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Morgan:News:2010 |General| #1492
SKATEBOARDER'S GALA PUSHED TO CALGARY BECAUSE OF VANOC VENUE UPGRADINGThe Slam City Jam 2006, the North American Skateboarding Championships, will be held August 25-27 in Calgary this year, the first time it's been held outside of Vancouver, because of work the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) will be doing on venues.
More than 150 of the world's best professional skateboarders compete for about US$100,000 in prize money and the North American Championship. The organization's president, Kleo Landucci, says the interest in moving the event to other provinces became a priority as the event ran into problems operating the event because of venue upgrades in Vancouver as it prepares for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. Suitable indoor venues in Vancouver this year -- GM Place and the Coliseum "were simply no longer available because of the work being done. Calgary won the rights to host the event on the basis of its tradition of supporting amateur, professional and Olympic sports."
Venue details and information on the corporate and community partners that will sponsor the longest-running skateboarding event in North America -- 12 years -- will be outlined in March.
Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on February 16, 2006
Morgan:News:2010 |Business, VANOC| #1491
BELL TECHNICIANS FILL IN SOME OF THE MAJOR DETAILS ABOUT HOW THEY INTEND TO SUPPORT THE 2010 GAMESTwo Bell Canada technology executives have offered a detailed preview of how they see the telecommunications connections and equipment working at the 2010 Winter Games.
Justin Webb, vice-president of Olympic Services, and Norm Silins, General Manager of Olympic Telecom Solutions, made their comments as they are taking a look at the back-room telecommunications operations run by Telecom Italia and Telecom Italia Mobile at the Torino Winter Olympics. Bell won the telecom services sponsorship bid for the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) in the fall of 2004; VANOC estimates the support, financial and technical, that the company is providing is worth about C$200 million to the Organizing Committee.
Webb says the greatest difference from a technology point of view between the Torino Games and the Vancouver Games will be that as much of the system as possible will be using Internet protocols for everything from the commentator systems to the television broadcast networking. "We would like to work towards almost every application -- whether it be voice, data, Internet or cable-TV -- to run over a single, converged IP infrastructure, because it's much simpler, it's efficient, it's easy to operate," he says. "Today's games are traditional, TDM-based, and the cable-tv system is a traditional coaxial network."
On the other hand, he says, the requirements for the actual jobs that the telecommunications will support won't change much between Torino and Vancouver/Whistler: the number of users and volunteers are all 'relatively consistent," but in Torino there are seven major mountain venues, while in Whistler there are only two.
Webb says, though, that mobility systems will be considerably different by 2010 than they are in Torino. "You can see video services on the phone, and take pictures with your cellphone now, who knows where that will be in 2010."
Silins says that Bell will build "a massive infrastructure" for the 2010 Games. "We'll be providing seven fibre-optic rings to provide the Games-time network, and a lot of that development is focused on the Lower Mainland and Vancouver, as well as serving Whistler for the connectivity. And that build-up of network is both wired and wireless. We'll be building a wireless network that will provide an unprecedented level of coverage along the Sea-to-Sky corridor between Vancouver and Whistler. The benefit of that for the communities is impressive because those communities will have services and capabilities unheard of. And that's part of our overall strategy of building out our network in the west."
Webb says a unique aspect to the 2010 Games is that Bell must construct a bullet-proof system that's built for modern Games benchmarks of security, reliability, redundancy and survivability, but that once the Games are over, quite a bit of the equipment can be removed and used elsewhere. "A lot of the venues will see traffic capacity, because of usage and visitors, that they won't see again, so you want to take quite a bit of that equipment back."
The equipment that is used includes rack-mounts, back-up generators and considerable redundant capacity. "All of the venues will have redundant fibre-optic connections," says Silins, "and within the venues, there is redundancy built into the cabling and wiring, including the administrative network and the Games-times networks. All that is hubbed back to Vancouver's operational control centres."
