Usain Bolt breaks world record at Rio 2016? Test lab to ensure world knows in real time
Atos laboratory will stage 200,000 hours of tests in preparation for sending Olympic and Paralympic Games results to media and fans
Each Olympic sport has its own ‘cell’ within the testing laboratory at the Rio 2016 HQ (Rio 2016/Alex Ferro)
On day one of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, athletes will compete across 21 different sports. Medals will be won, records may be broken, heroes are certain to emerge. With so much happening at the same time, how will you find out what has happened?
The answer lies in a huge room full of humming computers at the Rio 2016 headquarters. Opened today by Atos, the International Olympic Committee’s IT partner, this cutting edge laboratory will be used for 200,000 hours of simulations and systems testing to ensure that all the vital Games information is available – in real time – to billions of people around the world.
During the Games, Atos’s equipment will be integrated with the scoring and timing systems in competition venues, beaming information from 42 Olympic disciplines and 23 Paralympic disciplines around the planet in less than a second, for use in television and online. As well as results, this information will include medal tables, athlete profiles and schedules. Nobody needs to miss a thing.
“In a high-technology world, we need to be up to date with what is the most modern,” said Rio 2016 CEO Sidney Levy, before declaring: “Let the IT testing begin.”
As well as competition information, Atos will also process 300,000 accreditation passes for the Games, including those for athletes, and is providing the portal used for the recruitment and training of the 70,000 volunteers who will make the Game happen.
All this needs extensive testing, which will happen in the IT Integration Testing Lab. The 1,272m² space comprises 42 ‘cells’ – high-tech working spaces – for sports and venues, plus 12 for accreditation and results. Rio 2016 will be the first summer Games in which key systems, such as the volunteer portal and accreditation system, are managed in a ‘cloud’ – a network of remote servers, hosted on the internet, used to manage data.
“Testing is critical to our success at the Games and today’s opening is a major milestone,” said Patrick Adiba, CEO of major events at Atos. “Rio 2016 is our eighth Olympic Games and the first step in the IOC’s journey to digital, as we move to a new model, from a ‘build each time’ to a ‘build once and reuse’ model.”
