Olympic Park 2012

On a park tour at the end of 2009, I took the following shot of the frame of the velodrome, which looks a bit like a roller coaster.

Olympic 2012 Velodrome

It will be part of the Olympic Velopark containing track cycling for Para-Olympians and Olympians plus BMX cycling facilities. Situated at the north end of the site where the former Eastway circuit used to be, this building will have an unusual shape and a lot to live up to. Former Eastway track users have left a lot of skin on the site since 1975 when it was first built:

“Eastway is used, on a regular basis for Road Racing, Time Trials, Cyclo Cross, Mountain Bike Racing, B M X Racing, Duathlon events, Road Running, Cross Country Running, Roller Blade & Roller Skating and the occasional Sponsored ride. Sometimes if the winter weather is bad and we have enough snow, Cross Country Skiing is possible at the circuit.”

Having said that, a ‘temporary alternative’ for former Eastway circuit users has been provided at Hog Hill just off the A12 north east London (one of two alternatives, the other being Rammy Marsh in Enfield). There was a “bit of a wait” between the closure of the original circuit in 2006 and the opening of the “Redbridge Circuit“  in August of 2008. This is a boon for Redbridge Borough with the £4.5 million new facility and cyclists are taking to it and sharing the experience (see preview thanks JayCut!) although a bit unhappy to be charged for the pleasure.

And this is what the ODA says about the Legacy:

“The temporary seating for the BMX Circuit will be removed and the track reconfigured. A new mountain bike course and road cycle circuit will be added to create a VeloPark for the local community, sports clubs and elite athletes.

Outreach and sports development programmes will help ensure the new cycling ‘hub’ is suitable for all levels of ability. The facility will be owned, funded and run by the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority.”

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Two new media facilities, costing £355 from the ODA budget, are emerging. International broadcasts of the Olympic games in 2012 will come from the 60,000 m2 new International Broadcast Centre (IBC) onsite in the 2012 park. The shots below of the IBC were taken during a bus tour of the park and the venue is seen through a metal fence and the bus window.

International Press Centre

International Press Centre

The venue has been designed for games time and legacy facilities. It will contain studio space and offices over 2 floors and these can be converted into smaller units after the Olympic events, in the hope that various media companies might set up some operations in East London longer term.

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On July 27th 2012 the Olympic Games Opening Ceremony will be held in London, as the Olympic torch relay arrives from Olympia in London’s east end. We won’t know until 2011 where the torch will go on its way to the site, but it will probably come down the A11 through Tower Hamlets to the Olympic park in Stratford.

So, with a thousand days to go the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) took the opportunity to celebrate. If you were in central London last night you might have seen the light show at the BT Tower, which was also on TV during the lottery programme. If you missed that and you are in London, you can still see celebratory art at the National Portrait Gallery :

“To celebrate 1000 days to the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games, Sebastian Coe launches the National Portrait Gallery/BT Road to 2012 Project, a three-year collaboration between the National Portrait Gallery and BT, the official communications services partner for London 2012. It will create 100 world-class photographic portraits celebrating the people around the UK, both high-profile and those behind the scenes, who collectively are making the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games happen.” – National Portrait Gallery

Or around the UK, the Inspire Programme is encouraging activities locally, and e.g. in England the Arts Council is “challenging artists to use the nation as a blank canvas” in Artists Taking the Lead.

“The successful commissions will be developed across 2010 and 2011, and all 12 will take part in a final unifying celebration before the opening of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.” – Artists Taking the Lead

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How long does it take to get to Stratford from St Pancras in central London? Right now the answer is 26 minutes (or 38 minutes on the weekend due to ‘planned engineering works’ see TLF for details), but in 2012 the Olympic Shuttle will take only 7 minutes. In fact in the trial of the new ‘Javelin’ service this week, the time achieved was only 6 minutes and 45 seconds.