Webb says there will be four main cables and a simple model throughout the 2010 Games venues: one for a lot of services, a telephone cable, a cable for an IP jack, and an Ethernet jack -- for plugging in closed-circuit TV, computers, servers and so on. "We're doing all the voice, data and Internet services; that's about 15,000 ports that will all be IP-based. We're also doing all the wireless coverage, which is PCS. There will be millions and millions of calls on the PCS network, and there will be about 10,000 telephones that VANOC will use to support the operations of the Games."
He also says Bell intends to provide WiFi and WiMax at all the venues as well, although WiMax will be used primarily for operations because of its ability to provide a guaranteed level of service [see Background, below, for definitions] "We're also going to provide two-way radio infrastructure -- there will be about 5,000 two-way radios in use at the Games. There's a saying that the Games run on radio... because the communications are instantaneous."
He notes there will also be a cable-TV network throughout the venues, and Bell will be connecting them all. "If you're at one venue, you'll be able to look up and see a flat-screen TV with another venue's events going on. There will be about 5,000 TVs throughout the various venues and special venues like the IOC hotel, and we will be building that infrastructure."
Bell will also be providing significant support to the national broadcasters of the Games, including Bell's CTV television network, which has the Canadian broadcasting rights. Webb says, "The broadcast video feeds are brought over a redundant fibre network. In Vancouver, that will be seven rings of fibre, as well as the commentary audio. It's overlaid onto the broadcast video streams. That is all brought back over Sonic network [a high-capacity optical fibre cable]. It will be T1 access."
Bell is also in charge of the technology supporting VANOC's web site, which will be a portal for people around the world accessing a wide range of computer applications that will help them deal with the Games over the Internet.
And, it is doing all the cabling that connects all of this together, along with timing and scoring systems provided by Swatch through its Omega brand. "It poses some interesting challenges," he adds, "as you cable up the side of a mountain to attach all the timing and scoring pieces."
Bell has a team of 20 people observing the Torino Games as they operate. Fourteen of them have been working in various roles on the Games, including broadcast, voice-technology deployment and venue telecom management. "They're getting real, hands-on experience, and they've been here for several months," says Webb. The additional six, including Web and Silins, are looking at the operational roles and services in a wide range of areas as part of the Olympics Knowledge Transfer protocol.
In just the past four days, says Silins, he, Webb and the others have had thorough access and hours of meetings with the people running Torino's venues that look after snowboarding, skiing, short-track and long-track speedskating, figure skating and hockey games, with more to see. "We've seen how all of that comes together, the timing and scoring systems, the Games-time operations systems, the scheduling systems for volunteers, athletes and the fields of play [the areas where the athletes perform]. All of that is the application technology, and all of that will be running in 2010 on Bell technology."
Silins, who did the same type of reconnasiance during the Athens Summer Olympics, which is several times bigger than a Winter Games, says it's "almost overwhelming" to see the scale of what is required to deliver an Olympic Games. On the other hand, he says, "We are going to be working, and are working today, with some of the best technicians in the world."
He adds that an Olympics requires "a massive ramp-up" just before the Games begin, which is unique to an Olympics. Silins says that in the last few months before 2010, "we are going to go into high-performance mode. We are going to test, test, test. We're going to go through technical rehearsals and testing of our systems to make sure we're performing at the highest levels."
Silins also indicates that the technicians from whatever city is chosen by the IOC next year to host the 2014 Winter Olympics will also have the same type of unlimited access to Bell's behind-the-scenes operations in 2010 as Telecom Italia is providing Bell.
The executives say that besides the meetings they've had in Torino during the Games, they've also spent some considerable time earlier this year and last summer being briefed by Telecom Italia engineers on the necessary infrastructure, and expect to meet them again this summer when VANOC hosts a debriefing session for the entire Torino Games. "They've shared with us not only their designs," says Webb, "but also details of [equipment] order volumes, how many orders they've received, who asking them what, and the profile of the services required. We know exactly what they did when they augmented their wireless capacities."
