Beijing Olympics 2008

[nlagalle]

I'm sitting here working away tonight and have been in Beijing for 28 days so far. So I thought I'd put together a trip report on what I have been up to and what I have got left to go.

I'm working here as a technician for a major media group, so I've been involved in the setup and support of all technology being used here.

Firstly my trip over..

My flight (after being changed a few times with dates) was on Monday 21st July. I was travelling with the other tech and we were going MEL-SYD-PEK with QF.

Morning flight: 21st July

Early start! Up at 4am to get picked up at 4.45. I have the same driver whenever I flyso he always arrives on time, and now he drives a chauffeur car instead of a cab, it's even better. Check in at MEL was interesting as i have no visa in my passport to China. I have to explain to the check in girl that my Olympic accreditation is my visa and show her the paperwork. All's good and she organises 4 seats for the 2 of us for the SYD -> PEK leg.

Quick stop in the QP for something to eat, then off to board. QF404 to Sydney was uneventful, although i was stuck way back in 50D on the 767, but wasn't too bad as there was no one next to me. Flight was supposed to be delayed, but ended up leaving on time.

Getting over to the INT terminal in Sydney was straight forward. Getting through immigration and the security check wasn't!! The place was packed with everyone leaving the World Youth day event! But we made it through and after my mate bought a camera, it was off to the QP. Was still quite a few people in there but we managed to get a seat and kick back before boarding. Boarding was via the bus! Haven't done that for a looong time! An A330 is our aircraft for today on QF191. 33D E F G for the two of us so we have a bit room to move as well.

The flight was pretty uneventful aside from leaving late. Kicked back and watch a couple of movies on the AVOD. This has been the first OS trip I have done since going to Fiji in 2000 (worked there during the coup) so to me the inflight entertainment is a lot different. My laptop never came out of my bag as the selection of movies was pretty good.

Our flight into PEK was late, we landed just after 9.45pm local time. At the new Terminal 3. Crikey that is a huge terminal!!! I was a bit awestruck at first and forgot to get my camera out! Note to self, must take photos when leaving! After a quick stroll up to immigration, we had a pretty short wait as there are dedicated Olympic lanes. The girl was checking passports and accreditations pretty closely. but no dramas in the end and i was through to the next step of getting my accreditation "activated" which is just after you pass through immigration.

After getting that done it was done the stairs and onto a train?? so we had an express train to go to the baggage claim.. luckily the bags didn't take too long to come out and after a final stop at Customs to declare my electronic equipment (laptop, Sat phone, recording device) we were through. Finally in China!

Our next step was to get to the hotel we were staying at. this would be a challenge. A bit of background here. All media work in the Main Press Centre (or MPC). For Beijing 2008 this is located inside the Olympic Green. this is a totally new area on the nothern opart of Beijing, inbetween the 4th and 5th ring roads.

The Beijing MPC is also different because it has 2 hotels attached to it. Normally all Media/Broadcast stay in a Media Village (much like the Athlete's village). this time some people can stay close the the MPC. Me and my mate are lucky, we are staying at the hotel, not the village which is a good 20-30mins by bus.

However that was our first problem. No one knew about this hotel! we jumped in a cab and gave the guy the the print out we had in chinese of the hotel name etc. after consulting with a few taxi drivers and what seemed like shrugs, he jumped I the cab and we puttered off. I asy that because i don't think he went above 50km for the whole way in.

So we get into town and he gets us to the Olympic Green, but we are on the wrong side! Everything is fenced off for security. So our driver tries a couple of different ways and also tried to drop us off at the current convention centre (which our hotel is to become the new one!). So he stops the meter and keeps driving around. By this stage we had been in the cab a good 30+ mins. The cab fair was 64 Yuan which is a shade over $10. Anyway he kept driving around to try and get to the other side of the green and eventually we found the number for the hotel and rang that for directions.

It still took another 20 mins to get to the other side, past all sorts of security, but we finally made it. we could see the MPC next to us. I gave the cabby 100 Yuan for his trouble, which he was pretty stoked about.

We head through the temporary security and into the hotel to check in. we are staying at the 3 star hotel at one end, not the 5 star Inter Continental at the other end. howver i have to say, the hotel is better than any 3 star I've stayed in in Australia. so after we drop our bags off we decide to head downstairs for a drink in the bar! After the events of getting to the hotel I say we needed it.

I must say that the local Beijing brew Yangjing Draught is actually a good drop. We are sitting outside drinking away when the hotel manager comes up to us to sat the cab driver called and had found a phone in the cab and he was bringing it back. we are looking thinking we both had out phones, then I realised my PDA wasn't with me. so 5 mins later the cab driver rocks up and the hotel staff run out and grab it for me. I think tipping that cabbie was karma!! PDA is back in my hands.

We finally crash out at about 1am local time... Tomorrow we have to check into our office and start the set up...

 

[Timtammi]

Very interesting to get a trip report on the "inside" of the Olympics.

Looking forward to the rest of your report!

Cheers

 

[nlagalle]

Set up time:

I won't give a daily blow by blow account of our set up, but will highlight some of the things we noticed along the way..

We got up around 8am on the first day. after the long day getting here i actually felt pretty good. The hotel itself doesn't have a restaurant or room service. Down on the bottom level of the complex is the Media food court, complete with a Macca's (although we found out it doesn't open for another 9 days).

