases of dispute. All data from the sensors is transmitted to a specialised timing system, which processes the information and sends it to a broadcast system for spectators (on the internet, television, and scoreboards) and to print media in real time. Since 1932, these systems have been the responsibility of the official ‘timekeeper’ of the Olympic Games, the Swiss watchmaking company Omega.
Results dissemination system
Let’s take a look at how the results are communicated. The data from the sensors is fed to a server that processes the results and then transmits them to the scoreboard, to the TV graphics system for spectators around the world, to the CIS server, and to commentators in the field. The central server for the results distribution system, located in the information processing centre, relays this data to the printed results system, which then sends it to the main press centre at the Olympic venue.
Internet Systems Unit
The block includes several Internet resources: the official website of the current Olympic Games, the website of the ticketing programme, as well as a group of intranet and extranet portals necessary for effective interaction of the organising committee staff both among themselves and with external organisations, individuals, and volunteers.
The official site of the Olympic Games and the site of the ticket programme are highly loaded with services. It is enough to imagine the volume of traffic and the number of requests these systems handle. Spectators from all over the world are eager to buy tickets for the exciting finals and semi-finals, follow official publications on the progress of the competition, overall standings, as well as study the standings and Olympic news.