BACKGROUNDWebb says the broadcasting services will be unique for 2010. "The actual broadcast feeds will be high-density at 1.5 gigabit. If you look at an Olympic event, there are a series of cameras. The feeds from those cameras go to a truck that mixes those cameras into a single video HD feed. It won't be IP at that point, but it will be transmitted back to the broadcast centre. Depending on the rest of the connectivity, it could be an MPEG-4 type of stream. The commentary audio is a separate piece of the broadcast network. Today that's traditional TDM or T1 technology. The commentator's microphones, which operate at about 13 kilohertz, come into a box that converts that feed into a TDM or T1, and that's delivered over the Sonic ring and back to the broadcast centre. We're not sure if it's going to happen by 2010, but we hear there's some work being done to see if it's possible to bring the audio commentary over IP. If you're a commentator in a broadcast booth, beside you are two things: a commentary information system that is IP, which is a computer connected to the Games-time network. And there is a loop-back feed that is traditionally a cat-five. So maybe the commentary audio will be IP, but we envision that the video feed will be HD on a dedicated fibre strand, one for each production facility at a venue."
--
Webb also says Bell intends to build 47 new wireless base stations -- "a significant number of those are along the Sea-to-Sky highway between Vancouver and Whistler." The company is also "augmenting capacity" at about 100 other base stations. The fibre-cable route along the Canadian National rail-bed that runs next to the Sea-to-Sky highway will be build this year. It will also build fibre rings to the Callaghan Valley Nordic Centre near Whistler, as well as a fibre ring around Whistler. "In Vancouver," Webb says, "the rings are about 50% there already, so we'll complete and close some of those rings, and that work is starting this year. For each venue, there will be as series of electronics that start at the core fibre backbone all the way to routers and switches. Those will be in a box that is brought to each venue, put on a cement pad and plugged into the fibre cable, and then connected to the venue services or cabled to a tower if it's a wireless station. About 20 of those, and lesser amounts for the smaller venues.
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WiFi and WiMax: WiFi is short for ‘wireless fidelity’. A term for certain types of wireless local area networks that use specifications conforming to IEEE 802.11b. WiFi has gained acceptance in many environments as an alternative to a wired local-area network. Many airports, hotels, and other services offer public access to WiFi networks so people can log onto the Internet and receive e-mails on the move. These locations are known as hotspots. WiMax 802.16 technology is similar but is more powerful and has broadband capacity to allow multimedia applications with wireless connection, with a range of up to about 50 kilometres.
RESOURCESVANOC's website, with Bell infrastructure supporting it:
www.2010Vancouver.comPrevious articles we've written about Bell's infrastructure and VANOC's technology:
'Satellite dish to crown new VANOC headquarters; fibre-optics to channel computer feeds'
[Morgan:News:2010:Number:1419; Published on Friday, January 20, 2006]
'Bell Canada to begin laying telecom backbone for 2010 Games between Vancouver and Whistler in February'
[Morgan:News:2010:Number:1382; Published on Thursday, December 22, 2005]
'Chapin's Challenges: How the 'conductor' will keep score on VANOC's technology division'
[Morgan:News:2010:Number:1338; Published on Friday, December 2, 2005]
Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on February 16, 2006
Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1490Here are three more moguls we ran into today:
RICHMOND TENDERS ROAD RE-ROUTING AROUND OVAL
The City of Richmond has issued a formal Invitation to Tender (ITT)for companies interested in constructing the re-routing of River Road around the 2010 Richmond Speedskating Oval sports complex. The tender closes February 21. Richmond planners say the project involves rerouting the road from #2 Road to Hollybridge Way, and that the job will entail 9,240 square metres of asphalt paved roadway, 20,400 tonnes of granular base & sub-base, 100,000 tonnes of pit run sand, 395 lineal metres of concrete curb and gutter, 695 square metres of asphalt sidewalk and sidewalk crossings, 535 lineal metres of storm sewers, 950 lineal metres of watermain and 475 lineal metres of sanitary sewers. Officials had been hoping to be able to use the pre-load sand that's currently compressing the land on which the Oval is to be built, which is not far from the new roadway, and thus save some money, but it doesn't look like that will happen now. The release date of the pre-load isn't yet known, but they say that depending on soil conditions, it could be available for use as early as May 21 and as late as July 21.
