Fullscreen HTML5Med Res (??MB)HTML4

How they’re bringing yo The Ga a We probably don’t need to remind you about an event happening in Sydney (and other cities) this month. After almost a decade of bid preparation, winning the bid and planning, the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games have received, and will receive, more coverage than any event in history. Here’s how Australia’s telecommunications company, Telstra, along with international IT giant IBM have built the infrastructure those games are going to require. 4  Silicon Chip ou by Ross Tester Games a SEPTEMBER 2000  5 T his month, more than 10,000 athletes and 5000 officials from 200 countries will converge on Sydney to take part in 28 sports. About 15,000 accredited media personnel will provide TV, print and radio coverage for an estimated worldwide audience of more than 3.5 billion people. A further 8000 unaccred-ited media personnel will send stories about Australia to this massive global audience. The most comprehensive communications network in Games’ history has been set up for the Olympic Family, athletes, officials, broadcast and print media, other sponsors, security, head of state and all visitors to the Games and the Paralympic Games which follow. Working in closely with this is one of the largest, most complex information technology (IT) infrastructures ever built, to manage and distribute Games information to the world. The Millenium Network The Millennium Network is the communications network designed and developed by Telsta specifically for the Games. It combines the resour-ces and infrastructure of the existing Telstra network and several new Games-dedicated networks . Services include voice, data, video, mobile and trunk mobile radio. About 1100 technicians from around Australia will be involved in maintaining and operating the Millennium Network during the Sydney Olympic Games. In 1988 and 1992, Telstra worked with the Korean and Spanish telecommunications authorities on the Seoul and Barcelona Olympic Games respectively. More recently, they assisted with telecommunications at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games and the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympic Games, gaining invaluable experience for Sydney. The Millennium Network will service some 35 competition venues (12 at Sydney Olympic Park), three Olympic Villages (for athletes, media and technical officials), the Main Press Centre (MPC) and International Broadcast Centre (IBC), together with more than 100 non-competition venues (covering areas such as transport, ticketing and accreditation) and official training venues. The backbone of the Millennium Network is a series of fibre-optic rings linking all the venues with the International Broadcast Centre, key telephone exchanges and international gateways carrying data, telephony, audio and mobile services from the venues. Much of the supporting infrastructure that will serve the Games is already in use as part of the existing network. This includes optic fibre submarine cable connections to Asia, North America and Europe, satellite earth stations in Western Australia and Sydney, a national network of more than 1.2 million kilometres of optic fibre cable, digital switching and transmission facilities, and a digital mobile network that covers more than 94% of the Australian population. On top of this, several new dedicated networks around the main site, Sydney Olympic Park at Homebush Bay, have been specially built and installed. These include: • Transmission Network • Switched Networks • Mobile & Wireless Network • Broadcast Transmission Network • Video & Audio Networks • Cable TV Network • Data Network for IBM • World Network The Olympic Transmission Networks will deliver thousands of high quality circuits for broadcast video, audio, voice, high speed data, telephony, fax, ISDN and digital mobile phone base stations (GSM and CDMA). As well, there is a 60-channel Olympic cable television service plus other related communications services for Sydney and interstate venues, various road events, the International Broadcast Centre (IBC), Main Press Centre (MPC), Commercial TV and Telstra networks. The Millennium Network will provide up to 30,000 telephone and fax lines to the Olympic Villages, media centres and competition venues, in addition to capacity for 15,000 mobile communications services for the Olympic family. A close-up view of the huge screen in Telstra’s Global Operations Centre in Melbourne (seen also on the previous page). This centre controls and monitors all international traffic in and out of Australia and (including that from the Olympic Games control centre in Sydney. During September, this centre takes on an even more significant role than normal. 