We don’t have to tell you that this is the year of the London 2012 Olympics. A while back we also released a paper on the impact of the Olympics on the economy. Yesterday, Belgian federation Agoria announced that 21 Belgian companies sold approx. 280 million euros worth of equipment for London 2012.
Furthermore, yesterday, Dutch TV interviewed Roel Louwhoff in the popular show ‘De Wereld Draait Door’ (‘The World is Spinning By’), which every working day covers politics, science, art, music, sports, technology, etc. and stays very close to current events. Roel was one of the three guests and opened yesterday’s show.
The presenter began with mentioning BT’s as the communications services partner of London 2012, and the end- responsibility being on Roel’s shoulders to ensure all the communication surrounding the Olympics works, works well, and keeps working during peak times – this including Twitter, Facebook, TV-signals and so on, Roel’s motto being: “there is no room for error”.
A gigantic amount of data
During the interview, Roel explained that BT is on schedule in the delivery of the project, and that for BT the games will be successful not only if all the communications surrounding the games runs smoothly but also that normal services, incl. emergency services, keep running as usual and not be hindered in any way by the gigantic amount of data, which will be transported during the games.
Network requirements have gone up tremendously over the years. Four years ago, the use of social media was still in its early stages, and the penetration of both smart phones and tablets was low. Now, the network needs to have seven times more capacity than the network used at the recent games in China.
To better assess the needs surrounding the games, Roel and his team went to the Super Bowl to study the impact of the rise of social media, smart phones and tablets, especially in relation to Wi-Fi requirements. When asked he told he is most proud of the fact that BT is doing this as sole communications partner with a team of 850 people, in Beijing three communications partners were involved with a 5100 work force.
He also told how London will profit from the games, with the legacy which is being left behind, and answering to one question around cybercrime, explained that we are a specialised company, one of the largest in the world in its field, which has the necessary security experience and know-how in-house when it comes to dealing with security issues.
Understand Dutch? Watch the video below!
[...] You can watch the (Dutch) interview here. Furthermore, read how Roel and his team prepared for London 2012. [...]