VANCOUVER ISSUES WORD OF TWO TENDERS FOR OLYMPIC VILLAGE LANDS - BUT NOT DOCUMENTS
The City of Vancouver has issued two ITTs for work connected with its preparation of the land on which the 2010 Olympic Village is to be built, but it has yet to make the documents public that detail on what it wants companies to bid. One project involves densification of the southeast False Creek waterfront; the other involves site preparation, excavation and backfill of the inlet site, which involves an old dock area that's being cleaned out. There is, however, going to be a contractor's meeting held by the City on Tuesday, February 21 from 11:00 am to noon at the north end of the Domtar Salt Building, at 85 West First Avenue, just a short walk from the site of job areas. The City's project leader, Wally Konowalchuk, indicates the documents should be available shortly. The response window for both ITTs close March 1.
SULLIVAN TO MEET 2012 OLYMPICS MINISTER ON TRIP TO TORINO
Vancouver mayor Sam Sullivan leaves Sunday for a week-long trip to the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Torino, Italy, but he'll be stopping in London where he will be holding meetings with minister in charge of the 2012 Summer Olympic Organizing Committee, Lord Sebastien Coe, on February 21. Sullivan will be in Torino from February 22 until his acceptance of the Olympic Flag at the closing ceremony of the 2006 Games in Torino on Sunday, February 26. The event, which will be televised, is expected to be seen by an international audience which ranges from somewhere between 500 million to 2 billion people, but nobody connected with TOROC, VANOC or the IOC seems willing to firm that estimate up.
Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on February 16, 2006
Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1489
Here are three moguls we ran into today:
NEBBLING LISTS CONCERNS ABOUT VANOC
A Whistler property owner who was in charge of the BC government's Olympic portfolio when the VANOC's predecessor operation was bidding for the 2010 Games, and who lost an attempt last November to become mayor of Whistler, is suggesting VANOC may not be getting as much money from licensing products as it expected so far. Ted Nebbling, in an interview with Alan Forsythe, a reporter for the Whistler Question newspaper, claims the amount VANOC has budgeted for security, $177 million is "to thin," that VANOC's new head office is too big and too expensive, and that the Organizing Committee needs to communicate better with the public. "They need to encourage local and small businesses across the country and get people more involved at the community level," Nebbeling is quoted as saying. He told Forsythe he thinks VANOC will achieve its goals without being too expensive, but, he's quoted as adding, "It’s a little bit of a mystery how we will get there."
40TH ANNIVERSARY OF WHISTLER MOUNTAIN OPENING FOR SKIING
February 16 is the 40th anniversary of Whistler Mountain opening for skiing, in 1966; the area is now known as Creekside Base. Franz Wilhelmsen and colleagues in the Garibaldi Lift Company worked on the project for about three years, after learning that Squaw Valley, California, hosted the Winter Olympics in 1960, and Wilhelmsen decided he wanted his mountain to be able to do the same. In 2010, it will be the 44th anniversary -- and day 5 of the Olympic Games.
