Updated 15AUG2000 : Technical Rehearsal 2
Updated 01SEP2000 : Added pictures and commentary for Athletics Test Event
Updated 11APR2005 : I bumped into Kim today -- at my new job at Austar! -- and she corrected her name on the page!
She's also married since then. Hi to everyone who worked at Sydney!
Complete set of IBC Australiana will follow!
Update: I bumped into Bruce Macavaney (that's Australia's Bob Costas) on the Friday arvo before the Opening Ceremony! I got an autograph and a 5-minute chat. I got him on video but more impressively I also managed to catch Rupert Murdoch as he entered the stadium. I wonder if he caught the train? In other news, I'm dying to get an audience spot on Roy & HG's The Dream. Failing that, I am ready to sacrifice something serious to get a Fatso the Fatarsed Wombat Pin. The actual stuffed toy is worth sh*tloads more than the official Syd2K mascots (Syd, Olly and Dickhead).
The International Broadcast Centre, at every Olympic Games, is the absolute hive of activity for all things technical. The lucky few who gain admittance to this metropolis will never see so many cables and TV monitors again in their lives, unless they go to a subsequent Games. Yet all these facilities are in place for around six weeks, from Lock Down to Tear Down.
The IBC in 2000 is twice the size of Barcelona 1992 and 50% larger again than Atlanta 1996. It is unique this time in that it is located across the road from the primary indoor and outdoor stadia, thus the chances of spotting an athlete who has just broken a world record, strolling the corridors to and from an interview, are higher. This former warehouse, the largest in the southern hemisphere, will be a miniture United Nations during the Games, with a security level equalled only by the Athletes' Village.
Most of the Rights Holders' studios have begun construction in mid-August, including NBC America's behemoth "Just Add Water Studio", JAWS, which only needs assembly from shipping containers and some air-conditioning, water and power plugged in through the top. In early September the on-air staff start to arrive, including world-famous presenters, yet even people like Katie Couric and Matt Lauer will need to eat at either the 24-hour canteen, the IBC McDonald's, or the restaurant Live Feed, right next to paid and unpaid volunteer staff like me. I am one of around six Technical Specialist Volunteers that are involved in production with a primary system at the IBC.
And yes, my friends want to know, my meal voucher entitles me to one burger or muffin, medium fries, and apple pie or cookies at McDonald's if I don't use it at the other canteens.
The IBC being the multinational hub that it is, some artists decided to distill the words and images of Australia and pepper them around the centre.
The beginning of the "main drag" has six 2-metre billboards to greet our
international guests with some Aussie slang in their faces. Each one contains
a really well-known Aussie phrase and a picture, which will either explain it
or further bemuse the foreigner.
As seen at the Athletics test event (mostly some funky moving two-colour test patterns). This is the heart of the IBC, where all the moving images, having come from all across Sydney (and interstate, for the Football), having been processed and produced, are now fit for consumption -- except for the localised commentary. Having come to the heart, the images disperse once more, first to the dozens of rights holders, where they have their studios and on-air hosts, and then overseas, to the potential audience of 4 billion.
But, before they get there, people like me with an IBC accreditation pass, and a bit of spare time during lunch hour, get to wander from the canteen over here. Because these particular square metres of the IBC actually belong to SOBO, and not to a rights holder, SOBO thought they might as well show everybody what they are producing. As you can see, they will produce one bucketload of content!
On standby at Technical Rehearsal 2. The entire bank of TVs won't fit into one photo.
Here you get an idea of the typical thoroughfare of cables above our heads. Directly ahead are some temporary maps, on which I could see ZDF/ARD. Notice the orange streetsign above head-height on the left, viewed from behind, which says "Street 18". These were taken down after Technical Rehearsal 2 to increase the Australiana factor and give each street a name with Aussie slang.
Now you get an idea of the typical appearance of each "street" in the IBC, from the gyprock walls behind which the Rights Holders cower, to the Meccano-set style of construction. Don't be fooled by the bright light shining on the Meccano on the left; that's only strategically-positioned fluroescent lighting. Natural light inside the IBC is very rare.
There is a road to cross here, at the far end of the Main Drag. Most people will walk this way if they want to get to the second food court, directly behind, where the McDonald's is. The SOBO Control Rooms are part of the same building behind here, but access is normally separated, so that you have to walk to the left here to get to the Control Rooms where I work.
There's an interesting 4-way connector around the top-left of picture. I think there's another interesting mess around the bottom of the picture but it's not very visible.
I'm not the only person who thought this was an interesting shot. The Transit building is visible on the left and the massive Stadium Australia south-western stand is visible in the background. There is a walkway to the right of the yellow sign that goes parallel to the cabling, and ends at an eastern security checkpoint entry to the IBC.