6  Silicon Chip Various types of media – voice, video and data – can be carried by the same fibre-optic network using the international SDH standard. Self-healing ring architecture protects against cable outages and node failures by providing duplicate, geographically diverse paths for each service. If a fibre is cut, the services affected are sent via an alternative path through the ring without interruption. Telephone services from all venues will rely on Centrex, a telephone system which delivers PABX-type services but unlike a PABX, all switching occurs at a local telephone exchange. Because the service is provided from a telephone exchange, it greatly improves reliability and peak traffic handling ability, as the much larger Sydney network is used to carry the Olympic traffic. The Centrex system also greatly reduces the need for cabling to venues, which would otherwise be redundant after the Games. A megametre of cable... Speaking of cabling, more than 1000km of building cabling and about 25,000 telecommunication outlets have been installed through all competition venues as well as selected non-competition venues such as the IBC, MPC and Olympic family hotels. The cable is PVC-free, to meet environmental standards. Copper cable is used for telephone, data, wideband services (at 2 Mbps), video cable, fax and audio commentary circuits (up to 15kHz). Fibre (much of it 155 Mbps) has also been run for IBM, the Sydney Olympics IT partner and major international sponsor. When the games begin, all systems will have had a thorough work-out at “test events” such as this basketball match held under Olympic conditions in Sydney. The mobile telephony network technology at Sydney Olympic Park for GSM mobile telephony includes micro cells and macro cells installed to cater to the large number of users expected in a comparatively small area. More than 60 indoor cells (customised systems) cover all venues requiring in-building telephony coverage. Some 140 outdoor micro cells cover outdoor areas within the common domain areas of Sydney Olympic Park and other venues. The micro cells function like standard mobile telephony cells but cater to a smaller coverage area. Six macro cells are used within the Sydney Olympic Park area, while one umbrella macro cell covers the entire park. The CDMA network for the Sydney Olympics operate from six macro cell stations and in-building micro cells, with each venue having at least one CDMA cell. A total of approximately 70 CDMA micro cells are used, with each cell fed with fibre back into the Telstra network. To maintain the aesthetic value of various buildings, the micro cells and antennas were camouflaged – disguising them in the same colour And a million mobile phones The mobile and wireless network has been designed to not only meet the requirements of Games organisers but to deliver additional capacity to meet the massive demand for mobile services expected from spectators. Both GSM and CDMA networks are involved. In Sydney Olympic park, Darling Harbour and other Games venues, the existing networks’ capacity has been expanded to provide the densest mobile coverage ever seen (or heard). Capacity has been planned to cope with the mobile phone needs of up to 500,000 spectators at Sydney Olympic Park and an additional 500,000 people in the Sydney area. About 1100 Telstra technicians from around Australia will be involved in maintaining and operating the Millennium Network during the Sydney Olympic Games. In some instances, particularly at major venues and broadcast and media facilities, staff will rostered to provide 24 hour service. SEPTEMBER 2000  7 as the building and installing them in unobtrusive locations within buildings. “Leaky Coax” technology “Leaky Coax” – radiating coaxial cable – is a signal-boosting technique commonly used in locations where RF signals are too weak to provide reliable communications. It uses pre-cut holes that emit a controlled amount of RF energy. This leakage along the cable’s length provides continuous coverage along the chosen route. Leaky coax cable will be used as the antenna system in confined areas such as train tunnels and railway platforms so mobile phones may be used on trains and on the platform at Olympic Park railway station. Digital trunk radio The Olympic Radio Network, a digital trunk radio system, will be used during the Games for a range of operations, transport, emergency services and security functions. The system comprises 12 base stations, employing 224 transmitters across the Sydney metropolitan area. Three of the base stations are in the vicinity of Sydney Olympic Park and two of these provide in-building coverage for Stadium Australia and the Sydney International Aquatic Centre. Every site has one control channel to manage traffic across the network, plus talk channels, which range from seven for small sites up to 27 for the largest site. The digital system supports as many as 9,000 radio handsets for SOCOG, organised into as many as 100 user groups, or ‘Talk Groups’ of customers each with their own handset. The Olympic Security Command Centre will use another 3000 handsets. Video and audio The Telstra Video and Audio (VandA) network provides high quality video and associated audio services. The network is based mainly on pointto-point fibre, with some venues using SDH. VandA will also be available to other locations such as beauty spots and road events and any other location connected to the existing fibre network. The video and audio interface being offered to the broadcasters are standard broadcast formats: PAL with associated audio or SDI 270 Mb with embedded audio. Games cable TV A special