IOC MULLS OVER ORGANIZATION OF OLYMPIC TORCH RELAY
With just over 900 days to the Beijing Summer Olympics opening ceremonies, the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee has received formal permission from the IOC to negotiate with the national Olympic Committees of other countries about the route of its Olympic torch relay. However, some IOC members are suggesting that the policies of the Olympic Torch Relay, which is sponsored by several companies who receive marketing rights in return, may have to be reviewed as the result of political problems with the Relay in recent years, particularly those encountered by Torino. In Beijing's case, it originally proposed last fall to take its torch through 28 foreign cities, including some in Tibet and Taiwan, and 70 within China. However, no BOCOG official would say whether Beijing would approach Taiwan's Olympic committee regarding the relay. Torino's torch path had to be re-routed several times because of aggressive protesters who were objecting to environmental or political issues. VANOC has not yet set its Torch Relay Route, and is unlikely to seek IOC permission for its equivalent negotiations before the summer of 2007. VANOC officials have said, for instance, that they want the 2010 torch to pass through every major city in Canada and well as communities in each province and territory, plus numbers towns and cities in British Columbia. Traditionally, as well, the torch is lit by sunlight in a ceremony in Greece, and then travels from there along the route planned by the Olympic organizing committee. Meanwhile, the Torino Organizing Committee has agreed to turn off its decorations on its Mole Antonelliana landmark for one hour Thursday night to mark the anniversary of the Kyoto Agreement's signing ceremony, but has rejected an Italian environmental protest group's request to turn down the Olympic torch for the day as well. The torch burns 43 cubic metres of natural gas per hour (1,500 cubic feet), but changes to the original design brought it down to that from about 85 cubic metres (3,000 cubic feet).
Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on February 16, 2006
Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1488
Here are three moguls we ran into today:
LENOVO OFFERS SOME MARKET DATA FROM TORINO EXPERIENCE
Lenovo, the IOC's Technology Equipment sponsor of the Torino Winter Games and the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, provided a bit of market data as it talked today about its job in Torino. The Chinese-owned company that bought IBM's personal-computer division in Purchase, New York, a couple of a years ago, provided about 5,000 desktop personal computers, 350 servers and 800 notebook PCs for the Winter Games. The hardware is used in throughout the Games for collection, distribution and storage of competition results and related information. Broadcasters attending the Games are using about 1,000 Lenovo desktop PCs and touch-screen, flat-panel displays to get information from Torino's Commentator Information System run by Atos Origin, which includes athlete biographies, news and statistics. Lenovo has also equipped seven branded on-site Internet lounges in the Olympic Athlete Villages with 165 ThinkPad notebooks and Lenovo desktops. These let athletes, coaches and trainers to keep in touch with their families and supporters back home. Lenovo says that since they opened January 31, to February 15, the Internet lounges in the Torino Olympic Village were supporting about 200 athletes from more than 40 countries per day, but they are most popular with Russian, American, Canadian and Italian athletes. On the other hand, traffic in the mountain region Sestriere Olympic Village lounges, which also averaged about 200 people per day, including athletes from more than 35 countries, were most popular with athletes from Latvia, Slovakia and Romania. Lenovo also won the bid to be the personal-computing supplier to America's NBC television for the Olympic Games. It has sold about 1,000 ThinkPad notebooks and Lenovo desktops to the broadcasting company to help produce hundreds of hours of coverage for NBC, MSNBC, CNBC, USA, Bravo and Telemundo. It's also providing 23 computers as second prizes to a contest Visa, another IOC sponsor, is running, along with support for Bank of America, which is running an Olympics-related contest, and for the US Olympic Committee. Lenovo will do the same tasks for the Olympics when the Beijing Games start in 2008, but the firm is not expected to say whether it will purchase the rights to the 2010 Winter Games and the 2010 London Summer Olympics until later this year, after it's assessed how things went for it at Torino. The company employs more than 19,000 people worldwide.
