Case study: release two

London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games

Reaching for the peak

“A well-respected safe pair of BT trains its tried technology on the London 2012
hands is critical. Delivering the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games
London 2012 Olympic and
Paralympic Games without Safety and simplicity report, and every visit to the London 2012
BT would simply have been Games website, along with millions of calls,
inconceivable.” The appointment of BT as official emails, and text messages.
Sebastian Coe
communications services partner to the
Chair London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic
Stuart Hill, Vice President and Director for the
London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games Games entrusted the company with the
and Paralympic Games London 2012 Games Delivery Programme in
heart and pride of the United Kingdom.
BT Global Services, says: “Projects of this scale
Sebastian Coe, Chair of the London
and scope come along only once in a lifetime,
Organising Committee of the Olympic Games
and we are proud to be part of an event that
and Paralympic Games (LOCOG), notes: “A
will forever have a place in British history.”
well-respected safe pair of hands is critical.
Delivering the London 2012 Olympic and
Paralympic Games without BT would simply Experience passed on from previous Olympic
have been inconceivable.” and Paralympic Games has shown that
rigidly enforced risk management pays big
dividends. BT knows that putting simplicity
The London 2012 Olympic Games and
and reliability ahead of heroics is the surest
Paralympic Games will feature over 14,700
strategy, while detracting nothing from
athletes from more than 200 countries,
the achievement of the highest technical
competing in over 700 events. Working
standards. The unparalleled BT track record
alongside fellow London 2012 technology
in delivering major programmes has been
partners under the direction of the
recognised through awards including
London 2012 Organising Committee, BT
eGovernment and Government Computing
communications infrastructure will carry
for Excellence.
every official photograph, every sports