We wander downstairs and have a look at the slim pickings. and it is pretty slim as the MPC is pretty much deserted at the moment. There is really only Techs there setting up. Much to my surprise there was Sultana Bran. the hot food left a bit to be desired, so I stuck to the cereal, fruit, juice and coffee. We have breakfast vouchers so we pile up the food. The food court seats a couple of thousand people. During Games time there is over 35,000 media and broadcast people here so everything is large!

So it is time to move into our office.. Everything you order for the games (office space, chairs, tables, phones, data comms etc) all get ordered through the Rate card. It's like a one stop shop to order everything you can't bring over. we ship all our own computer and networking gear and order lines etc. We find the rate card office and get the ball rolling. The Chinese love their paperwork and there are plenty of forms to sign! We get it all sorted and head off to our office upstairs. The MPC is a huge building with over 16 floors, but only 4 are being used for the Games. To give you an idea of length, it's about as long as Jeff's Shed in Melbourne. the IBC (International Broadcast Centre) makes Jeff's Shed look small!

Our office is very plain - only the furniture is in there. I call our freight carrier and advise them we are in the office so they can deliver our road cases - 4 of them in total. They expect an after lunch delivery. This suits us as we get our delivery of SIM cards, Datacards etc. So it will take some time to sort it all out.

One thing we quickly notice it isn't 1 chinese person doing something, it's at least 5 or 6. The network people cam in to set up our leased lines and there was a flurry of them around the place. However they were very efficient and had our main leased line up and running quickly and would come back to install the venue to office links we had ordered.

Our gear arrived after lunch as promised and we bgan the huge task of ubnpacking and setting up. At the same time we were arranging for delivery of our rack cabinet for the switches and servers. we had to get the gear delivered before Wednesday night as Thursday was lockdown - when the place was swept for bombs and full security was in place. Up until this time anyone could enter provided they had a bump in pass.

We have over 30 staff coming to Beijing, although we weren't setting up 30 workstations we had a lot cabling to run and also run power. by then end of the day the Rack had arrived and we were well ahead of schedule. we called it a night around 7.30pm and went off to dinner.

The manager of the bar told us there was a good restaurant just up the road called the "Daily Duck" so we thought we'd give the local cuisine a bash. so after a 10 minutes stroll up the road we were there. it was interesting getting "outside the fence" as we came to call it because inside was so sterile, but cross the road and you were amonsgt the people.

So our first taste of local food was at "the duck". We walked in to be swarmed by waitress chanting "Nei How" at us. The ushered us to a table where we were given two menus that were about the size of large photo album and just as thick! Now i had always read about the Engrish and Chinglish etc, but had never seen it myself. This menu was a hoot. I've gotta go back before i leave and take some photos. There were things like: extremely good perch - better than the normal perch, something that burns the stomach and so on.we were having a good old laugh reading it.


In the end we settled on the ribs, calamari, some veges and rice. We also discovered there was no duck left.. Seems like you need to get in early to get the duck! And I love the beer here too! $2 for a 600ml bottle! although they jsut don't serve it cold enough for my liking. so all up with a few beers, dinner set us back about $15 each!

We ended up back at the bar later that night where we met a couple of people from the OBS (Olympic broadcast Service). Funnily enough we saw them at the Duck earlier on too! It was quite pleasant sitting outside in their "beer garden" having a few quiet ones. Although their quiet ones are a bit pricey at around $7 for a pint.

Tomorrow is our last quiet day before the first wave of our crew arrive in 8 people are coming in tomorrow night.

 

[QF WP]

This certainly is a unique TR. I wonder whether you are the only AFF'er working (or competing) at the Games. Looking forward to the next instalment.

 

[nlagalle]

Wednesday/Thursday 23rd/24th July.

Our last day of peace and quiet!

We have finally got our network up and running and we have a VPN tunnel back to Australia to handle all our IP phones, email, text and picture flow.

This is when we discover our problems. We have ordered a 10mb leased line and the performance is well under that. we are expecting pictures to take 20-30 seconds to send back and they are taking minutes.

We do some tests to try and nut it our with no success. So we have the network people here to test it all. They claim the link to Australia is the problem, but we are getting pathetic speeds. We also discover that sites are being blocked. This was against a promise made last year that internet access would be unblocked and unmonitored (we'll leave that until a bit later on).

The link speed would be an issue for us for at least the next 10 days. We employed some tricks to speed things up, and we did get our pic times down to 30 seconds in the end. We soon discovered another agency was having the same speed issues as us. so we weren't alone.

This was also the time my mate came up with the first of his phrases. he said it was being slowed down by the Great Firewall of China.

That aside we managed to have the office up and running by the end of the day which put us in front of our schedule. It's a pretty good set up here. we have IP phones connected to our PABX's in Sydney and Melbourne so we can call out back home for nothing. We have a wireless LAN in the office to save on cabling (don't get me started on the hoops we had to jump through to get a license for that!). Our IM client for chatting online and skype works a treat to call home!

My mate has done some good tricks so there is no configuration changes for when people are out of the office. They can plug in anywhere and the internet will work. Our aim is to make it simple and easy for they guys out there and file quickly.

We finish up and headed to Hou Hai (the lake "district" in the centre of Beijing) for dinner. It's a really happening place with so many bars around. We found a place and kicked back near the water for dinner. and kick back in the beer garden again awaiting the arrival or the crew. In the end they arrived at nearly 1am! There was issues at the airport as the name on some of the accreditations was different to their passports (short name on 1 long on the other). They got through ok in the end but it did take some time. To top it off some of the guys were staying at the Media Village were locked out and couldn't get in as it wasn't opening for another 2 days! after some frantic phone calls we got them into our hotel for a couple of nights.