New Train for Olympic 2012 passengers from Kings Cross St Pancras - Stratford

This will be an important piece in the East London transport network, when is comes to games time. The ODA is aspiring to encourage use of public transport – in fact it would be impossible for all spectators to come by car – witness the gridlock at the Blackwall tunnel at rush hour. Capacity at Stratford station will be trebled, new Dockland Light Rail (DLR) tunnels are being added, there will be a new ticket hall at Kings Cross, a new DLR platform at Stratford, a direct link from City Airport to Stratford, to name but a few improvements. Overall this part of East London will be far better connected in three years.

Olympic 2012 Stadium in 2009 - constuction workers form 3 for 3 years to go!

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The internet has become such an essential part of our life, that I find it quite hard to believe that only the last 4 Olympics actually had a website – that is Atlanta ‘96, Sydney ‘00, Athens ‘04, and Beijing ‘08 (leaving winter games to one side for the moment). Considering that the first radio broadcast was in 1924 and the first TV coverage was in 1936 (Berlin of Jesse Owens vs Hitler fame), we have waited for a long time for a new medium of coverage.

I hope the ‘Technology Partners’ for the London 2012 Olympic Games (see list below) are ready to go for some really inspirational, efficient and sustainable IT infrastructure.

• Atos origin – Official Worldwide IT Partner to International Olympic and Paralympic Committee
• Samsung – Official Worldwide Wireless Telecommunications Equipment Olympic Partner
• BT – Official Partner to 2012 Olympic Games
• Nortel – Official Partner to 2012 Olympic Games (…but they have fallen prey to the downturn … currently operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection …more on that later)

Atos Origin, an international IT services company will be in charge of the IT system that relays results, events and athlete information to spectators and media around the world. It is estimated that games will use c. 900 servers, 1,000 network and security devices, and 8,000 computers, and all applications and equipment will have to undergo loads of testing.

As FT.com reports the supremo at Atos said:

“We are looking to reduce the amount of hardware, power consumption, air conditioning and space needed,” said Michele Hyron, Atos Origin’s chief integrator for the Olympics. The Beijing Games required some 10,000 computers and 50m sheets of paper. Ms Hyron said she hoped to reduce these levels “dramatically” in London.”

Atos needs to be bold, and to be encouraged to be so. The contract it now holds with the International Olympic Committee is the world’s largest IT-related sports contract covering the Athens 2004, Torino 2006, Beijing 2008, Vancouver 2010 and London 2012. So it clearly has the confidence of the IOC, but apparently they are still not sure about server virtualisation.

“Atos and the Olympic committee are still evaluating, for example, whether or not to use server virtualisation – a fairly established technique for cutting computer power consumption – at the Games.”  FT.com

Server virtualisation uses one physical server across multiple virtual machines, that can run in isolated operating environments and applications. This reduces need for hardware, power cooling etc.  Nice article by someone who knows much much more than me. It is a young technology and not normally used for large scale ops. but perhaps this is the opportunity to take it to the next stage. If they can do it, it would be nice and maybe that could even be one more ‘legacy’ of the UK games.

So far construction crews are using IT applications inside a virtualised environment, and there is the promise to improve on Beijing in other ways.

“The London Games will also make greater use of remote information systems than any previous Olympics, streaming real-time results and coverage to broadcasters around the world and offering a single feed of all Olympics news. The tech is aimed at reducing unnecessary travel by journalists and using less paper than the 2008 Beijing Olympics, where seven million sheets were printed out.” ZDNet.co.uk

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It might seem strange, but the suggestion that the United Kingdom should present a UK football team at the Olympic games including players from all four UK countries, has caused a row. Some people think that having Scottish footballers in ‘team GB’ might jeopardise Scotland’s separate status. Others think footballers in team GB should be guaranteed a future in their original team.

“The football governing bodies of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are all opposed and wrote a joint letter stating their implacable opposition to the plan earlier this year.” The Scotsman

It is quite telling that England is the only country not feeling threatened by the idea. England is also the only country without its own dedicated parliament (and in fact the other 3 coutries can vote in the UK parliament on issues that only affect England, whereas for example English MPs cannot vote in Scotland’s Holyrood).

Craig Brown, former Scotland football team manager, opposes UK team suggestion

Some people want to know “What did Sepp Blatter really say to George Peat last weekend?”, but I think the real question is actually “Would a one off-team football team gel to win at the Olympics?”

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