purpose 60-channel analog cable TV (CATV) point-tomulti-point video service has been installed for the Olympics. This network enables the Olympic family to follow Games progress and is required to provide media and broadcasters with monitoring facilities at all events in all venues. It also allows athletes to follow progress of events from their Village. The cable TV content will be sourced from Sydney Olympic Broadcasting Organisation (SOBO) at the IBC and distributed via the network to all competition and non-competition venues in Sydney, including the Olympic villages. The two forward fibre transmitters working at 1550 nanometres will enable service within a 40km radius of the IBC, including the furthest Sydney venue, Penrith Lakes. Information technology The IBM Global Services Olympic technology team has developed three core information systems: the Games Management Systems; the Results System; and INFO, an intranet-based information resource for the 260,000 members of the Olympic Family. Olympics Communications and Information Technology In Brief:  The Millenium Network, the communications system created by Telstra especially for the Games, has been in planning and development for nine years;  It services more than 35 competition venues, three Olympic Villages, the International Broadcast Centre, the Main Press Centre, a Technology Command Centre and dozens of training venues;  It services more than 50 non-competition venues;  It has more than 4,800 kilometres of optical fibre connecting the Olympic venues and the International Broadcast Centre – more than five times the distance between Sydney and Melbourne;  It has 280 video links from sporting venues to the International Broadcasting Centre and 3,200 audio links – 90% for use by broadcasters, the remainder for organisers and emergency services;      It has 250 data links for timing and scorekeeping; It has 60 private cable TV channels to provide live action to the IBC and the Olympic venues and villages; It links into Telstra’s national network of 1.2 million kilometres of optic fibre; It provides international access via 11 satellites and submarine cables. And it will offer facilities for HDTV transmission from Australia.  Three Information Technology systems have been developed by IBM – the Games Management System mainly used by SOCOG to run the Games, the Results System(including commentator information) and the INFO general information resource which goes out to 2000 workstations and Olympic information kiosks.  Want more information? Visit the games website, www.olympics.com or Telstra's website, www.telstra.com 8  Silicon Chip In addition, IBM is working jointly with SOCOG, developing and managing the Official Sydney 2000 Olympic Games Web site, www.olympics.com Games management systems The Games Management Systems is a set of applications which SOCOG uses to run the Games. Applications include accreditation, medical, arrivals and departures and incident tracking. In addition, SOCOG is providing a set of additional applications including Olympic entries, qualification, accommodations, staffing, ticketing and transportation. Games result system The Games Results System is made up of two major components, the Venue Results applications and the Central Results System. The Venue Results applications collect competition data including timing, scoring and statistical information from each event, process the results based on international sport federation rules and feed them to scoreboards and a variety of other output devices in the Olympic Games venues. Results are fed to the Commentator Information System (CIS), used by more than 1,000 broadcast media personnel at the Games and to the TV graphics for display on TV screens around the world. The Central Results System is a massive data warehouse managed by a DB2 database, hosted by an S/390 Parallel Sysplex server and stored in RAMAC Virtual Array storage devices. INFO is the “electronic encyclopedia of the Games” and distributes comprehensive information about virtually every aspect of the Olympic Games — past and present — to more than 2,000 workstations and kiosks to athletes, officials, the media and the general public. The Central Results System is at the heart of the Olympic Games, accessible 24 hours a day. The system receives competition information from the Venue Results applications and distributes it to 15,000 media personnel via more than 700 printers. At the competition venues, printed results are also distributed to international sport federation officials, athletes, coaches and media. The Central Results System also transmits the competition results to the World News Press Agencies (WNPA) and feeds this information to INFO for viewing by the Olympic Family and to the Official Games Web site for the public. An IBM S/390 computer is at the central site with IBM Netfinity servers located in the venues via both local area networks (LAN) and a wide area network (WAN). In all, approximately 9,000 IBM Personal Computers and ThinkPads are or will be connected to this Olympic Games network to provide access to critical data within the venues and to communicate with the Central Results System. CIS: the broadcaster’s