Then we told them the bad news that we had to be up and out of the hotel by 7.30am due to lockdown happening! Needless to say they were happy about that!

Lockdown is where everyone is kicked out of the venue and the bombsquad go over it which a fine tooth comb and seal off each room after it is done. The hotel was first to be swept in the morning and it was off limits until 1.30pm. we sought refuge in our office until we had to leave there too shortly after 9am.

We headed up the road to a little bakery for a coffee.. A few of the guys weren't quite adjusted to the humidity and heat (coming from Melbourne) so we didn't last long there. In the end we were at Ya Show market. having a wander around all the "replica" stuff.. it was my first time in a chinese market and it can be a bit daunting, but you soon get used to it. The bargaining is always fun, and my mate is very good at it. He knows all the steps.. bargain down, walk away etc.. They have an excellent food court upstairs and it cost about $3 for a huge lunch. One thing I have noticed here is unlike most Australian Chinese food, a lot of the dishes we have had have either lots of spices or pepper. Great flavours.. I'm really loving the chinese food here.

After a bit more wandering around we finally jump in a cab and head back to the MPC. We still can't get into the MPC but we can go into our hotel rooms.

Now it all starts getting interesting.. The security is now in full swing. So everyone gets Magged and Bagged. And the metal detector is probably on the highest setting too. So coming back in I set off the metal detector - i never do this at the airports and I have to power up my laptop, phone, PDA, take a swig of my coke, use my hand cleaner and this is after i've been patted down after the wand went over me! I hope they don't keep this up for the next 5 weeks! There will be alot of grumpy people!

We head off for dinner somewhere in town - our translater is a local uni student and she takes us to a restaurant strip in town and we find a place and get a private dining room.. Once again a dirt cheap dinner.. about $15 worth.

Tomorrow is going to be busy getting everyone set up with SIM cards, laptops configured etc.

 

[dot]

Great TR Nick. I am looking forward to reading more... (and talking on Skype)

 

[nlagalle]

Thanks guys for the feedback! I'm enjoying writing it up.

I'm going to merge the rest of our setup work that we did up til just prior to the opening ceremony as we had some bloody long days getting stuff done. So I've extracted the "highlights"

Firstly I finally found an aerial shot of the MPC/IBC and have marked each bit.

Now the MPC also goes underneath the whole lot as well. The place is bloody huge! This view is looking north east and the watercube and Bird's Nest is basically to the right of the pic.

After the initial rush of people arriving we settled in and went about the usual assisting people setting up and getting used to working remotely.

So over the next 2 weeks the office starting filling up with snappers and journos lobbing in. kept us busy sorting out all their questions!

One thing i have noticed since being here is how the chinese take to their jobs here. There is a real sense of pride among the people and the person sweeping the floor shows the same enthusiam as someone higher up the pecking order. They all small and wave and say hi as you walk past...

Another thing that has every talking here is the fact there is virtually no privcay in the toilets. you can walk past the toilets and see inside! in fact one of the toilets has a shared hand basin and a girl washing there hands can see a guy at the urinal. They are also so eager to keep the place clean.. no sooner have you been, they leap in and clean everything! There have been plenty of jokes flying around they before too long they will be offering to wipe for you!

At the same time we went to set up our main two venues, the water cube and the stadium.

The watercube is an amazing venue. So large and great views. The media tribunes are on the camera side - basically the whole other side is taken up by Broadcast, Media and Olympic family. that's the side that never makes it on TV!!

We were finally allowed in the Birds Nest the Sunday before the opening ceremony. Everything there was under wraps, no cameras allowed etc. I have to say looking at it from outside it is impressive, but inside i wasn't a big fan. I still think the MCG inside is by far the best stadium. It has a cauldron effect when full. However an advatage of the new stadium is the closeness to the Field of Play (FOP). Even the nose bleed seats are still really close.


We got our links set up, but w have to run some cabling down into the moat (it's like a trench that runs around part of the track so photographers can take pics). butr we'll have to come back with a roll and do it manually and crimp it up. There is also a huge platform that looks head onto the 100m straight and during the athletics it will have a couple of hundred photographers on it.

This is where we ended up having a few trips to the Electronic part of Beijing to get some parts. The place is like the biggest swap meet, but on 10 floors! We looked around trying to find some obscure bits we needed, haggled on price and walked away happy!! people are touting and trying to get you into their shops or stalls to buy cameras, USB sticks, the works! We found a couple of good stalls that had what we needed and the price was pretty good (even without haggling too much).

We ventured out to another couple of restaurants.. The first one we had seen before on the way to the Duck one night so we thought we'd give it a shot. It was pretty basic inside, but the tables had cookers built into them so it looked pretty good. the menu pictures looked great too, so we are thinking that this is going to be pretty good... until they tell us the main meat - Donkey! we thought why not we'll give it a bash, let me tell you never again! not exactly the nicest meat.. needless to say we ate more greens that night... The following night we found a decent restaurant around the corner.. cheaper food, but really nice.. It's also the palce where my mate came up with his second classic line.. "Living behind the Banmboo curtain" (he thought of it when he saw one next to where we were sitting).

