Radio / Television News

Bell completes Olympic network a year before 2010 Winter Games


VANCOUVER – Bell has launched its 2010 Winter Games telecommunications network, completing the migration of the Vancouver Organizing Committee’s communications needs from its commercial network to Bell’s network in "record setting time".

The network used almost 300 km of fibre optic cable, running from Vancouver to Whistler, to connect 130 Olympic and Games-related venues in order to deliver all voice, data, image and broadcast traffic for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games.

This includes the wireless communications needs of close to two million visitors, approximately 30,000 staff and volunteers, 5,000 athletes and 10,000 media, plus a 24/7 technology command centre called the Technology Operations Centre (TOC).

In addition, the network will carry almost 10,500 hours of broadcast coverage to more than three billion viewers around the world.

The “milestone” marks the earliest telecommunications completion in Olympic and Paralympic Games history, and will facilitate delivery of the world’s first all-IP (Internet protocol) Olympic and Paralympic Games, the press release said.

"Not only have we put the technology in place to be Games-ready faster than any host country before us, but we are the first to build an entire Olympic Games network from scratch," said Justin Webb, Bell’s vice president of Olympic services, in the release.

The network was built with secondary back-ups of every technical element, is fully redundant and engineered with excess capacity.  In preparation for the 2010 Winter Games, it will be trialed for 17 World Cup sport events, which began in January and will run through the end of March, 2009.

The Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games run February 12 – 28, 2010 in Vancouver and Whistler, BC.

www.bell.ca
www.vancouver2010.com