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Getting The Information Out

Olympics IT infrastructure provider Atos Origin has created two key systems to support operations at the Games: the Games Management Systems (GMS), covered earlier this week, and the Information Diffusion Systems (IDS).

Whereas GMS supports processes such as accreditation, transportation, medical reports, and staff management, IDS gets information about the Games, including event results, out to the people who need it to do their jobs.

IDS communicates real-time competition results, as well as background information such as athletes' biographies, venue information, historical results, and weather bulletins, according to Atos Origin.

At the heart of IDS is INFO2008, an intranet that’s available to all accredited media as well as athletes, coaches, judges, sponsors, International Olympic Committee officials, and other members of the “Olympic family.” For the Beijing Games, some 200,000 individuals have access to the information on the intranet via 900 on-site kiosks dispersed throughout the Olympic venues and other locations.

Atos Origin provided a similar intranet system at the Summer Olympics in Athens in 2004, delivering more than 50,000 pages of information in English, French, and Greek, 11,000 biographies as well as historical results dating back to 1896 -- the first Olympic Games of the modern era held in Athens. Some 16 million pages were viewed during the Athens Games, according to the company.

For the Beijing Games, Atos Origin is providing wireless access to the Olympics intranet for the first time. This allows journalists to navigate the intranet from laptops and other devices via a wireless network.

IDS also includes the Commentator Information System (CIS), which delivers real-time competition results and athlete information to broadcasters. With billions of people watching the Olympic Games on television, getting results to broadcasters around the world is vital, says Jeremy Hore, chief integrator at Atos Origin for the Beijing Games.

CIS is a Java-based application that displays results on touch-screen PCs at the venue broadcast sites in a fraction of a second, so they can be instantaneously dispatched across the globe, according to Atos Origin. For the Beijing Games, eight new sports are using CIS, including shooting, fencing, weightlifting, cycling BMX, modern pentathlon, taekwondo, beach volleyball, and archery.

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