During this time there was also the great Internet debate. As more media arrived and found the internet was blocked there was a big push and finally a week before the games the Chinese lifted the ban on most sites.. We werwe also very weary of them monitoring traffic (well trying to at least) which would explain our slower speeds. My mate was going around telling people to get used to life behind the bamboo curtain!

So by the 7th August we were all set up and read to kick off.. Although we had been here for nearly 3 weeks and people filing stories and pics, the main game was about to start.

 

[straitman]

Excellent :!: Thanks for sharing.

 

[garyjohn951]

Set up time:

During Games time there is over 35,000 media and broadcast people here so everything is large!

Amazing number of media, as there are only 10500 competitors

 

[nlagalle]

Amazing number of media, as there are only 10500 competitors

It is a huge amount. but it is such a large event to cover, and there is a huge amount of support people too.

 

[nlagalle]

Opening Ceremony Night - 08-08-08

I always get goose bumps at large events like this. I was lucky enough to do the Opening Ceremony of the Melbourne Commonwealth Games in 2006. Amazing experience to be there and be part of it. It's no different here. People around are excited and you can't help being caught up with it. On CCTV the countdown clock is ticking away, the torch is being run through the street, and people are madly running around!

Over the last couple of weeks I have become friendly with one of the guys from the OBS (Olympic Broadcast Service). He's played a big part it putting all the broadcast together. So he has been giving me snippets about how good it should be. The TV side of Olympics is huge - over 1100 cameras, 10,000+ people involved in the set up and production. All in HD and 5.1 for the first time too. It's a huge operation. The OBS streams the feed to the rights holder networks (Like Channel 7). They can supplement their feed with their own cameras etc.

Anyway back to the Opening Ceremony. That morning we had to go down to the Watercube to finish installing a fiber link from one side of the pool to the other for one of our photo positions. There was a deadline to meet too. If you were in the venue at midday you were there until midnight as everything was being locked down. I walked from the MPC to the Watercube. First thing i noticed was although we were already inside the "clean zone" i.e. we had gone through security etc. we had to do it again... The drama of explaining to this chinese kid i needed my tools to finishing doing a cable run was annoying to say the least! He kept saying "you should not carry these things" and I'm trying to keep my cool by explaining i am only going to the cube, not the stadium and I fail to see how a set of crimpers is a security issue!!

i get through in the end and get the the cube. So after some frantic cabling and then running a CAT cable to the seat on the pool deck we were done. out the door by 11am!

Back to the MPC to grab some lunch. Maccas opened the week before and is 24/7 so if you are ever hungry a cheeseburger is close by. They even have a McCafe, which was good when they were training before they opened, we kept getting free coffee's! The food overall has gotten a lot better, and also a lot cheaper. if you spend more than $6 for dinner you're doing something wrong!

The stadium was open to Media from 3pm. Due to all the gear i had to take (only 1 tech could go as the event is ticketed - you must have a ticket to get in) I decided to take the bus service.

The buse services they run here are pretty good. all brand new, most are hybrids to. The buses are also "clean" so if you get in one and get dropped inside a venue, you don't go through security again as long as the door stays closed you're right (and the buses all go direct). Very handy travelling between venues. However the Chinese are a bit ansy tonight and we are all being screened again. So i trudge through again (all is good this time and jump on the bus.

The security has been over the top today, the Chinese don't want anything to happen. They are even banning all flights in and out of PEK from 7.59 til after midnight.

So I get into the stadium again, and it's a bloody hot afternoon! The smog isn't helping either. It was a real issue in the lead up. We were doing air samples every day and some of the reading were huge - to the point where i rang the people we hired them off to double check I was using it right. One 1 day the pollution was over 30 times worse than Melbourne and Sydney. Today it was about 10 times above. Actually a pretty normal day!

I quickly go and set up all the cabling we need for the night. Byu the time that is done, i've sweated so much and downed a few bottles of water (Thank god they provide them free of charge! The place is still pretty empty as the public aren't allowed in til 5pm.

The stadium starts to fill up and there is the pre show entertainment which is done by the 50 odd minority groups within china (which included a piece by Tibet too). It was great to watch, just a pity no one outside the stadium would have seen it.

Up on the big screen they have the countdown clock going. you can feel the excitment building.

There is media seating so i grab two seats. Every seat has a "showbag" with a torch, light wand, clappers program. I'm keeping them for my daughter. I've saved an extra seat for a reason. We have a local girl working for us as a translator. She has been fantastic in organising things for us. Anyway a day earlier the boss decided to give her a ticket to the opening ceremony as a thank you. She was speechless and it was a great gesture too. She was so excited being in there (which chinese person wouldn't!).

Anyway about 7pm we get a briefing from some people out in the middle about when and how to wave the flags and torches etc.. not long after we see all these people wheeling in drums. The order they came in was so precise. They then crouched down and were motionless for the next 30 mins.

I'm sure most of you saw the start on TV, but i was blown away with those drummers. The noise went right through you and we could see the aerial view on the big screen. It was probably the best part of the night overall. simply amazing! And I was watching the lights come on and in my opinion they weren't remote controlled. There was 2008 drummers out there as well. We could only watch the "footprints" approaching the stadium, but we definately heard them when the stadium went off! Although we found out later the fireworks were staged on TV.

The rings were great to watch floating above the ground. The guards bringing in the Chinese flag were so precise.

Luckily for me while this was going on we had no dramas with our setup. everything was working well and our guys were filing back in order to make the late deadlines for the Saturday papers. This was good because i could sit back and enjoy the show!