GE LIGHTS UP AROUND TORINO GAMES
For the most part, we've been writing about NBC's role will be in the 2010 Winter Games, since it will have the largest single sponsor workforce involved in the Games, but NBC's role stems from a master 2010 sponsorship negotiated with its parent company, General Electric. Here are some of the things GE is doing at the Torino Games: For the city of Torino, specifically, GE Lighting is supplying upgraded street lights in the city center; lighting systems in Piazza Castello, where the medal ceremonies are taking place, as well as several other Olympic-related city locations, such as the Piazzetta Reale, Piazza San Carlo, Piazza San Felice, Via Roma and Via Po; 300 electronic devices, called reactors, that reduce energy consumption by about 235,000 KWh per year. At the Olympic Games venues, GE is delivering: Uninterruptible power supply technology to all the equipment used by the Torino Olympic Organizing Committee; about 600 floodlights in total for the Torino Esposizioni, the Olympic hockey venue, and the slalom skiing venue in Sestriere, making the areas bright enough to allow the high-density TV broadcasts there; fluorescent tubes to light corridors, stairwells, internal halls and dressing rooms; and additional lighting in all the common areas of Stadio Comunale di Torino, the main stadium of the Torino Games.
VANCOUVER MEDICAL OFFICIAL INSPECTS TORINO FOOD-SAFETY OPERATIONS
One of the Vancouver-area people who is observing the operations of the Torino Winter Olympics is the regional director for health protection at the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority. Nick Losito is talking over food safety with his counterparts in Italy. He'll be taking a look at the regulations, polices, equipment and other requirements they've put in place to ensure contamination -- accidental or deliberate -- doesn't affect either the air spectators and athletes breathe, nor the food or drinking water served at any of the Olympic venues, including the Athletes Villages. Health matters are primarily a provincial responsibility in Canada, and the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority is a regional administration that includes the health facilities at all of VANOC's venues in Vancouver, Whistler, West Vancouver and Richmond. Since considerable quantities of food and drink are consumed at the Olympics, Lositio, who will be working with VANOC's Chief Medical Officer, expects there to be more sanitary inspections carried out than at a typical restaurant. Losito says the Authority will also be part of the responsibility chain, which includes the federal government's Health Canada department, if there are unusual medical events, such as a pandemic.
RESOURCES
Lenovo:
www.lenovo.com
Vancouver Coastal Health Authority:
www.vch.ca
Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on February 16, 2006
Morgan:News:2010 |Paralympic| #1487
IPC HOPES NEW INTERNET TV CHANNEL WIL FORCE MORE TV NETWORKS TO CARRY PARALYMPIC PROGRAMMING
The International Paralympics Committee says it is launching its own Internet TV channel on Monday in order to prove to commercial television networks that they're wrong when they say there's little or no business reason to broadcast the Paralympics widely.
The main thrust of Olympics broadcast business model, which is lucrative for the IPC and the International Olympic Committee, is to auction the rights on a territory-by-territory basis. For instance, NBC has the American rights to broadcast the 2010 Winter Games, CTV has the Canadian rights, while the European Broadcast Union has the rights for all European countries except Italy. During the now-suspended round of Australian negotiations, the IOC indicated it would also begin offering Internet broadcasting of the 2010 Games on a territorial basis as well, now that the technology exists to filter out web browsers coming to a website from outside a territory. The IPC is using technology from Narrowstep, a four-year-old software company based in London, England, for its broadcasts. The IOC has not yet said how it will implement its Internet broadcast concepts..
Miriam Wilkins, a spokesman for the IPC, which is headquartered in Bonn, Germany, told Morgan:News:2010 that the IPC isn't directly challenging that concept with its round-the-clock TV channel. But, she adds, "The contracts that we have with [broadcast] rights holders for Torino 2006 include non-exclusive webcast rights in the respective territories. The Paralympic Games have made it on many TV programs in various countries. ParalympicSport.TV will now create opportunities in countries where there is no traditional TV broadcast and satisfy the demand for additional content in other markets, reaching a worldwide audience. Our goal is to give as many people as possible access to Paralympic sport."
She says that while there might be spectators of the IPCs Games all over the world that would love some -– any -– TV coverage, "The TV networks argue that the commercial basis is not there for traditional broadcasting within their territory. We hope to be able to prove these networks wrong, once we have the statistics from our Internet TV channel, thereby creating the basis for some, or more, coverage of Paralympic sport on traditional TV. We see ParalympicSport.TV as a compliment to traditional TV."
