2012 Summer Olympics Technology | PowerSource Online Magazine

By: Kim Cullen, PowerSource Online

Last week at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, over 10,000 athletes from 196 countries converged to compete in 300 medal events in 26 different disciplines over 17 days. The Olympic worldwide athletes have been able to swim faster, run faster, jump higher and cycle longer with the help of computers and technology evolutions. This summer in London, the technology infrastructure is in full swing to support the Games themselves and the billions watching worldwide. The International community has been able to take part in viewing these remarkable athletes break records every 2 years in part due to evolving technology software and equipment. Below are snippets from a previous article ran in 2010 with some new information about the 2012 Summer Olympic games and its technological breakthroughs.

It was 1912 in Stockholm, Sweden when equipment was first used for photo finishes in Olympic Track races and events. At these Olympic Games, electronic timing devices were used, unofficially. It was not until 1932 at the Games in Los Angeles, California that the stopwatch and photo finish were used officially to determine an Olympic winner. Today, the timing and photo finishes are produced by the Omega Scan?O'Vision camera. This camera takes up to two thousand images per second. At each snapshot a time is associated and then the image is shifted. The remote control of the camera lens is managed directly from a computer. Similar technology is used to help athletes train for the Games and other competitive events. Viewing and analyzing their swim stroke or high jump angle of their body helps athletes and their coaches push themselves to their best performance, frame by frame. In 2007, AT&T announced that it had achieved a complete technology and equipment overhaul at three Olympic Training Centers across the United States. The new circuit has further helped the US Olympic Team and coaching staff connect and improve.

In the 1924 Paris, France Olympics, the first technological turning point focused on the fans of the games. It was at the 1924 Olympics when the radio broadcasted the games live for the first time. The Berlin, Germany 1936 Olympics were the first Games to be televised and broadcasted locally in Germany. International viewers in 1936 were given the opportunity to know the results by telex, a global teleprinter routing network, and newsreel film delivered days after the events. In Melbourne, Australia at the 1956 Olympic Games, a live International broadcast of the Games on television premiered. However, because the boycotts and political turmoil of the Games in 1956, many viewers were only able to see a select few pre-recorded events. The Tokyo, Japan 1964 Olympics were the first to be viewed by satellite with live telecast seen globally. At the Beijing, China 2008 Olympic Games, coverage was not only broadcasted globally via satellite but was also available for online viewing in real time. In the United States, NBC Universal shot over 3600 hours of Olympic coverage that aired on its multiple HD television channels and had available games online via live broadband coverage.

The 2002 Salt Lake City, Utah Winter Olympic Games featured computers to track and certify access to all of the athletes, coaches, media and tourists from around the world attending the Games. Results of each game were also compiled, analyzed and sent to worldwide website visitors and reporters in real time. Thousands of computers in the Salt Lake City Olympics were provided by multiple IT equipment and service providers including Qwest Communications. IBM was the main provider and technology sponsor of the Olympic Games for 40 years, starting in 1960. IBM did not renew its sponsorship as of 1998. The Summer Olympics in Beijing in 2008 included over 300,000 pieces of equipment furnished by Lenovo, the sole hardware provider of the 2008 Games.

The 2010 Winter Games were the first Olympics to converge all voice, video and data traffic over a single IP-based network. Bell Canada, the Telecommunications Partner, and Nortel, the VoIP equipment provider, worked hard to provide security and reliability in voice, video, data and broadcast services for the 2010 Winter Games.
Atos Origin has the responsibility for information technology including consulting, systems integration, operations management, information security and software applications development once again for the 2012 Olympics. In London, a fully operational Equipment Deployment Centre has been set up by Atos with more than 10,000 computers, servers, and network and security devices. These will be configured and distributed to more than 90 Olympic venues.
For the 2010 Olympics, the first IT managers and engineers to start working on the Vancouver project nearly 4 before the games began. The Technology Operations Centre for the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver included 800 Servers, 6,000 Computers, 4,000 Printers, result system terminals, including CIS and Intranet terminals. Over 100,000 hours of testing take place before the games begin to make certain the infrastructure is ready. In preparing for the 2012 Olympic Games, over 200,000 total hours of testing has already taken place.
Acer is the hardware provider at the London Olympics. Acer won the hardware partner contract for the Olympic games in 2008 (previously held by Lenovo). The 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver was Acer?s first Olympic partnership. By August, Acer will have delivered 13,500 PCs, including 2,000 notebooks, 96 Terabytes of storage and 900 Gateway- and Altos-branded servers for use by athletes, trainers and the Olympic broadcasting community.

After the Games are over, Acer will make a range of base unit, monitor and PC bundles available to the education sector. Acer?s partners, European Electronique, Probrand and Softcat sold the units to schools in bundles (starting from ?7,999, and include 10 units that were used in the Games, badged and certified, 20 brand new Acer units, and classroom management software) which will be delivered after the Games this Fall.

Computers and technology advancements will continue to push our athletes to reach new heights, manufacturers and service providers to build impressive equipment and networks, as well as allow the Global Community to enjoy the Games. As technology helps bring the world together this summer for the Olympic Games, most countries put aside political and religious differences to focus on the events and amazing worldwide athletes. Enjoy watching the Olympic Games this Summer.

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Source: http://www.powersourceonline.com/magazine/2012/08/2012-summer-olympics-technology

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