I'm not sure what people thought of it back home, but in the stadium we had a synopsis up on the big screen describing the act and what it meant etc. so it all made sense to me! I was lucky to get a media guide afterward which explained it in more detail. I had a few calls from my brother back home in Melbourne who was getting pissed at the pub and watching it on TV!

The boring part of the night was all the athletes coming out. Simply as it takes so long. There was a ring of girls standing around clapping and waving, and at the start they were all enthusiastic, but it waned as the night rolled on! I couldn't work out what order they were appearing in until I saw they were coming out in order of the Chinese alphabet (had to check the book on that one!).

It was still hot (around 27 I reckon) with a lot of humidity. Time to take a break and see how the photographers were going.

Part 2 coming up...

 

[nlagalle]

Opening Ceremony - Part 2

The boring part of the night is when the athletes come out.. it takes quite a while for them to come out, take a lap and stand in the centre.

As some of the snappers are in killed seats (normal seats but not sold to the public) we have no cabling there and no means to file as there is no room for a laptop. So we do "run backs". Basically we have photo staff (BOCOG volunteers) who will collect flash cards (which are in envelopes addressed) and deliver them to the Pic Editor Tribune. For the start of the ceremony we had runners deliver cards to our pic editor. Due to the times, 10pm AEST start, its right on deadline for most papers. So getting pics back fast is vital. once we had the first lot of cards processed and sent off, i returned the cards to the snappers and did a check on how it was all going. We had a lot of time to wait as Australia was going to be third last.

So after chatting to one of the snappers, I was to go up to sit seat on the 2rd level and pick up his card as soon as he finished shooting the Australian team and run it back to the pic editor. I would then return and wait for the cauldron to be lit. It was about that time i actually first notice that the cauldron had appeared at the top of the stadium. We knew pretty much where it was going to be as a bit tent had been hiding that spot all week, but at the start of the night nothing was there and then all of a sudden it had appeared.

So finally Australia made it out after 200 countries before them! After racing back the cards to the Pic Editor I was back up high again to watch the last part of the Ceremony. There are the formalities, and the march in the Olympic flag and pass it over to the Soldiers to hoist. impressive marching, not a split second out of time!! Then it was time for the torch to come in.

Having followed the 2000 Torch Relay around Australia in 2000 (That'll be my next Trip Report to transcribe from my notes!) you get an understanding on how special the Olympic Flame is. So you usually get the hairs on the back of your neck standing up as it comes into the Stadium. It does a lap around the stadium with previous Chinese greats passing the flame along.

The last torchbearer is always a surprise, and in this case it was the Chinese Gymnast Li Ning, who then is hoisted into the air and proceeds to "run around" the inside of the Bird's Nest. You can hear the crowd gasping and awing at the sight (you'd want to have good nerves to be doing that!!!) Watching it from inside the stadium was fantastic. it may not have topped the arrow in Barcelona, but it was still quite special. He finally gets around to under the cauldron, and lights the fuse that sets off the Cauldron. And off go some more fireworks!!

That was pretty much the end of the ceremony. but we still had more work to do.

And no sooner had people started leaving the stadium, there was suddenly hundreds of workers out on the stadium ripping up the false floor. Underneath is the running track and they have less than a week to turn it around and have it ready for Athletics. It will take 1,000's of people working 24 hours a day to get it done. Our night hasn't finished either. There is still pictures to file, as the Sunday papers will want them, as will our online websites. In the end we packed up around 2am and walked back to the Stadium. Not an easy walk after a very long day and carrying heaps of gear - but thankfully it was all flat!!

So The Games have begun, and if all goes to plan, we should have a quieter couple of weeks until it finishes!

 

[Mal]

Wow. One of the most impressive TR's I've read. Very interesting to get behind the curtains and see inside the media contingent that is attending the 2008 Games.

Thanks for the read, and I hope there are many more instalments in this series!

 

[Keith009]

Fascinating and most insightful TR, nlagalle - thanks for sharing.

 

[nlagalle]

Games Time!

Due to the very long day the other tech told me to take the morning off, so I got a bit of a sleep in!

Normally day 1 would be the start of the swimming heats, but as there was a change to the scheduling - Heats at night, medal races in the morning (a direct swap on the norm). All for the American market..(Although we found out later they still didn't show it live!). So with a morning off I decided to venture down to Tian'anmen Square and see part of the Forbidden City. So off I jump in a cab and head down there.. The square is so big and you need to put bags through an x-ray machine too. I wander through from the south side at the Frontgate and make my way up to the top. It's bustling with people everywhere.. All the Chinese are buying cheap flags and tattoos from street spruikers. They do have a real sense of national pride.

Unfortunately i ran out of time to right through the Forbidden City, but i'm hoping I'll get time to come back at the end. I decide to test the train system out as our accreditation gets us free transport - mind you a one way ticket anywhere costs about 40 cents. Luckily it's a Saturday and it isn't too crowded. It takes 3 train changes to get to the new Olympic line. Along the way i meet some Aussie's here to cheer our team on. I have a chat to them on the train as we get to the station to change to the Olympic line.

I soon discovered that it wasn't an easy process to change trains here! As the train line goes into the green zone (which is inside the security fence), we have to get off the train, exit the station, follow the path, go through the "Mag 'n Bag" and then re-enter the same station from the other side! a bit of a pain, but I'll live with it.