Wilkins says, the IPC's goal is to break even on the Internet broadcast of the Torino Games, not to make it a source of revenue, because it has a marketing aspect. "Any potential revenue," she says, "will be re-invested into broadcast production of other Paralympic sport competitions, such as World Championships, to give us and interested TV networks access to footage from events that might otherwise not have any production, or to allow for an augmentation of the production planned. We see the internet TV channel as a promotional tool, which will demonstrate sporting excellence and inspire and excite the world. It is also an additional sponsorship opportunity for existing and new partners." She says a study by Sport + Markt in 2003 showed that companies involved in disability sponsorship gain significantly more appeal with the audience than standard sport sponsoring.
Wilkins isn't sure whether the Internet TV channel will still be around to broadcast the 2010 Paralympic Games from Whistler. "This is a pilot project until this December 31st, but ParalympicSport.tv’s long-term goal is to become a global media platform for Paralympic and IPC sport, also providing access to images from other competitions and activities. The IPC Governing Board will monitor the success of the project throughout the year and will then make a decision."
Narrowstep’s technology enables the IPC to control rights issues that involve TV broadcasts far more accurately than exists for traditional TV broadcasting, Wilkins says, as the system’s Digital Rights Management method also provides information about where viewers are located, and can block access to the images if necessary. "This will allow the IPC to protect broadcasters who have bought the rights to televise a competition or event, for example the Torino 2006 Winter Paralympics, should this be agreed upon by the IPC and the broadcaster."
The internet TV channel also allows for cross-promotion, meaning that the IPC, using the geo-blocking system, can target the information on its website to one specific country. For instance, when Canadians log onto the IPC broadcast site, they could see a banner on the web page with the details of when the CBC, which holds Paralympic broadcast rights until after the 2008 Beijing Games, will broadcast a program with images from the Torino 2006 Winter Paralympics. That would, she says, potentially enhance the viewership for CBC and promote the network. "For Torino," Wilkins says, "we are working hand in hand with the rights holders. It is important to us that they are comfortable with ParalympicSport.TV and understand that we are looking to compliment their coverage."
And what will be broadcast on the channel after the Torino Paralympics end in March? "After Torino," Wilkins says, "people all over the world will be able to see the coverage from Torino on demand and free of charge, as there will be an archive with everything saved. This archive will already include content when we go live with footage from, for example, the first Winter Paralympics in Örnsköldsvik 1976 and from Salt Lake 2002.
BACKGROUND
Yes, the IPC is selling time to advertisers on its new Internet channel. The IPC has a worldwide advertising package that costs e55 (about C$76) for a six-week Games package. As well there are also national packages, which vary by country. Pricing after the Games will depend on the Torino results.
The three IPC international sponsors -- Visa, the credit-card company, Otto Bock, which makes wheelchairs, rehabilitation and medical products, and Samsung, the consumer electronics firm -- have a first right of refusal to the space.
Preference is then given to Games other sponsors of the Games, and the to other firms doing business with the wider Paralympic family.
As a result, the Internet broadcast and the IPC will be able to provide:
Traditional TV ad timeblocks (30 sec.) with the added benefit of click through to a sponsor's web page;
There will be a commercial break every five minutes for one advertisement
Two banner ads will rotate on the channel and a third one can be seen on the news section, which is the start page. The banners change continuously.
TV Presenting -- that's where you see or hear a lead-in or exit line, such as "This program is presented by...” -- at the beginning and end of each program;
In theory, although the IPC thinks this might vary per sport, the sequence for an advertiser would be this: intro, program, extro, TV ad; followed by another intro, and so on;
Other possibilities, which might include advertiser-funded programs, integration into an IPC sponsor's website, e-mail sponsorship and even targeted data-capture using cookies or similar methods.
RESOURCES
The International Paralympic Committee:
www.paralympic.org
Paralympic.TV:
(as of February 20)
Narrowstep:
www.narrowstep.com
Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on February 16, 2006