©London 2012 Games

Case study: release two
London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games
“The 225 members of the
technology team are now
using wired and wireless LAN
connectivity, as well as internet
and IP telephony – all hosted via
the BT point of presence. The
BT team deserves thanks for its
patience and dedication, even
when it meant working out of
hours and at weekends.”
Gerry Pennell
CIO
London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games
and Paralympic Games
Resilience and reach
Much of the central communications
infrastructure has already been built,
including two of the four points of presence
(POPs) that form the cornerstones. The
core network has been designed with the
intent of absolute resilience based upon
full redundancy.
For example, in the unlikely event of a
problem, each of the POPs is capable
of dealing with all the communications
network traffic without service interruption.
Howard Dickel, London 2012 Games
Delivery Programme Director at BT Global
Services, says: “In 2010 our focus and our
energies have shifted to communications
service delivery, network deployment,
testing, and training.”
As well as providing services for London
2012, authorised media and other partner
organisations are able to order their own
dedicated communications services from BT
via a rate card. Press Agencies will have the
opportunity to procure their own private
VLAN connecting venues back to the Main
Press Centre (MPC). These will enable them
to send digital photographs in real time from
the field of play to a local upload centre for
cropping and titling and then on to the MPC.
BT has finalised the arrangement for mobile
communication services too, in a contract
with one of the major UK mobile network
providers. Alex Masters, Enterprise Architect
of the BT London 2012 Delivery Programme,
adds: “Due to the operational criticality
of mobile services to LOCOG, BT will be
providing an enhanced mobile network
service that delivers coverage beyond the
areas required by the general public, such
as venue back of house areas. The mobile
service will also provide sufficient capacity
to provide for high‑density ‘busy-hour’
usage profiles.
Empowerment and delegation
of authority
But it’s not just about the national
and regional infrastructure. BT is also
comprehensively equipping all London
2012 venues with communications
technology. Stuart Hill says: “We have a
venue mindset, and each will have its own
ecosystem. We are recruiting up to 150
people to be seconded to LOCOG to act
as venue telecoms managers, and those
people will have the empowerment to make
local decisions, with delegation of authority
for their venues.”
With an estimated ninety-four London
2012 locations including the Main Press
Centre, International Broadcast Centre
and Athletes’ Villages, BT is providing the
communications infrastructure which will
help support the successful delivery of the
Games across all these locations. Services
include wireless internet access, fixed line
IP telephony, mobile telecommunications
service, cable TV, and LANs for London
2012 and the wider Olympic and Paralympic
Families. With fully devolved responsibility,
each venue telecoms manager is responsible
for delivering the required suite of
telecommunications facilities.
“In such a vast construction
undertaking, we will surely have
to accommodate shifts in the
programme as requirements
harden up and venue
specifications alter. The great
agility required to do that is a
key BT strength.”
Howard Dickel
Programme Director, London 2012 Games
Delivery Programme
BT Global Services
©London 2012 Games
Case study: release two
London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games
“BT is helping to regenerate and
enliven areas and communities
that are touched by the London
2012 Games, and ensuring the
reusability of BT equipment as a
contribution to their futures.”
Alex Masters
Enterprise Architect, London 2012 Games Delivery
Programme
BT Global Services
The design ensures that all main
infrastructure devices will be duplicated.
Twin optical fibre network in the venues
will be diversely routed. Howard Dickel
elaborates: “Support is part of the standard
operational design with engineering
support standing by at each venue;
all will have been subject to a rigorous
authorisation process. A comprehensive
sparing policy means that each device will
have replacement parts on-site with a
mechanism to quickly replenish any used
spares from a central location.”
Agility and competitiveness
Crucial venues have already been equipped
and connected to the core network. The
first to go live was the London 2012
technology team and IT department office
in London’s Docklands. The nearby London
2012 Organising Committee’s headquarters
housing around 1,000 people, together with
the IT test lab and the primary data centre
venues, followed shortly after.
Gerry Pennell, LOCOG CIO, comments on
that major milestone: “The 225 members of
the technology team are now using wired
and wireless LAN connectivity, as well as
internet and IP telephony – all hosted via the
BT point of presence. The BT team deserves
thanks for its patience and dedication, even
when it meant working out of hours and
at weekends.”
The BT programme to equip the London
2012 Games venues with its Communication
Services solution goes through to June
2011 when some key venues will be ready
to stage test events. These test events
will serve to not only test the logistics of
running major events at each venue but the
communications infrastructure too.
©London 2012 Games
“In such a vast construction undertaking,
we will surely have to accommodate shifts in
the programme as requirements harden up
and venue specifications alter,” says Howard
Dickel. “The great agility required to do that
is a key BT strength.”
Sustainability and reusability
BT is not only the official communications
services partner to the London 2012
Olympic Games and Paralympic Games;
it is also one of the six London 2012
Sustainability Partners too.
As well as ensuring that telecommunications
services have the minimum possible
carbon footprint, Alex Masters illustrates
another aspect of that role: “BT is helping
to regenerate and enliven areas and
communities that are touched by the
London 2012 Games,” he says, “and
ensuring the reusability of BT equipment
as a contribution to their futures.” BT is
contracted to make sure that as much of
its equipment as possible can be used
by future housing, schools and sports
clubs, for example.
“The eyes of the world have
turned from Vancouver to
London and we have now
begun delivering the dream. In
mountaineering terms, we’ve
established our base camps and
our teams are now in the process
of scaling the peak.”
Stuart Hill
Vice President and Director, London 2012 Games
Delivery Programme
BT Global Services
Case study: release two
London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games
A team of BT Ambassadors for the London
2012 Games is there to inspire BT’s 100,000
employees and millions of customers to
become coaches and mentors for the young
British athletes aiming to compete in the
London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic
Games. BT is also the founding partner of
the Dame Kelly Holmes Legacy Trust, which
aims to provide essential life skills to aspiring
young athletes to help them develop and
perform at the top of their ability.
BT knows that its true responsibilities lie with
people right around the globe who want
to share in the excitement of the London
2012 Games as competitors, commentators,
contributors, and consumers. Stuart Hill
sums up: “The eyes of the world have
turned from Vancouver to London and we
have now begun delivering the dream. In
mountaineering terms, we’ve established
our base camps and our teams are now in
the process of scaling the peak.”
©London 2012 Games
Offices worldwide
The services described in this publication are subject
to availability and may be modified from time to time.
Services and equipment are provided subject to British
Telecommunications plc’s respective standard conditions of
contract. Nothing in this publication forms any part of any
contract. The meaning of the word partner or partnership in
this case study does not give rise to a partnership as defined
in the Partnership Act 1890 or other relevant law.
© British Telecommunications plc 2010.
Registered office: 81 Newgate Street, London EC1A 7AJ
Registered in England No: 1800000
Technology demands
The telecommunications services that BT will be providing for the London 2012
Games encompass WAN, MAN, LAN and TV and broadcast services. There will be some
80,000 voice and data outlets, 16,500 fixed telephone lines, 14,000 mobile SIM
cards, and 1,000 wireless access points. BT will also host the London 2012 Games
website, which will see an estimated 12 billion page views.
“An estimated six Gigabytes of multimedia data every single second will be
generated by 14,000 cable TV outlets, 20,000 accredited media personnel, and Live
Site screens in UK city centres,” says Stuart Hill. Forecasting expected traffic levels is a
highly complex business. It’s not a matter of mirroring the usage profile seen at the
Beijing Games four years ago. “Technology trends now are quite different,” explains
Howard Dickel. “The pace of change means that there is, for example, vastly higher
demand for data transfer with such things as real time video streaming.”
The core communications network consequently has more than adequate capacity:
with 160Gbps between POPs and 20Gbps delivered to each of the venues. BT is also
providing a dedicated communications network for Olympic Broadcaster Services
London (OBSL), which is the host broadcasting organisation for the London 2012
Games. BT’s fibre based network will carry broadcast signals from and between the
majority of venues to OBSL’s broadcast centre, for onward transmission to broadcasters
across the world. This will enable billions of people across the globe to watch the Games
in High Definition (HD). At present the broadcast and media network will cover 21
London 2012 UK locations, with the majority of services within the London area.
In terms of the public network, triple 21CN metro nodes have been chosen to serve
the Olympic Park, with WAN and MAN switching taking place in those resilient BT
exchanges. Similarly, BT internet access POPs are duplicated, and IP telephony will be
hosted at two separate networking centres.
As well as a massive fibre ring around the Olympic Park in East London,
communications arteries will reach out as far as Hampden Park in the north, the
Millennium Stadium in the west, Weymouth in the south, and Hadleigh Farm in the
east – an estimated total of 94 separate competition and non‑competition venues
throughout the UK. All joined together with enough cable to stretch halfway from
Beijing to London.
The communications infrastructure is based on tried technology. Howard Dickel
concludes: “Trusted products and services are being used throughout, whether from BT
or other London 2012 technology partners. That gives everyone the confidence that
the expertise to implement it and, if necessary, repair it will be there throughout.”