The train takes you right up the Olympic Green just near the IBC. they have a huge expo going on with all the world and local Olympic sponsors setting up these huge "experience venues" or something like that!

Unfortunately there isn't a huge number of people wandering around. You would hope the place would be buzzing with people! I found out later you must have a ticket to get into the Olympic Green. Poor planning on that part as this place can easily hold a few hundred thousand people. I actually think there are more people on the outside of the fence peering in. And Unfortunately for many, this is the closest they will get to the Olympics, which is a real shame.

So I finally land back in our office and everyone is busily working away. most of the journalists are out of the office, so it is basically the Editors left in here, checking images, text and video before sending it back home. Everything has been working a treat, which makes me happy as our months of preparation beforehand has paid off! I can literally sit back and watch the games. In our office we have 3 monitors which are hooked directly up to the broadcast feed. So we can see any event going on, minus the commentary! We are pretty much watching just the road race at the moment as we are a medal chance. It doesn't pan out and we miss out all together.

Our only drama for the night came when one of our snappers called up from the swimming. The cable we ran the day before wasn't working! We couldn't work out what was going on. The other tech went down to sort it out. it turns out the power plug had come out of the fiber transceiver on the other side near our leased line connection. As I was going down the next day I'd take more gaffa tape and make sure it wasn't going to fall out again!!

I'm up early the next morning to go to the pool for the first final. The swimming is probably the most popular event, and due to the limited seating and capacity, the event is "ticketed" which means although you would normally have access to the venue, at high demand time unless you have a ticket too you can't get in (and no there is no queuing like at Tickmaster etc we get an allocated number each day).

I head down from my hotel room to the media food court. It's pretty much like a food court you'd find in a shopping centre. The food had been pretty average too but as more people arrived the standard did lift. We get breakfast included in our accommodation which is good. The selection has improved. A lot of the catering is being done by an American company and there are so many people around to help serve you etc. You take a drink from the fridge and if they haven't been there to hold the door open, they'll be there stocking that fridge back up!

One counter has cereals etc and i'm surprised to find Sultana Bran and cornflakes there. I've given up on the hot food as they can't gets the eggs right, and they murder the bacon!!! and there is only so much of that you can eat too. There is also heaps of fruit. So we normally stock right up on breakfast so it covers lunch too!

So I head off to the swimming. It's the first finals session, and everyone is there. There is a heap of security around, more than usual. The I discovered why. GW Bush is there.. actually about 10 metres from where I am standing (He was sitting in the "Olympic Family" area which is in front of the Media Tribunes.) Behind him is Kevin Rudd and Princess Mary is down the front too. As I was walking around I walked past John Howard who was heading over to the general seating.

I quite enjoy going to the swimming. It's hard not to get caught up in the excitement. Everyone wanted to see Phelps win 8 gold. He's an amazing swimmer to watch too. Hackett didn't go the distance in the 400m which was a shame, but the surprise was Stephanie Rice getting gold and the World Record. The girls also got a bronze in the Freestyle Relay. The swimming finished with the last medal ceremony (where the US came 2nd and we came third). Now I mention this as I noticed after the last race was run, GW Bush was up and gone.. Didn't bother sticking around for the medals. Rudd wasn't far behind either. I thought that was particularly rude of them personally to leave before the session finished. I did notice the John Howard and his wife, way over the other side (sitting with the general public and complete with Australian flag) stayed right until the very end after the medals were presented.

As it turns out I actually met him a few minutes later as he walked past me and said hello. We had a chat for while he waited for his wife, and weas asking how it was all going for us over here and saying how good the swimming was that morning.

Overall we had no technical issues. My gaffa tape ensured that plug wasn't coming out again! We had 3 photographers filing, one on each side of the pool deck and one up in the killed seats above. All had pics coming through.

The afternoon was spent back in the MPC office watching the cycling and shooting where we missed out again on the medals..

More to come...

Nick
(Thanks for your feedback too. I'm enjoying writing all this down! BTW if you have any questions on something I may not have covered, please let me know!)

 

[Timtammi]

This really is fascinating. The trip of a lifetime! Also really fantastic to get an inside view. I cant wait for the next instalment!
I was in Tianenmen Square last year when it was Chinese National Day and you arent wrong about their pride in their country.
Keep up the good work!

 

[nlagalle]

Games time in the MPC is a bit like Groundhog day, you have a similar routine day in day out. For a lot of the first week we pretty much manned the office and we had very little problems to deal with. Once everyone got used to the system, they were pretty happy with it.

Night times generally we were finished by about 10pm on most things, but as people were still out we couldn't really knock off so off we'd head to the rooftop bar. On the third floor there is an outdoor area where they set up a bar. At first the prices were a bit over the top, between 4-6 for a stubby, but after some complaining they dropped to about $2.50. However there is one things they could never seem to get right and that was the temperature of the beer.. Far too warm!! However it was a great spot to sit back and have a chat with people from other media groups.

Australia had a reasonable medal haul so far, but a little under expectations. However there was still plenty to right about and the papers back home were giving it all a good run.

Come Saturday and down at the rowing we had 3 medal chances. I was asked to go down and "pic ed" the two photographers images as we had a very tight deadline (Sunday papers publish earlier due to their size) and there was literally no time in-between races for a photographer to download and send their pics. I was happy to go down as I had done this before and was used to editing and sending (I originally started a the paper to be a photographer - computers got the better of me!).