All of this cabling belongs to SOBO or a rights holder, and all of it will be reclaimed by the owners at Tear Down. While the whole purpose of SOBO's existence is to use the same cameras and cabling for all the countries who buy Olympic Games coverage, there are some rights holders who pay SOBO a premium for installing exclusive cameras -- these networks then have to lay their own cable back to the IBC. (This also explains why SOCOG appeared to be fumbling with ticket allocations when they released extra seats that didn't go on sale in the first allocation -- because bids for camera space, known as "seat destroyers", were still being taken). Networks like Seven and NBC want their own cameras in the stadium, not just the SOBO feeds of the SOBO cameras trained on each athlete; this way NBC gets to control the camera direction, not just deciding which of the close-ups available to every network, to choose from. Networks like NHK Japan also want their own cameras because they want to provide HDTV content, so naturally this means buying HDTV cameras, installing them and laying the special cables all the way back to the IBC. This expense is on top of the fee NHK pays SOBO for the privilege of destroying seats. SOBO also has special cables for special cameras -- because super-slow-motion cameras produce three times as many frames as normal cameras, cables for these cameras have to run along these viaducts too.
This bank of monitors will be used to make sure all the Athletics and Gymnastics coverage looks consistent across different video cameras.
When I walked past this room at the Athletics test event, a bunch of cameras were pointed at the corridor window for some reason!
This is in the middle of the room where I'll be working.
From here, the coverage of certain Gymnastics events will be directed and coordinated.
If you had to bet on where the Mens' 100m Final coverage would be directed, this would be it.
And when the Mens' 100m Final is over, this is where the super-slow-motion replay will come from.
I put my BYO Optus SIM in my phone (because Vodafone had no new cell) and placed it next to an IBM staffer's Telstra mobile phone. Both are indicating that they are in the cell "IBC", as transmitted on broadcast text channel #050. Ironically, it is only Vodafone that usually places cell location information on channel #050, not Optus or Telstra. Which is why the Telstra Mobilenet users were even more surprised to see something pop up on their displays.
It's a 5-minute walk to the IBC from the train station. The friendly volunteers who greet you as you leave the train might not know about the IBC. You have to go straight ahead, past Stadium Australia, and turn right.
A bit further along, the entrance I'd heard about wasn't ready yet at Technical Rehearsal 2. I thought I'd seen it but it turned out to be a huge cabling viaduct. Because of this, I had to walk another ten minutes around the western perimeter.
Here is the same cabling viaduct, which now looks like it's going to the Superdome indoor stadium. The Transit building is on the left, and you can see the verandah outside the second food court further along.
Some of the colourful Sydney 2000 banner flags and the satellite farm. The satellite dishes pointing towards you are oriented east over the Pacific, likely pointed to Intelsat or Panamsat birds to talk to America. The ones pointing right are probably aimed at Asian birds to talk to Europe. What looks like a double-horned dish is actually two irregularly-shaped dishes, likely transmission capable.
At the Athletics test event it was a bit sunnier so I took the chance to get some closer photos of the dishes. Apparently that fence represents the safety threshold for the radiation. Sound too simple to you too?
You can now see those two funny dishes better. In the last photo there was a wall to my right, between me and some guards. This time there wasn't. They didn't seem to care that I was framing my shot.
Everybody enters through the metal detectors, one of which can be seen at extreme left, while the helpful security people in yellow search your chattels. People coming to the IBC for the first time will then go up the stairs for Venue Training. But for most people the way to get to their work area is via the Main Drag, which is the name of the big corridor that begins to the left of the "G'day" sign that sits above the SOBO reception desk. You can possibly make out some other words, such as "on ya" and "drongo", which belong to the slang billboards (see Australiana). The first food court is behind those signs. The TVs hanging from the ceiling were installed after Technical Rehearsal 2, but as at the Athletics test event, the big-screen Panasonic in the foyer still wasn't showing anything. The IBM PCs in the foreground of the picture are some kind of information kiosk -- everything here is an odd mixture of making visiting tourists and complete strangers feel at home, as long as they're accredited visiting tourists and complete strangers with the correct identification pass. To the right and behind the picture is a newsagent, souvenir shop, UPS depot and Westpac bank (yes, these all require IBC accreditation to get to). As you can see, I waited for all the security folks to look the other way.
This is the 900-seat food court during Technical Rehearsal 2, under construction. Directly ahead is the McDonald's still under construction. To the left is one of the exclusively-Visa ATMs.
Now at the Athletics test event, the McDonald's is finished and ready to go. Yet despite all the little red laminated signs around all the IBC corridors saying, "McDonald's Open Now --->", I was working on a weekend before 24-hour operation kicked in (mind you, the shuttle buses to Lidcombe station were running on 24 hours a day on a 15-minute frequency in late August). The red sign to the left is explaining how generous they're being by selling all their burgers at $2 during their nationwide August promotion, despite the necessity for this store to charge slightly higher prices under normal circumstances. I think the burgers are going to be $3 each at Games Time. Oh well, it's still cheaper than anywhere else within half an hour's walk! If you look at the menu, I think you'll find it's a McDonald's Express limited menu.
