Olympic Technology: The Bell customer experience at the 2010 Winter Games is better than ever
By Staff
February 12, 2010
February 12, 2010
The 2010 Olympic Winter Games are now in full swing and the city of Vancouver has come to life with spectators, athletes and media all participating in one of the most significant events in Canada’s history. One of the key players in this massive event is Bell, with a team of more than 400 people working around the clock to ensure an outstanding customer experience and 24/7 connectivity
Bell has spent the last six years planning, testing, deploying and tracking the communications solutions needed for the 2010 Winter Games with end-user requirements in mind. The most significant solution is the IP Olympics, the deployment of a highly mobile, rapid and flexible platform that allows any person involved in organizing and/or delivering the Games to access voice, data and Internet services from any venue throughout the city. With an easy-to-use plug-and-play model, this solution is immediate and flexible, accommodating huge demand and urgent last-minute orders—some of the realities of hosting a world event.
With Bell’s order management tool, customers can log in to the VANOC portal and request their specific technology needs, and without experiencing any of the complexities of the deployment model they simply obtain access to their request in real time. “No human hands are required in this process,” explains Justin Webb, Bell Vice President of Olympic Services. “The orders flow through a system that manages them through their lifecycle and enables and activates services within seconds.”
Throughout the Games, Bell will receive more than 24,000 orders from 42 countries and will be expected to accommodate the needs of media, national Olympic committees, partners, government representatives and other key stakeholders.
Then, on the wireless side, the customer experience will be two-fold. First, due to Bell’s investment in unmatchable coverage and capacity along the entire Sea to Sky corridor, mobile users have seamless, uninterrupted service as they travel from venue to venue. And second, in-building coverage through a distributed antenna system means spectators, athletes and operational staff have mobile service in every nook and cranny of every Olympic venue, even in the bowels of the buildings where service would typically be unavailable.
Another huge success story for Bell is the Vancouver2010.com portal, which will experience 1.5 billion pages views during the course of the Olympic Games alone. The site delivers all timing and scoring in real time, with pages rendered quickly and securely to fans across the globe. “Vancouver2010.com has been engineered, designed and tested to operate seamlessly throughout the Games and will be the most-accessed sports site in the world.
“We’ve been working on delivering this solution since October 2004, and we are tremendously proud to be part of Canada’s Games and to deliver a key component of what will make this event successful,” says Webb. “This project has demanded the best of us and we look forward to leveraging this expertise in our own business practices.”
Bell has spent the last six years planning, testing, deploying and tracking the communications solutions needed for the 2010 Winter Games with end-user requirements in mind. The most significant solution is the IP Olympics, the deployment of a highly mobile, rapid and flexible platform that allows any person involved in organizing and/or delivering the Games to access voice, data and Internet services from any venue throughout the city. With an easy-to-use plug-and-play model, this solution is immediate and flexible, accommodating huge demand and urgent last-minute orders—some of the realities of hosting a world event.
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With Bell’s order management tool, customers can log in to the VANOC portal and request their specific technology needs, and without experiencing any of the complexities of the deployment model they simply obtain access to their request in real time. “No human hands are required in this process,” explains Justin Webb, Bell Vice President of Olympic Services. “The orders flow through a system that manages them through their lifecycle and enables and activates services within seconds.”
Throughout the Games, Bell will receive more than 24,000 orders from 42 countries and will be expected to accommodate the needs of media, national Olympic committees, partners, government representatives and other key stakeholders.
Then, on the wireless side, the customer experience will be two-fold. First, due to Bell’s investment in unmatchable coverage and capacity along the entire Sea to Sky corridor, mobile users have seamless, uninterrupted service as they travel from venue to venue. And second, in-building coverage through a distributed antenna system means spectators, athletes and operational staff have mobile service in every nook and cranny of every Olympic venue, even in the bowels of the buildings where service would typically be unavailable.
Another huge success story for Bell is the Vancouver2010.com portal, which will experience 1.5 billion pages views during the course of the Olympic Games alone. The site delivers all timing and scoring in real time, with pages rendered quickly and securely to fans across the globe. “Vancouver2010.com has been engineered, designed and tested to operate seamlessly throughout the Games and will be the most-accessed sports site in the world.
“We’ve been working on delivering this solution since October 2004, and we are tremendously proud to be part of Canada’s Games and to deliver a key component of what will make this event successful,” says Webb. “This project has demanded the best of us and we look forward to leveraging this expertise in our own business practices.”
Profile of an Olympic venue
Canada Hockey Place is host to the men’s hockey competition at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games. These competitions will be supported through a network and communications solution designed and delivered by Bell, highlights of which include:
- More than 25 km of fibre optic cabling delivered to every level of the arena.
- 18 VLAN circuits (Virtual Local Area Network) that will allow press and broadcasters to send images and video directly from ice level to the International Broadcast Centre for transmission around the world.
- 300 Internet drops and 1,400 jacks to allow easy network access anytime and anywhere.
- Cable TV drops for more than 150 televisions around the venue to enable competition viewing by athletes, coaches, media and volunteers in-venue.
- Internet connectivity for almost 500 press and broadcast agencies.
- 46 cellular antennae for flawless mobility coverage: when a spectator calls a friend or snaps a photo or sends a text, these cell sites will instantly transmit the message.
For more information visit http://www.bell.ca/
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