The trip from the MPC to the rowing course was a good hour away. Transport everywhere is by bus. The Chinese set up an amazing bus service that took you to every venue. On the roads you weren't caught in traffic jams as there are special "Olympic lanes" for designated vehicles only. The other great thing is that the bus departs inside the Green zone and gets you off inside the venue - no security checks.

I get to the rowing in plenty of time and set up the two laptops in the photo work area. The rowing is particularly hard as it starts 2km down the other end. They have a truck that has seating on the tray facing the water. The truck drives behind the broadcast 4WD that has a camera mounted on the roof. So at a big race there will be rows of people sitting on this truck.

We had one photographer at the finish area (which is close to the workroom). The plan was that I'd meet them at the finish, grab their cards, Download them and get the cards back asap.

The first race was up and I was watching on a big screen in the work room (no point going out to the finish just yet!). The Aussies are off to a good start. Even though i am there in an official role, I can't help but get excited. After they pass the 1500m I race outside to watch the finish. Australia is home first. The crowd is cheering over the other side of the course (A good Aussie contingent is there all dressed up) and you can see how excited the rowers are. You can easily get caught up in the jubilation of it all... So after savoring it i race down and grab the cards off the two photographers and race back to start downloading and sending.

The race was at 6.30pm Melbourne time, so right on deadline for many papers page 1. I quickly start downloading and sorting the images out. we have our own in house software to sort caption and send images. I quickly get the jubilation shots off as they are the ones they are waiting on. Within 5 mins of the race finishing I have already sent the first pics off and they are in Australia ready to be put on pages.

Taking the picture editing process out, it takes around a minute to send back and image to Australia (longer if we hadn't devised a workaround to the Great Firewall!). Back when we used to shoot film and send over phone lines you'd be looking at over an hour to send back.

I quickly file more pictures of the celebration as they get out of the boat, drop the cards back to the photographers and get ready for second of the races Australia is in. I watch the start of the race again from inside as I keep sending through images. It's another good start from the Aussie's - this time the Men's double sculls - so once again I race out to the finish line to see what happens.

Because of the angle you view the rowers on as the approach the finish line, you can't make out who is in front as the angle and perspective trick you. Even the camera angles make it hard. There is no screen or scoreboard to view either, so you literally have to wait until the cross to see who wins. Once again it is the Aussie's across first. And I think these guys are more excited than the last ones! Again it was another dash and within minutes more pics are on their way back to Australia. 2 down and 1 to go. Inbetween the races they have the medal ceremonies. It's always good when you see our flag flying high, and hearing people singing the anthem (I could hear some of the crowd from the other side).

Unfortunately we didn't get the hat trick, but silver was a great effort. It had been a great result at the rowing today, not just with the medals but with how quickly we sent images back.

We were getting ready to get on the bus and head back when one of the photographers saw David Crawshay and Scott Brennan, the winners in the second race. There was a group of Aussie's there getting photos taken with them and their medals. They were joking and giving high 5's with everyone, and clearly still over the moon. I went up with the snapper and she said i should get my photo taken with them. I thought why not. so i went up after the other had moved on and asked. They were move than happy to oblige, and click i got my pic taken (Will upload it with some other pics!). They were chatting away as well asking how everything was. They've just won a gold medal and they are asking me how I'm going!! They were so down to earth it was great. Definitely another highlight of the trip.

I arrived back at the MPC after 8pm and grabbed some McDonalds (The "Food of Champions" as we nicknamed it) and went back to the office. A lot of the people were out already covering the athletics. Found out that everyone back home were stoked we all got the pics back so quickly and praises from everyone. I was pretty chuffed! i was taking a look to see what was on tonight.. the 100m final.. probably the highlight night of the Games. Then without warning the big boss has basically kicked us all out of the office and ordered us to down tools and go and watch the race. So off we went.

It was my second visit back to the stadium since the Opening ceremony (we popped back a couple of days before to check the lines we installed were still ok) and it's a huge change seeing it as a full athletics track. The place is packed to the rafters and there is so much going on, as they have different events going on at the same time. The 100m is about 45 mins away. I've decided to watch the race from the Pic Editor tribune whch looks head on down the main straight.. There is probably several hundred photographers around the track.. Over 100 just on the head on platform. There is also a "moat" around some of the track that gets the snappers down low while still being able to stand. Many of them have secured their spot earlier in the afternoon as it is first come first serve for many people. A lot of time to wait to photograph 10 seconds of running!

There is a hush around the stadium as they line up for the 100m. and with a bang they are off. less than 10 seconds later Bolt is over the finish line and has broken the world record. It looked like he almost jogged over the finish line! Amazing run, and he looked like he did it so easily too. the crowd cheering was huge (not quite as good as a decent AFL crowd.. but!), one of those great moments in sport.

all the crowd pretty much left after the race except for the media, busily writing stories and filing images. After going through the images later on we saw that Bolt's left shoelace was undone as he was running. We couldn't believe it.

I think it was about midnight when we started heading back to the MPC on foot. The Watercube was all lit up and changing colours. A very pretty sight at night. The Ling Lang (the big tower in the middle of the Olympic Green) is also lit up. People are around everywhere taking photos. Finally I hit the sack at about 1am.. Gotta be up early as i am taking Sunday night off to go and get fitting done for my new suits!

It was a pretty big Saturday for me. Something I won't forget in a hurry!