Another shot during Technical Rehearsal 2 before the 900 seats come in. This is looking further right than the last shot, and the verandah can be seen outside.
Unfortunately for curious browsers, the Sydney Olympic Broadcasting Organisation (SOBO) has leased large rooms behind gyprock panelling to overseas Rights Holders who paid big money, and these TV networks and consortia are very shy about their studios. Not only do they fear for their security from other IBC attendees, but they have without exception gone to great lengths to seal their temporary offices from all sides and above, so that nobody can look in and discover "the look" that their coveted Games coverage will be packaged with. All you see is a bland door with a sign, "For Access to this Broadcaster, please contact SOBO Security on 8xxx xxxx", and perhaps a small logo in a few cases. Typically, a big name like the BBC has just a generic label on its door, saying "GBBBC" (perhaps because there is another "B" Broadcasting Corporation that is not from Great Britain).
The doors were open like this at Technical Rehearsal 2. The generic blue sign says "NBC Access Point - Please Present NBC ID".
From this angle you can see a small NBC peacock trademark inside, and a Kermit the Frog doll behind the reception desk.
Now this is where Katie and Matt will have to walk up the stairs whenever they want the special studio with the massive Stadium Australia as the backdrop (to be seen towards our left). Bruce McAvaney and gang will probably make regular visits up here too, and they only have to walk from the Channel 7 studios, straight behind the wall 45 degrees to the right of picture. NBC's studios sort of go on and on behind that. This is one of Sydney's nicest bluest skies right here.
As you can see, it gains a good vantage point, and contains three small studios.
My role, as a Technical Specialist Volunteer (TSV), is to operate the TV Interface (TVInt) computer which, on one side, talks to the IBM Results Systems, and on the other, talks to the Broadcast Interface (BrInt). Operation basically involves monitoring its automated system and calling someone if it plays up. This is a role deemed straightforward enough to be given to a volunteer, and the BrInt is operated by an IBM staffer. The BrInt is in turn connected to the Video Character Generator (VCG), which at these Games is the not-very-loved Chyron Max!>. Operated by SOBO staff, the VCG is what actually overlays static information, like competitor lists, onto video footage. (Dynamic information, like race clocks, is overlaid by services from Swiss Timing, aka Swatch). The output from the VCG is then sent to the control room where the director and her team for that event decide which video to use. So, if something goes fubar at my end, the director can always choose some raw video footage without SOBO's graphics, from the same event. The output from the control room is then sent to SOBO Tech who pass it on to all the Rights Holders if they request it.
The TSVs are generally third or fourth year computing science students who were drafted by the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (SOCOG) to work next to paid IBM staff during Games Time and/or for testing roles in the preceding months. The Sydney Olympic Broadcasting Organisation (SOBO), who provide a pool of footage using one set of equipment for the international broadcasters, require IBM to provide electronic games information from IBM's Results System database, to put this information on your TV screens. Thanks to this arrangement, and because SOBO will handle the athletics and gymnastics events at the nearby IBC rather than directly on site (where space is scarce), I have had the luck to work in the IBC too.
This room is almost identical to the Athletics room where I was at Technical Rehearsal 2. During Games Time there will be some more equipment, less mess, and the lights will be down during operations, with only the fluros in the black casing above the desks being used. Notice the sonic dampeners on the far wall: These are highly effective. If you walk past them with your ear a few centimetres from the wall, you feel like that ear is going deaf.
The leftmost IBM PC is a BrInt (which I was operating during Technical Rehearsal 2), specifically an NT BrInt Client, because there are so many simultaneous athletics events that they've split the usual PC-DOS BrInt into a newer client/server subsystem. The IBM PC directly above it on the shelf is BrInt B, the backup BrInt. The IBM PC to the right of BrInt A is an IBM Competition Information System (CIS) touch-screen terminal, identical to many other CIS terminals providing IBM's intranet coverage throughout the Olympic venues. To the right of that is the VCG preview monitor, and next to that is the VCG's low-resolution control monitor. Above that one is the VCG output monitor, showing what we send to the rest of SOBO (on top of video footage that SOBO feeds through us), and on the desk in front of it is the VCG itself.
This setup is duplicated where the crowd of people are gathered, and the entire row is duplicated again further back in the room. The TVInt machines are located between those two halves. Sitting in one of the unloved TR2 seats is one of the Spanish staff, contracted by IBM to produce the BrInt software and troubleshoot it. The blonde-haired woman sitting next to her is probably Kim Peters, [nee Polley] who is responsible for SOBO's games coverage "look", making sure of such things like VCG graphics lining up exactly with Swiss Timing graphics; but at Technical Rehearsal 2 she is operating the VCG.
More updates ... one day :)