information resource The Commentator Information System (CIS) is available for 10 Olympic Readers outside the Sydney area may not realise how large it is – and the distances involved. This map shows the venue distances from Sydney Olympic Park at Homebush Bay (No. 1). The Olympic Rowing Course at Penrith Lakes (No. 13) is almost 40km away. Even so, all Olympic venues are no more than a 45 minute drive from Sydney Olympic park or Newington, the new suburb alongside which houses all athletes and team officials. All venues on this map are networked with fibre-optic cable. SEPTEMBER 2000  9 sports. CIS provides international broadcasters with real-time competition information directly from the venue databases, enabling them to bring their audiences timely coverage right from the field of play. Broadcasters access CIS through touch-screen workstations located in commentator booths in the Games venues. At any time commentators can call up results, statistics, medals data and current Olympic Games information to enhance their broadcasts and event coverage. CIS workstations receive unofficial competition results through a dedicated local area network (LAN) in each venue the moment the information becomes available. Once competition results are made official by the sport’s governing body, CIS is immediately updated to reflect the final results. INFO System: streamlining information access INFO is an intranet-based system that is the primary resource for sharing information among the Olympic Family. This “electronic encyclopedia of the Games” distributes comprehensive information about virtually every aspect of the Olympic Games — past and present — to more than 2,000 workstations and kiosks located throughout the Olympic venues. INFO users can access the following information categories: results and statistics; biographies and profiles; historical results; medal information; records; schedules; news; transport; weather and facts & figures. In addition, accredited Olympic Family members including media, athletes, coaches, volunteers, broadcasters, international sport federation members and International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Sydney Organising Committee (SOCOG) staff are provided with an email address within INFO, allowing them to send mail and post messages for one another via electronic bulletin boards. INFO workstations located in media centres and Games venues are IBM PCs running a Netscape Communicator browser on a Windows NT platform. The Olympic Games website: www.olympics.com Together SOCOG and IBM are creat10  Silicon Chip ing the Official Sydney 2000 Olympic Games Web site. One of the largest event Web sites in the world, it makes the Sydney Games more accessible to sports fans worldwide. Containing about 30,000 pages of information, this site is expected to receive in excess of two billion hits during 2000. Anyone with a Web browser and Internet access can browse the official Web site for a wide range of information about Sydney and the Games, including: sports and venues, news, arts festivals, tickets and merchandise. The site has been updated regularly as preparations for the Games are finalised. During the Games, additional information and services will be available, including real-time results, photos, athlete biographies and interactive features. And Olympic information on to the world… Sydney Olympic Park venues are redundantly linked to IBM’s two data network hub centres at Homebush via a dedicated fibre network. These break out into IBM computer systems in the hubs. The Homebush dedicated fibre network will deliver 155Mb connectivity per link. There is a dedicated transmission network linking the IBC, International gateway exchanges in Sydney at Oxford Falls and Paddington and a national transmission hub exchange, also in Sydney. Video traffic will leave Australia via earth stations Sydney and Perth, Western Australia, under the overall control of the Global Operations Centre in Melbourne. It will use a combination of SDH transmission technology with self-healing ring structures and some direct optic fibre from venues on diverse paths. Most broadcasters are expected to use digital compressed video due to its cost effectiveness and its ability to put out more than one channel simultaneously. Four digital video channels can be accommodated per transponder bandwidth compared to one using analog technology. The compression technology is based on MPEG-2. To provide a remote area and multipoint distribution network, the national terrestrial network is complemented by a satellite network incorporating PanAmSat’s PAS-2 Australia/New Zealand beam. Internationally, Telstra has transmit and receive access to a wide range of INTELSAT satellites in the Pacific area, Asia Pacific and Indian Ocean regions, as well as access to PanAmSat and AsiaSat systems. These satellites are accessed via satellite earth stations in Sydney (Pacific area and Asia Pacific regions) and SC Perth (all three regions). Acknowledgement: Information and photographs courtesy Olympic media departments of Telstra and IBM. Games images to the world’s TV audience will leave Australia via earth stations in Sydney and Perth in Western Australia.