 

[nlagalle]

The second week

I'll try and bring you up to date to today (being Saturday)! As usual it's been pretty busy, but i managed to fit some fun stuff in.

On Sunday I had to return the rowing again as we had 4 medal chances in 4 races. So another set of tight deadlines and no time for the snappers to send their stuff in. Unfortunately it didn't rain Gold - quite the opposite. It's actually a bit of a downer as you are looking for those jubilation shots and it revs you up to send more stuff back. So after the Men's 8 (where James Tomkins was racing in) we had packed up and were ready to go.

One photographer was at the "Kiss and Cry" (yes that's even what the signpost called it!) area waiting from Tomkins to come out. She got the shot of his daughter squeezing through the fence to run up to her dad and give him a hug. Even though the team didn't win a medal, he was still given a hero's welcome by the crowd of people waiting there (and there was a large number of Aussie's there).

After the bus ride home, I was off to have my suit fitting and head off to dinner with a couple of the Host Broadcast guys. They had put me in touch with the tailor. So after my fitting i picked up my shirts and we were off to dinner. Another of the guys had recommended an Italian restaurant not far away to have dinner (he was going to meet us there). So we wander up the road and there is no sign of this place. Finally after getting in touch with him on his phone we discovered we had to turn around and head back in the direction we came!! There were no cabs so we jumped into a couple of rickshaws.

We only go a few hundred metres until we find the street we are supposed to turn down. We get off ask ask how much for the ride.. They reply 2 so we hand over 2 Yuan.. however they reckon they want 200.. We like bugger off! It nearly got to fists in the end. one of the guys threw a 20 at them and told them to F off. and as he was much stockier and taller, i think they got the message after he said it 3 times! Note to self - always find out how much before you get on the ride!).

So get into the restaurant and it is reasonably busy. luckily we had a booking and we are taken upstairs to our table. Now what I can only describe as a scene out of Faulty Towers is what came next. I swear all the waiters and waitresses (all chinese) were just like Manual! They were running around like blue coughd flies! after about 7 attempts we finally got our beers. I think one of the guys ordering 2 beers (he was thirsty) that threw them off. We were a bit worried about how the meal was going to be, but apart from them bringing a couple out in the wrong order it was actually very good. so by the time we left we were all laughing about the events earlier on. A quick walk over to Bar street and we are sitting on the street haivng another beer laughing at some of the sights (the 13 year old security patrol was quite funny!).

The second weeks of the games is generally quieter, Australia doesn't far too well in the Athletics, so it was a surprise when Sally McLellen won silver in the hurdles after Lolo tripped on the last hurdle. Our office and AAP (across the hallway) erupted when we saw she got silver. As it was late, the pressure to deliver images fast is even more critical. Our guys had images filed within minutes again, and made front page on a few of our papers running later editions that night. It's also a challenge to beat the wires as they are a much larger operation than us.

On Wednesday I was lucky enough to get a tour inside the IBC. My friend oganised it and took me around where all the feed comes in and goes back out. It's an unbelievable setup! All the feeds are edited outside the venue in the OB trucks (the main stadium for exmaple, has 4 OB trucks as different crews handle the track, the jumps the throws and the integrated mix). Those signals go backto the IBC where they are fed to the Rights Holders to use as they please. They also handle transmitting images via the Satellite farm around the world. They also catalogue every second of vision filmed. It's stored in archives and kept by the IOC.

Also by now we are planned our exit from here. Things on the rate card need to be returned and signed for, freight logistics. It's when i start to get a bit busier. We have started packing some stuff up and on Friday I'm back at the watercube to pack up our tribune spot. There is still diving on (but in another spot), and there isn't much interest in Syncronized swimming.

We also noticed out the main entrance to the MPC street hawkers are there selling knock offs of Olympic gear! Hat's T-shirts you name it. Easy bargaining too. Picked up a hat for about $2 that's after she wanted $20. ahh the China of old is back! I'm told you can even get your cheap rolex watches too.. There is police and guards around everywhere, but they don't even care.

Come Friday night and a lot of people have gone out for the night as it's been a pretty hard 2 weeks of nothing but work. I'm working in the office tonight, but am able to go up and kick back on the rooftop bar as they will call if there is a problem.. And just my luck there is! A photogrpaher at the Pole Vault had some issues. So i sort them out and head downstairs to the office to see how the Aussie is going. To my surprise there is only the Russian and the Aussie left. we were all cheering and ahhing at the misses. We were making that much noise a couple of journos from the USA today (Across the hallways from us too) came in and sat and watched it with us!

They have both had two missed attempts at 5.90 metres. The Russian fails on his third and it's up to Hooker to try and nail it. Well when he passed over that bar you should have heard the roar from our office (and AAP). Amazing. What was going to be a quiet night had suddenly turned around. Once again we delivered images and text back and if you are in Melbourne you might notice it made the front pages there (not sure about Sydney).

It was a great finish to the week after we watched the Men's hockey lose, the womens softball coming so close to a gold medal chance, a shocker in the Cycling and coming close in the womens water polo.

So I am sitting here on Saturday morning, off to pick my suits up this afternoon and going down to the Aths tonight to get a photo on the finish line for my collection.

Closing Ceremony tomorrow night, then the big party and pack up begins...

 

[Evan]

Wow nlagalle, great stuff !
Glad your enjoying it. We enjoy reading.
E

 

[straitman]

This certainly gives us the feel of the atmosphere at Beijing. We have had a great time reading about your great time.