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 Readers, it has been a bit of a hectic month since we last put finger to keyboard for you, but you will be delighted to know that having survived the headiness of the Formula One Sponsorship Forum in Monaco, the frenzy of the European Sponsorship Association Congress in Rome and the excitement of The Global Sports Infrastructure Conference 2005 at The Oval in London this month, our conference-fest is now over for another year.
That means we can now bung a few lumps of peat on the fire, put our linen suits in the loft, drape a bit of tinsel around our slender necks and put our efforts fully into making sure our eponymous event on 23 February next year goes as swimmingly as ever. That’s right folks, Sport and Technology: The Conference 2006 is only a matter of weeks away and tickets are flying off the shelves like proverbial hotcakes (S&T just loves to mix those metaphors). We really aren’t lying when we tell you that we can only fit 172 of you into BT Centre for the event (or less of you depending how much chocolate you scoff in December) – so make sure you don’t leave it too long before booking your seat. S&T is still mopping up the tears from those of you who didn’t register in time for our inaugural event in March this year. It was heart-wrenching. We choke up every time we think about it.
So, that’s the plug over for what is being hailed (admittedly by us) as: “The must-attend sport and technology-themed event of 2006.” (P.S. Don’t be fooled by any imitation events out there unless you prefer a cardboard box with cotton reel wheels to a Ferrari that is).
Atos Origin and Torino 2006 S&T is most recently back from Torino, location of the cult 1960s movie The Italian Job (hence the ingenious title of this month’s column which took literally seconds to come up with). But we weren’t there to drive cars over roofs nor tell passers-by that our name was Michael Caine (or after the Formula One Sponsorship Forum, Michael Payne). Heck no. We were there as guests of our delightful chums at Atos Origin, IT sponsor of the Olympic Games, and to have a gander around their facilities and some of the venues for the Winter Olympics that will be held there in February next year.
The Atos Origin contract with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is the largest sports-related IT contract in the world, covering Salt Lake City in
2002, (operated as SchlumbergerSema), Athens in 2004, Torino in 2006,
Beijing in 2008, Vancouver in 2010 and London in 2012. Atos Origin has primary responsibility for Information Technology, relating to IT consulting, systems integration, operations management, information security and software applications development for the Olympics.
For Torino 2006, under organising committee TOROC’s Technology Department supervision, Atos Origin, as the lead systems integrator, is managing a consortium of more than 10 technology partners and suppliers.
In addition to its role as main integrator for IT, Atos Origin will provide two main IT systems to run the Games. The first system is the Information Diffusion System (IDS) which relays results and athlete information to on-site athletes and media representatives and Olympic family members, as well as to millions of TV and internet viewers around the world.
The second system is the Games Management System (GMS), providing accreditation, transportation and accommodation schedules, medical encounter reports, sports qualifications and protocol information. Indeed, the Accreditation (ACR) system for Torino 2006 has already been delivered and implemented successfully, thanks to Atos Origin. Over 90,000 estimated athletes, coaches, National Olympic Committee officials, media, VIPs, staff, and volunteers will require privileged access to the Games and will be registered and granted security clearance.
Combining a physical ID badge and scanning system with back-office database applications linked to the Games IT network, the Atos Origin Accreditation System for the Olympic Games will identify the accredited participants for events, manages registration processes, assign access privileges and other rights to individuals, and provide access control information.
"Through the ACR, Atos Origin brings clarity from a very complex IT function by controlling access to venues and providing participants' data," says Enrico Frascari, technology general manager for TOROC. "Atos Origin has successfully delivered the ACR system on time and to specifications, enabling the Accreditation department to start the registration process as planned."
"This is a critical part of the IT security at the Olympic Games. Each accreditation badge has a number of security layers to it including barcode technology that contains access privileges and visual identification," adds Claude Philipps, Atos Origin Olympic Winter Games programme director. Testing, testing, one, two, three S&T last saw Patrick Adiba, executive vice-president of major events and Olympics at Atos Origin at BT Centre in March this year when he spoke at Sport and Technology: The Conference 2005 (ok, that was a sneaky final plug, you got us). At that time he stressed the importance of testing systems prior to the Games, with a requirement being that all technology has to be proven to be working before the actual event. “You have no second chances with the Olympics,” he said back in March.
Fast forward nine months and testing was certainly still a top priority for the IT sponsor. The first of two technical rehearsals in the build-up to February’s competition was completed successfully in November.
At that time, TOROC and Atos Origin carried out a one-week trial of all systems that will be used in IT, communications, sports and security systems. Some 292 scenarios were tested during the week-long rehearsal, which emulated the busiest three days of next year’s Games (namely 13, 14 and 15 February). The trials involved 200 IT professionals, including 110 based at the Main Technology Centre in Torino.
The different types of scenarios covered hardware failures, information security issues, power outages, staff issues and competitions being rescheduled. Any areas for development identified by the rehearsal have been recorded and will be fed into a second and final technical rehearsal phase or “stress test” that will take place from 12-16 December. “This is when we will do the fine-tuning and everything will be put into place,” says Adiba.
There were 22 ‘critical alarms’ during the Athens 2004 Summer Games, but due to Atos Origin’s stringent testing and risk evaluation, all were dealt with and the impact on the Games was zero.
The way Atos Origin works is very conservative adds Adiba. “Anything that works, works and therefore doesn’t have to change. We are under a lot of pressure to put in new technology for the sake of it, but unless it has been tried and tested, we won’t use it. If it enables a job to be done better, then we will use it. If it doesn’t, we won’t.”
Despite Torino being only a matter of weeks away, work is already underway for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Atos Origin has already successfully delivered to the Beijing Organising Committee (BOCOG), the Accommodation System (ACM), which helps to manage the complex and ongoing accommodation requirements from thousands of Olympic family members in the years leading up to the Games.
With system building and integrating for Beijing 2008 taking place as early as the beginning of 2006, S&T fears that there really won’t be a lot of downtime for employees of Atos Origin this festive season. Luckily, they all love their work!
 Finally, before S&T signs off and wishes you all very happy holidays, we wanted to give our friends at Rentokil Pest Control the award for invention of the month. Not a sport-related gadget per se unless rat catching is your game, but the company has developed a ‘smart death trap’ where a rodent triggers a sensor pad when entering said trap and sets off a lethal dose of poison. The end result is one dead rodent and an SMS message dutifully despatched to a Rentokil technician to dispose of the unwanted visitor. Job done and an interesting use for SMS if there ever was one. On that note of extermination, make sure your children’s pet gerbils are well-secured and have a jolly rest of 2006. Someone please wake us up when it is spring again….. Rachael Church
Editor If you have any comments or feedback on this article or any of the features in S&T or life in general, we would be delighted to hear from you. Please e-mail your comments to editor@sportandtechnology.com.
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